Sugar Hill Intimate Scene (repost)

Since the lupines were not in full bloom during the time of the NENP meetup, this intimate scene caught my eye. Hope you enjoy.

What technical feedback would you like if any? Any and all.

What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any and all

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn) Sony A6000 at F10, 1/800,0.3 sec.

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Here is a repost with suggested changes incorporated.

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
1 Like

Great eye to see this nice scene, Patricia. Love those greens and yellows. The rocks are a nice touch and the dof is perfect with a nice blurred BG.:vulcan_salute:

Patricia, It was a pleasure meeting you at the NPN meetup. I love your use of multiple layers and selective DOF here to create a sense of depth. I like the way you used the ferns to frame the lupine. While the lupines are the star of this show, those yellow buttercups in the background add a very nice touch too. The lupines and buttercups just go so well together. My only suggestion would be to add some darkening vignette in the LLC and LRC to draw the eye more to the center of the image. This is a classic Sugar Hill scene, nicely done !!!

Patricia,

This is a lovely and beautiful intimate landscape. The lupine may have not been prolific, but their color really adds a nice touch to this scene. I love the various colors of green and yellow/greens and especially the illumination of the ferns up front.

The DOF works very well here as I love the soft focus of the bg flowers and forest. Although I do wish the rocks were a little sharper; not a huge deal though.

Beautifully seen and processed.

Lon

Patricia,
So that’s where you went while we were shooting in the field. This is a great find with the lupines, ferns and stone wall all working together to create this lovely intimate scene. The ferns also do a masterful job of framing the lupines. It was a pleasure meeting you at the NENP meetup and thanks for helping to put it together.

I really love this :yellow_heart:

You’ve got 5 or 6 nicely proportioned elements, a lovely natural tone, and the growth tips of the lupines give this a feeling of youth and vigor. To top that off, the yellow flowers make it feel joyful for me.

I agree with Ed M about the vignette, especially LLC I think would be very effective and balancing.

Sean

I’d add a radial gradient, vignette, to make the blue flowers stand out more. Other than that, lovely image!

Ok Eric. You stumped me. I have never used the gradient tool and tried this a.m. without success. Could you walk me through the process. I know how to pull it up, but from there on…? thanks.

Pat

Yeah so you can do it in lightroom or Camera RAW by selecting the circular gradient tool and then making a ring on the image and lowering the exposure, or in Photoshop by adding a Curves or Exposure adjustment layer, pulling the Curve or Exposure down, and then using the gradient tool on the mask so that the adjustment gradually spreads and increases in intensity from the center, where the blue flowers are.

Patricia: Wonderful find and the adjustments put some really nice icing on a very fine cake. Delightful image. >=))>

Patricia, I like the rework, adding more vignette really makes the lupines stand out more. It is interesting to see this view, I guess I have to look behind myself more when shooting, because I totally missed this scene when we were there :grinning:

Patricia, I’m not sure the rework brings that much greater attention to the flowers. I would raise the luminosity of the blues and then compensate with additional saturation. You can create a mask for just that color with the Color Range is PS.

Absolutely beautiful, Patricia. I like the slight vignette; just enough to make a difference yet still very natural looking. The OOF BG is also “just right”. I think someone used the term joyful in describing the yellow flowers, but it can be applied to the entire image. Well done.