Please gimme your thought on how to maximize this beauty

[Spriter]

This is an unretouched scaled down of a Raw file taken with my XSi and EF-S 60mm.

I tried a lot of option, thought about the third, played with various frames and crops and I did not found one that I like enough to get me going.

I am sure, a lot of you would have interesting tricks that would emphasize such a beauty. I am open to any idea.

I could send the original raw as needed.

[mindforge]

If you can go out and shoot it again and get the whole flower in focus that would be cool... the closer petals are out of focus. I think the shot would have had a lot more pop if the flower was in focus.

Do you have photoshop?

[Spriter]

Yes photoshop and Lightroom. Still looking at photoshop with awe though and not knowing what to do with it.

I am more at ease in Lightroom (V2).

[Marko]

This is already getting there imo and it's a nice shot but it has some distractions. It's really hard to do but when you're blurring the background like that you need to check out for the hotspots (brighter areas that stand out) as those hotspots compete with the flower. You could move your position during the shoot or burn in/cloneout/cropout/fix during post.

If this were my shot, my goal would be to isolate the flower with as few distractions as possible and this is what I'd try
- sharpen the center and mid-level petals of the main flower
- crop the right side a bit and tone down any brightish colours
- this is tougher but...darken the purple flower and stem at the top middle and carefully clone out or burn in those brightish leaves just under and at the left petals of the flower.
- darken just a touch the entire left side.

but that's just me, LOL. I think if you try some of those suggestions you may be pleased with the results. Hope that helps - Marko

[Marko]

woops okay then Spriter - that was a technical answer for someone unfamiliar with photoshop. Either way...the main goal using whatever you have would be to isolate the flower and free it from distractions.

[mindforge]

The first thing you want to do with Photoshop is learn how to create your adjustment layers.

I am a podcast junkie. You can learn a lot by subscribing to a grip of podcasts online and listening to them over and over until a new one comes out...

Great new one Marko, by the way. Actions is where I am now. I went through my Nik software phase, my ninja phase, and now I am finally just doing it myself.
You have to know actions if you want to do complex stuff fast. Sure, you can buy the work of others but you have to know the actions intimately or you can't work fast.

So, Spriter, I would go look up adjustment layers for photoshop. You gotta just play with it and forget about coming out with something usable. Make it black and white and then manually paint it like a rainbow... then make a high key b/w with it... Photoshop is deeper than a lot of people look... and right when you think you know something, you sit back in your chair, amazed and say "Whoa, so that's how you do that." Then a new world in Photoshop opens for you... then after you learn it all... they release a new version you get to learn... but that is really the fun part for me.

I skip every other version though. I skipped CS3 but I will get CS4 and now I am just going way off into an empty field, looking for the topic that we started so I will return now.

If you don't know photoshop very well, do this. Create a new hue/saturation adjustment layer. The adjustment layers are one of the small icons on the bottom of your layer window in photoshop. Then, with that new hue/saturation layer, completely drop the saturation out of it to make it b/w.. then make it soft light and watch what happens... play with the opacity.... the curves to drop more darkness into it.. more light...

I get lost in photoshop for hours when I don't have work to do. Photoshop is crack for digital photographers... we love it and hate it at the same time... it makes everything look good, but sucks our time away.

[tegan]

I can show you from your image, if you don't mind me playing with it and demonstrating what I did to you.

Tegan

[Spriter]

I can show you from your image, if you don't mind me playing with it and demonstrating what I did to you.

I would love that Tegan!

On my side, i will make some work this week-end and will post the result back here.

[tegan]

Sometimes depth of field and other problems can be hidden by the unique look that still draws visual attention to the image.

Tegan

[tegan]

Distorting colour to draw attention to the centre of the flower using the lines on the petals and away from the depth of field problem.

Tegan