Chocolate Lily Studio Portrait and Alternate Versions

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

Texture added: Started with image of large driftwood from California Redwood coast. Played with Nik Silver Efex until I found something I liked and used multiply blending mode and opacity adjustments then a final exposure adjustment in LR.

Chocolate Lilly with Texture-Edit-4
Chocolate Lilly with Texture-Edit-41463×2048 1.28 MB

Original Post:

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With Background added: I don’t have any textures yet, but to relieve the pure white I went out to the front yard this afternoon and shot some out of focus images of the typical prairie flowers we have in bloom now. The blue/lavender is Common Camas, and the faint yellow patches are Spring Gold (a lomatium) that is on it’s last legs. I did paint a little translucent lavender over the yellow because it was just a bit distracting and I faded everything in the background.

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Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I’ve been wanting to shoot these under good conditions for a couple of weeks now and they’re getting about ready to fade. Since it didn’t look like I was going to get absence of wind and rain at the same time, I cut one from my garden this morning and photographed it in my bathroom studio (it has a counter and a skylight-all I need). I started out with a white canvas background, but I had a shadow on it that I didn’t like, so I just selected the plant and put a white background under it.

Specific Feedback

I played a fair amount with the overall brightness of the plant to try to give it a bit of a translucent look and also pulled up the luminosity and saturation of the reds in the blooms a bit with the color mixer in LR the idea being to give it a bit of a backlit appearance. Did I succeed? Any suggestions?

Technical Details

Sony A7Riv (back from the shop after a face plant on the beach!) Canon 180 mm f/3.5 macro, 6 image stack with tripod stacked in Helicon Focus, f/5.6, 1/400, iso 2000. Processed in LR & PS CC. Added a touch of canvas on the right. Taken this morning under natural light.

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2 Likes
2

Dennis, I think you succeeded with your stated goals. This is a lovely subject. I also believe the white background is a good choice. However, I did wonder what it would look like if the background were softened just a bit. I added a texture and used the luminosity blend mode to remove the colors in the texture, then lowered the opacity so there was just the slightest suggestion to break up the stark white. Just a thought.
Layers in PS
screen shot
BG reworkded

2024-05-02 09-23-10 (B,R8,S4)-Edit
2024-05-02 09-23-10 (B,R8,S4)-Edit1463×2048 296 KB

3

Thanks @Barbara_Djordjevic I like what you did. I was planning on adding a textured background, but didn’t have one I like handy since I don’t do it very often and I don’t want to use other people’s since that raises a question in my mind of who’s photo it is. I do have an idea in mind, just need to go out and photograph it.

4

I look forward to what you find to use. I use “canned” textures that have been created. I often change them . I have played around with making my own digitally.

5

Hi Dennis,
I like the work on backgrounds and agree that the original bg was a bit distracting. These are among my favorite wildflowers and I’m jealous you have them in your yard. I have maiden hair ferns and trillium, and might have to add to the mix.

I’m undecided on the translucency treatment of the flowers themselves. Perhaps it’s the season, but I often think then as looking richer, like their name. In sunlight like the bg though, this is lovely.

Looking forward to any reposts with backgrounds you try out.

ML

6

I love the new background, Dennis, especially the one at the very top. The texture adds to the interest of the whole “frame” without distracting, the the tones, texture a nice echo.
ML

7

So do I!! The redwood texture is my favorite, and it is surprising and delightful how you got it. It balances the plant nicely.

8

Denis, I like the redwood texture. Very nice.