Into The Woods

I was looking for Trap Pond State Park in DE to shoot the cypress trees. My GPS took me to a parking lot with a couple picnic tables and no signs as to what it was. So I took off on a trail into the woods. Never did find any cypress trees but did find these flowers. This is a velvia slide I think so don’t know specs.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

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Michael,

Nice find. I like how the flowers almost appear to be floating in the forest. I’m not super familiar with working with slide film, so I’m not sure if this is correctable, but there appears to be a green cast—particularly on the tree trunks framing the scene. Is this something that can be corrected in photoshop or an alternative? This is going to be a good post to learn from; thanks for sharing!

This is an interesting effect of the flowers just floating among the trees. You evidently scanned the image from the slide. The scan can be worked on in post processing. It appears dark to me. I would like to see it brighten up so the flowers really pop.

The green cast is the signature trademark of Fuji Velvia 50 film. Back in the day, Velvia was the analog version of the saturation and contrast sliders before the digital versions existed. Photogs loved it for the way it made greens pop.

Mike, I like the composition, with the repetition of the tree trunks, and the flowers (rhodys?) distributed across the scene. The bottom half of the image does look a tad dark, you might be able to recover a little shadow detail. The green cast may be partly from Velvia, but also partly from the light in the forest, which can add a green cast in scenes like this. I would try to back it off a little, it bothers me more in the white flowers than it does in the tree trunks.

Thanks, @Ed_McGuirk. It’s always interesting learning about how the film behaves—especially since I usually shoot in an Velvia on my Fuji mirrorless. It sounds like the simulation doesn’t behave quite the same way as the film. The only film experience I have was with B&W back in school.

I like the way that @Richard_Teller described the flowers “floating” in the tree; it’s a lovely effect. I too agree that even if the green was natural to the Velvia, I think this would be better if the tree trunks look a little less green.

Lovely photo. I agree, I would lighten the bottom part of the photo, plus I would selectively brighten the flowers even more, to make them stand out.

The flowers look like they are baeautiful. They really stand out against the dark background. I would like to see them brought out a little more, though. My eye is drawn to the bright green area at the top of the photo and away from the flowers. Perhaps the top could be toned down a little and the flowers brightened some.