This is a sapling I shot by the side of the road while my son fished the river below. I was intrigued by the reflected light from the surface of these leaves and the strong linear patterns on their surface.
There was a fair amount of processing done to separate the background from my points of interest. I darkened the bg, added contrast, reduced magenta and cooled it. Some local burning had to be done. I had actually given up on this image but the processing resurrected it. I find that everything from the D810 needs to be processed or it look bleh.
Igor, I think this is a fascinating study. I notice that I have taken similar steps to separate the subject and the BG in images like this. There seems to be a little bit of tension created by the left and right half BG of the image; on the left, scattering of the leaves and on the right, ferns and dirt. I am wondering if the LLC should be made warmer to balance the opposite URC. Just curious, what focal length did you take this with?
Let me see … 70mm. I guess I didn’t feel like bending over too much. I was surprised to see that I shot this at iso 1000. There was a very mild but annoying breeze that kept the leaves just barely moving but with 70mm it was very noticeable. I had to stop down to f/20 to get max DOF. I don’t do focus stacking with the D810. When I get a camera that automates it then I might start doing that but I find that it’s just another impediment to seeing well and being creative.
Really beautiful tones on the main leaves. And the light is sublime. Those warm toned leaves in the URC really grab my attention. Maybe as Adhika suggests, warming up the LLC, or cooling the URC would make them less noticeable.
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who finds the thought of focus stacking to be off-putting. Even exposure blending I find to be an impediment to photography enjoyment.
Thanks for sharing the focal length. I have always wondered how one achieves the vertical down look on these images (I am really enjoying the beach scene shots that everyone has been sharing at last week’s Weekly Challenge). I guess it can be an optical illusion some time.
This image is very clean and I wouldn’t have guessed that you shot this at a rather high ISO. But ever since I started shooting wildlife, high ISO does not bother me at all. I print images at ISO 5,000 and above quite regularly and I am constantly amazed by how far we have come in terms of digital image processing technology.
As for focus stacking, I agree with you. I do that quite often but only because I am trying to get the maximum depth of field out of the image not because I enjoy doing it. It is in fact annoying sometimes in the field (e.g. wind, etc). This is probably the only thing that nudges me towards the direction of the D850. Thank God my budget is limited.
This is a beauty, Igor. You’ve done a wonderful job in separating the your subject from the background. You’ve really captured a numinous quality in the leaves where they seem to be lit from within. Your choice for portrait mode accentuates the verticality of the image and keeping the image cool gives it an unique and compelling colour palette. A very nice intimate image.
I quite like this, Igor. I also find the brown leaves URC to be an eye magnet. I would burn and desaturate them to minimize that. Real nice luminous glow to the main leaves.
Yeah, the D810 files look quite bland when converted. I am not sure if that is the result of the great dynamic range or what, but I see it in mine too.
Yep, if you wanna learn postprocessing just buy a D810. I learned most of what I know after buying that camera. You have to. It worked for the best, though indirectly, because I now go back to my Canon images and make adjustments that I never knew how to make.
This is very nice, Igor. I agree that the brown in the URC is a bit distracting but the image works really well regardless. One of my favorites from you.
Your compositions are always very refined and this is no exception. I like how you have used color and tonal contrast to keep the viewer’s eye focused on the sapling. The color and contrast in this image look great to my eye as well and I like the subtle blue color cast.
Excellent Igor! Great job making the main subject stand out - the leaves/plant is quite striking and the colors you’ve presented vary subtly and beautifully.
I don’t think it’s been mentioned, but I will. Should be easily fixed if desired, but I’m finding the twigs and small needles and things both top center and LR to be a bit purple. I wonder if that was introduced in your “separation” efforts. To me those sticks and things should be more neutral; or given the shade and lack of warm light - maybe slightly blue/cyan, but not purple. A very minor observation though - it doesn’t lessen my appreciation for the image.
It seemed to me that the leaves were slightly overexposed. So I made a second copy with a curve adjustment on the leaves. I had to drop the bg a bit as well to maintain the separation. Do you prefer this version better?
I prefer the second repost, but it is close. I pulled the second one into PS, selected the brown leaves URC and pulled down the master saturation. I like it better that way, but YMMV. Either way, this one is looking really good. I quite like it.
I really like the second repost, too. I think the leaves look super three dimensional. I think Harley has a good point about making that URC even less saturated.
