I heard someone say recently “we are all perfectly imperfect.” For some reason this stuck with me, it’s so true. I have been in a creative slump over the last few months which from what I hear is common during the summer for photographers. Life has been a rollercoaster lately to say the least. I find it extremely difficult to find a balance. This image of a fern represents just that, the rollercoaster of life. There are various factors why ferns curl for example overwatering, unbalanced soil, low humidity, pests, disease, too much direct light. This was taken late August and now this same fern is facing even more changing or challenging conditions. Life can be short for some, the advantage ferns have over people are they are perennial. I took pictures of this same area years prior but nothing came of it. Maybe next year?
Specific Feedback Requested
This Is an image I am in the process of redeveloping because this version didn’t quite get to where I wanted it. I’m going for a dark image. I adjusted the color of the fern for a dark green. This is telling a story or accomplishing a concept. The ball and the stem leading to the ball. I may make it into a series eventually, maybe a good project?
A huge issue I’m having is the banding in the background light which doesn’t appear on my computer screen. This seemed to happen after the conversion to JPEG. How I created this light: I created a solid fill layer with a black mask > took the polygonal tool and created light beams > solid white fill in the selection > feathered the mask > also needed to free transform the beams a little.
I received other feedback on this which I agree with that I needed more contrast. I’m working not that now. I’m personally looking to darken the greens and shadows almost like the light is kissing these areas.
I created a lens blur at the Botton to keep the eye on the main subject which is the ball. I had other feedback that I may want to reconsider. I think a vignette would be better. What do you think?
I had a suggestion of black and which but I’m leaning towards color?
I have a tendency to be too subtile I’m looking to walk that line but not to be pure contrast. curious what others think.
Welcome to NPN! Glad to have you here and what a wonderful first post!
Excellent job with the processing. You’ve handled the light beautifully, with emphasis on the ball up top which of course is the main subject and anchor to this intimate portrait.
Feedback on your steps:
It took going to the largest, original view to see any banding. Not quite following your tecnique on the “light beams”, but I suspect that the masking and subsequent jpg compression could have caused that. (BTW, the light treatment on the ferns is quite good!
I think the contrast is very good as presented. This of course fits in the realm of personal choice, but my thought would be to warm up the ferns and light. The greens could be more green (if only a slight change) And the light is a bit “white” which may (or may not) be as a result of you light beams work in #1019-2021-favorites
Not sure if the blur is necessary. I think a vignette at the bottom would be more effective. I don’t think there’s an issue keeping the “eye on the ball” - pun intended.
B&W could be effective. I’d probably favor the color version though.
thanks for sharing your thoughts on the process and experience of this image. Very nicely captured and executed.
We look forward to more images and for your participation in the forums and galleries.
Hi Brett and welcome to NPN! This is an interesting concept for a series. I didn’t know about why ferns curl up. Thanks for giving us so much background on what you want to accomplish - that makes it much easier to give relevant comments.
I’m not sure what to do about your banding issue - I can see it when zoomed in. I’m sure someone else will have a suggestion.
As far as darkening the greens and/or darker areas, that is relatively easy to accomplish using luminosity masks which can target specific luminosities better than the built-in PS tool.
I would agree that vignette would be better than just blurring the edges. You’re going for a dramatic look, so a relatively strong vignette wouldn’t look out of place. I might even crop a bit off the bottom to better balance the frame.
It’s always interesting to try b&w!
I hope you don’t mind, but I gave it a crack to see how the above changes might look. I cropped a bit off the bottom and right, brought down and desaturated the darks, which included some of the greens, added a vignette for the color version. For the b&w version, converted to b&w, adjusted the sliders to bring out the yellow (the ball) and decrease the greens, made an overall increase in contrast with a curve, added a vignette.
Thank you for the feedback Bonnie. I think your crop work much better. Funny thing is I cropped the bottom for the image posted and should have experimented more!
Hi Brett, welcome to NPN! I want to thank Bonnie and Lon for their thoughtful feedback on your image. I agree with their input. You can minimize banding in that darker section up top by adding a bit of noise on a stamped layer.
Brett, you mentioned your goal with this image was to tell a story and/or convey a concept. I think that is fantastic and would encourage to keep pursuing it. Alister Benn talks about editing with feeling instead of simply adjusting sliders based on “standard routine”. I think your updated version is heading in the right direction according to what you envision for the image and the story you want to express. You could dodge the light on the ferns to bring it out a bit more. Keep up the awesome work and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the feedback! I’m getting frustrated with the banding. I started over and hand dodged the light with a warm color on a neutral gray layer. I even added a gaussian to it to smooth it out. It seems to happen only when converting from Adobe RGB to sRGB. I can’t image painting in light should cause banding. What do you think?
I had Alister in mind when processing the image. I’m currently reading a few of his books. BTW I checked out your work and it great! I have been feeling this types of scenes.
This is what I ended up with. Increased dodging opacity. Added noise hopping to get rid of banding. I don’t see banding in a different versions of quality for reporting to JPEG.
