My dying tulip

[milou]

(sounds like a Smiths song)

http://milouvision.net/photos/test2atpf.jpg

300D | 50mm lens | 1/8 sec at f/9 | ISO 100

(shot on my window sill with a dark piece of card behind the flower and a small Lastolite silver reflector)

Thought the B & W treatment suited the flower's decay.

[Adrian]

The first thing that went through my head when I saw that was "Oh blimey!", because that's a seriously good shot. I really like the softness but also the fact that you've managed to keep sharp detail. Also, a lot of people would have been tempted to crop right in but I think this shot is improved by the large dark area.

[IanC_UK]

Yep, it is a brilliant shot, only let down by the compression on the black background, i bet the original is stunning ! :)

[milou]

Cheers :)

I couldn't find any black card - so I had to make do with some dark burgundy stuff (where it came from, who knows!). The small reflector was pretty useful as it bounced the light right into the petals - the original RAW file is a tad dull and the B & W sems to have brought out the contrast (a bit of plant spray helped too).

Link to original (highly compressed though from 36mb TIFF file): http://milouvision.net/photos/test2b.jpg

[Matt]

This is a nice shot Milou, Very similar to one I have shot recently.
I like the way you have managed to capture the detail, yet made it look soft.
Have you added the glow around the flower or was this done during capture?

The artifacts in the background could be down to your image compression technique.

One of the best ways to save images for the web in photoshop is:

File>Save for Web. Select JPEG, set compression quality to maximum,and tick the ICC profile box.
Goto optimize menu (this is a little button above the optimized check box) and select Optimize to File Size> select Current Settings and enter the file size (max 160k for TPF).
Click OK, then Save, enter a name for the file, then save.


Milou, the image file size is above what is set out in the forum guidelines (160k), could you please resize it using the guide above.

Thanks

Matt

[IanC_UK]

Cheers :)

I couldn't find any black card - so I had to make do with some dark burgundy stuff (where it came from, who knows!). The small reflector was pretty useful as it bounced the light right into the petals - the original RAW file is a tad dull and the B & W sems to have brought out the contrast (a bit of plant spray helped too).

Link to original (highly compressed though from 36mb TIFF file): http://milouvision.net/photos/test2b.jpg

It looks just as good in colour !!! :)

[milou]

Matt - resized - thanks for letting me know.

I've also tried before the "save for web" option but it didn't seem to save my exif data with the photo - maybe I was doing something wrong. The background card isn't a constant colour which may account for some of the artifacts - not sure though even at my advanced years, I'm still new to this. Good fun though!

A few more: http://milouvision.net/tulips/

[Matt]

Thanks Milou.

Save for web does strip the image of the exif data, Your not doing anything wrong.