Photographer's Comment: An Easter Lily that I saved to shoot once it "dried up". I'll put the goal in Thursday, but was shot outside using golden hr. sunlight, darkened the bg (which was somewhat dark anyway) using RGB channel, masked back, then my normal surface blur, curve adj to boost darks and some selective masking on both layers. Then applied my fav bw sepia action which was originally done using gradiant. Also, don't know what I'm doing "wrong" all of a sudden, but the larger version doesn't have any pixelization....errrrr

Tags: easter dried wrinkles flora flower lily

Viewer Comments:

By smokeydawg (2008-07-19 14:43:08 ): Thanks Linda, Carl

By smokeydawg (2008-07-19 14:42:41 ): Thanks Tanja! Carl

By smokeydawg (2008-07-19 14:42:12 ): Thanks CJ. The surface blur, not so much on this one, but on others it just seems to add some drama to shadow areas, there is always some varying degrees of masking I do to get what I'm looking for, but the combination of surface blur and boosting the darks in a curves adj, seems to add depth and drama. Carl

By smokeydawg (2008-07-19 14:39:54 ): Thanks for stopping by Atle! Carl

By smokeydawg (2008-07-19 14:39:33 ): Thanks John, always appreciate your feedback! Carl

By smokeydawg (2008-07-19 14:39:11 ): Thanks for taking the time to comment Wayne. I tend to love faded flora also, just so much you can do with it. I tend to save them for shots. Carl

By LindaJames (2008-07-16 18:50:19 ): I like that you step outside the usual conventions of composition. I do think CJ's suggestion to crop it up just a bit to not show the bottom of the leaf on the left is a good one. The leaves have such a graceful shape. I love the toning, works beautifully.

By somagni (2008-07-15 22:02:10 ): wonderful detail and lighting showing every wrinkle! this crop frustrates me though. i want just a bit more space at the bottom.

By CJGroth (2008-07-15 20:01:48 ): I love the translucency of this flower, how it seems lit from within. I think I would have preferred either a tiny bit more space beneath the flower on left, or else crop it so you don't know where it ends. I like the elegant veins of the flower. I'm a sepia gal, so I like the coloration too. I'm so curious, what does the surface blur you mention do for photos? Beautiful work.

By Atle (2008-07-15 09:47:39 ): Very nice and clever Carl! Like the surrealistic mood I get with the black background and the backlighting at the same time. ☺

By johnwillems (2008-07-15 08:54:32 ): Very nicely done Carl and an other view on "Wrinkles". Clever work! John.

By NowYesNow (2008-07-15 05:31:36 ): You know I love me some faded flora, too, don't you? A fine sense of light, in addition to the grace of the cascade, Carl. The dried up leaves and petals of plants like this paradoxically radiate captured light even better than they did when they were still feeding on it. Your choice to totally darken the background certainly simplifies the image, while adding to the glow of the leaves, in contrast. I think your placement, too, focuses attention onto those longer leaves at left, and minimizes attention on the potentially equally attractive light itself. At any rate, the array of the leaf shapes suggests a sort of undulating wave, to me... moving my eye smoothly back and forth. fwiw: I'm not seeing significant pixellation, myself.

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