Tall grass and flowers

Morbid

Morbid

Messages
1,288
Name
Ian
Edit My Images
Yes
Took this a couple of weekends ago, at a local spot which normally has more flowers. Maybe I went later in the summer previously, I can't recall. More grass than flowers, but quite pleased with how this one came out.

Flash used for fill, shot in raw and processed in ACR, PS and DxO Optics Pro 8 (just wanted to try this really, as a free download was available).

IMG_4365_DxOe3 by Ian J Bradshaw, on Flickr

Would be interested to hear/read what people think.

Thanks for looking!
 
Fatheadedlizard said:
Nice picture, looks a tad under exposed on the iPad tho
Click to expand...

Thanks Alan, could be my monitor I guess but it looks ok to me. The little man is quite tanned after a week in Ibiza, perhaps that's why it looks under exposed?

Edit - took another look at the image, and you're right, so I've upped the exposure a bit. Does this look any better to you Alan? (@Fatheadedlizard)

IMG_4365_DxOe4 by Ian J Bradshaw, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Hi Ian, for me, the exposure may lay somewhere between the 2 images you posted.
The flowers (not the primary subject) are colourful in 1, whereas the skin tone is good in 2.
I'd be tempted to use layers, with 1 as the base and extract the skin colour overlay.
Nonetheless, a lovely capture.
Do you have on from either higher viewpoint (top of head not bisected by flower line)?
Lower viewpoint (potentially removing the darker tree line)?
 
Thank Paul, I see where you're coming from so I'll have a go at that when I get home.

This one cuts out the tree line. I took a few but many had grass stalks in front of his face, and this one has a flower right over his left hand. Coincidentally, this has the exposure on his face closer to the edit above, with the darker flowers from the first picture.

IMG_4373 by Ian J Bradshaw, on Flickr

He's not been walking long, and doesn't sit still so I have to grab what I can, he did a lot of this while we were there!

IMG_4338 by Ian J Bradshaw, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Both shots 3 and 4 are a peach...
Love the framing and composition in 4.
The flower over the hand in 3 doesn't detract at all for me, it's about character and expression at that age...
And you nailed it!
Frame it, hang it.
 
reheat module said:
Both shots 3 and 4 are a peach...
Love the framing and composition in 4.
The flower over the hand in 3 doesn't detract at all for me, it's about character and expression at that age...
And you nailed it!
Frame it, hang it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words Paul, agree his expression is great in this one.

Fatheadedlizard said:
agree with @reheat module totally. Lovely shots get them printed and on the wall
Click to expand...

Thanks Alan, and thanks again for pointing out the under exposure too. Without feedback like this I wouldn't have noticed. I had to recreate most of the left hand side of the first shot as I shot him too central, and wanted him on a third. Didn't manage to take any shots this weekend so went back to this one and had a play with it. Think I got too engrossed in the cloning and forgot about the basics like exposure!

This is the original shot.

IMG_4365 by Ian J Bradshaw, on Flickr
 
Lovely!! Esp the first. Looks like a prime candidate for an ND grad filter or the Lightroom equivalent.

The processing is very subtle. Which is a good thing. I would almost certainly have gone further to unify the palette a little more. And probably overcooked it :/
 
juggler said:
Lovely!! Esp the first. Looks like a prime candidate for an ND grad filter or the Lightroom equivalent.

The processing is very subtle. Which is a good thing. I would almost certainly have gone further to unify the palette a little more. And probably overcooked it :/
Click to expand...

Thanks Simon, re the ND grad do you mean to bring back some detail in the sky? I could see what effect a gradient has on a new layer in PS I suppose (I don't have LR).
 
Last edited:
Morbid said:
Thanks Simon, re the ND grad do you mean to bring back some detail in the sky? I could see what effect a gradient has on a new layer in PS I suppose (I don't have LR).
Click to expand...
Exactly!
If you don't have LR but do have CC then you could edit the top layer in a camera raw filter to get the same functionality But if you have CC then you've presumably got access to Lightroom anyway.
Or try an exposure adjustment layer with a graduated layer mask or a new layer with a mid grey to dark grey gradient on it in soft light blending mode; they alter the colours less than some adjustments.
 
I'm on CS5, so I'll have a go with just adding a gradient, and see how the soft light or overlay blending modes look. The original shot had a bit of blue in the sky, I seem to have lost that along the way somehow. I've faffed about too much with it to start again. Haven't tried using simulating ND filters so will treat this as an exercise.
 
Thanks again for the advice above. I don't normally do this much PP to an image, but it's been interesting seeing what can be done. This is the end result, pretty much following the steps in Paul (@reheat module) and Simon's (@juggler) posts above. I added one more step putting a blue filter over the sky on a separate masked layer, below the ND gradient (to get back some of the lost blue from the sky). Skin tones had a little decrease in exposure too, to balance them with the background (they looked a little washed out as he does have quite an olive complexion). I think I've faffed about with this one enough - it's been a good learning experience though, especially the ND gradient and soft light blending.

IMG_4365_DxOe5 by Ian J Bradshaw, on Flickr
 
I think half a stop more fill in may have made a difference here to the original, however shot above is great.Worth having a collapsible reflector handy but with kids they tend to squint whenever too much light is put in their face.
 
Morbid said:
Thanks again for the advice above. I don't normally do this much PP to an image, but it's been interesting seeing what can be done. This is the end result, pretty much following the steps in Paul (@reheat module) and Simon's (@juggler) posts above. I added one more step putting a blue filter over the sky on a separate masked layer, below the ND gradient (to get back some of the lost blue from the sky). Skin tones had a little decrease in exposure too, to balance them with the background (they looked a little washed out as he does have quite an olive complexion). I think I've faffed about with this one enough - it's been a good learning experience though, especially the ND gradient and soft light blending.
Click to expand...

I like it but I think the sky is now a smidge overdone. Sorry, there's no pleasing some people, is there?
 
juggler said:
I like it but I think the sky is now a smidge overdone. Sorry, there's no pleasing some people, is there?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think you're probably right (again!), I've overdone the blue. The PSD file is saved so it's easy enough to reign it in a bit with less opacity on that layer.

EDIT: I'm not even sure it's the right colour of blue, might sample the sky from one of the other images and see how that looks...
 
Last edited:
Morbid said:
Just for you Mr Picky (aka @juggler)..... the final edit below. The sky as shot was pretty boring and I couldn't do much with it, so I've pulled in some sky from another image taken that day.
Click to expand...

Lol, I try to be just as picky with my own stuff. Much more natural looking. I'd need to look on a calibrated monitor to be sure but I think it's time we stopped there, no?
Are you going to print it?
 
juggler said:
Lol, I try to be just as picky with my own stuff. Much more natural looking. I'd need to look on a calibrated monitor to be sure but I think it's time we stopped there, no?
Are you going to print it?
Click to expand...

Best to be picky, self critique is hard to learn I think, always seems more obvious looking at other people's work - I guess the emotional attachment isn't there. One thing I'm bad at it deleting shots even though there may be 4 or 5 very similar shots. I guess I'm improving as I'm binning less due to errors, so there's probably less of a need to take multiple shots. That's the joy of digital I guess, but I really need to edit down what I keep.

Definitely time to stop with this one. We get the odd canvas printed now and again, and we've had one done recently of him and his mum, so we won't be getting this one printed. Thanks again for the useful crit and comments, it was a very useful exercise making the various adjustments.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top