Sasanquas are the early bloomers in the Camellia family. This was in one of Savannah’s historical cemeteries, Bonaventure Cemetery (think “Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil”). I played around with the H/S slider, and several TK actions.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Contrast and brightness of the flowers vs the leaves, sharpness of the image
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Whatever suits
Any pertinent technical details:
Camera Info: Nikon D500, HH
Lens: VR 300mm f/4E
Focal Length: 300mm
Focus Mode: AF-C
AF-Area Mode: Dynamic, 25 points
VR: ON
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/2000s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Metering: Spot
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 800
Full frame
PP in LR/PS CC 2019, Topaz Studio and DeNoise, Camera Raw filter, TK sharpen for web @ 50%, TK “Make It Glow” action
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Phil
What incredibly beautiful flowers. Ive only been lucky enough to visit that cemetery once. After an hour, my husband was muttering “lets go, this is spooky”. It is spooky and beautiful!
Well back to the flowers. I wonder if you could turn the luminance down on the green leaves and just darken them a bit. In LR, you can use dehaze as part of the spot filter, Put the spot over the flowers and invert so it applies to the surround. Thats what I would try and darken a little, pull the highlights back, perhaps pull the sat back,… just make those leave recede. Anyway, that is what I would try. I stumble around until I find something. I just love those flowers!
Isn’t the 300 f4 a marvelous lens for this kind of thing? Its my favorite.
Bonaventure is a place you have to look at for both its closeness to nature and the history of a time long past.
I have used the technique you described many times. You can use the same technique with the Camera Raw filter, which will work well with jpegs or tiffs. I tried it to see, but I wasn’t happy with the results. Instead I went back to good old dodge and burn, with a little spot saturation with the yellows. That way I didn’t rely on a global solution.
Phil
I like this one much better. Gorgeous flowers.
Contrast and brightness look fine to me, Phil. The composition is a bit of a problem for me. The focus is on the front flower, but the golden center of that flower is in the shadows so my eye only goes to it with an effort. Instead it’s drawn backwards to the more out of focus flower. I think this might have been the instance where the rule of keeping the front element in focus should have been broken.
Dennis, I understand what you are saying. I don’t think this is at the point of breaking the “rule”, but perhaps a bit stronger brightness and saturation might alleviate the strain.
Great work on the repost, Phil. It completely flips my attention and focuses it on the leading bloom. I do think you got just a bit carried away with the brightness of a couple of the petals immediately above the center of the leading flower, but your changes improved it immensely from my point of view.
