Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
What is your first reaction when you see this image? What do you see?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
This was one of my first photos when I was starting to take photography a bit more seriously quite a few years ago, and to this day remains one of my favorite ones. Taken during a “special effects” workshop, it was photographed during the smoke close up section of the workshop, where incense smoke was photographed from close up and side lit. As I was photographing, I was visualizing a flower, but did not come up with one during the workshop. Once home, the original to this image, which would be the left side, caught my eye. New to Photoshop, I played around with mirroring the image, and came up with what I call my “Smoke Tulip”.
Very interested in peoples first response to the image, as well as wether a tulip, or at least a flower, came to mind in the initial viewing.
Technical Details
Tripod, ISO 1600, 105mm prime, 125sec, f/3, Nikon D810
I immediately thought that this was a mirror image (even in the thumbnail size) and…I thought it was a flower that had been shot with some creative lighting so I was quite surprised to learn that it was actually incense smoke with side lighting.
Actually before that, my first reaction was wow, how colorful and clean looking!
Well done! Love the color and the lighting, and I appreciate the artistic intention and results!
Fritz, my initial reaction is a combination of serenity, calm, and warmth. The symmetry in the photograph is very intriguing. To me, that translates into calmness. From the title you gave to your post, a viewer is led to believe this could be a flame. Anyway, I keep going back to the perfect symmetry and ask myself whether this was natural or generated. Well, I’ll check out your description now. It’s a beautiful image.
P.S.: Now having read the description, I’ll answer the question you posed. Yes, the flower came to mind, but its perfection was simply unreal.
My first thought was “gorgeous!” . . .then I thought of a tulip in some sort of creative lighting.
Amazing, Fritz, I just read your description. Love the colors and the lighting. Very creative.
Hi Fritz,
this looks amazing. I’m not sure what you photographed here but it looks like a flower.
Maybe you experimented with some kind of creative ICM techniques.
Fritz, this is a beauty. The colors don’t look like smoke and the sharpness of the lines doesn’t “feel” like smoke…so much for my experience. I’ve spent some time mirroring images, so I knew immediately what you’d done because of the perfect symmetry. None of the above statements detract from the beauty and peacfulness of this image.
Glad you like it, Mark. As mentioned, I took this quite a few years ago at a workshop as I started to take photography more seriously. As for color, I have vague recollections of color filters being used for the side light. I did play with HSL, as well as color calibration. As for sharpness, I used contrast, and might have run the later version through Topaz. (Out of the country with no computer, so can’t look up the details. )
But yes, creative license was applied.
Hi Jens! This is smoked that it mirrored in PS, then tell a boy in Lightroom.
The full description is on the grated out area under my original photo/comment. Glad you like it.
