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Thread: Water Lillie

  1. #1
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Water Lillie

    Water Lillie

    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

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  2. #2
    Nature/Wildlife Forum Co-Moderator Loupey's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Ohhh, that's nice! Very clean image.

    I've wanted to shoot these too. I've never found one in a clean setting like that.
    Please do not edit or repost my images.

    See my website HERE.


    What's a Loupe for anyway?

  3. #3
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Thanks Loupey
    I tried to enhance the shadows in the water.

    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

    Sony A 100
    Tamron 70-300 Di
    Sony 18-70 Kit lens
    Minolta 35-70 Lens
    Quantary 70-300 Lens
    Minolta 400 SI
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22083244@N06/

  4. #4
    Senior Member AgingEyes's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Looks like it has some blown highlights. Overall, it's clean and sharp. The reflection is nice, too.

  5. #5
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Thanks AgingEyes In which one do you see blown highlights? I didn't see any in the historgram. Maybe from the PP work.
    Frank
    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

    Sony A 100
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    Minolta 35-70 Lens
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    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22083244@N06/

  6. #6
    Senior Member AgingEyes's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Quote Originally Posted by sparkie1263
    In which one do you see blown highlights? I didn't see any in the historgram. Maybe from the PP work.
    Frank
    The first one I checked. If you use photoshop or photoshop elements, add a "threshold" adjustment layer on top of your original. Move the slider to the far right, which is the RGB 255. The whole image should go black at this point except a few tiny white spots. What you see are white spots with a RGB value of 255, pure white aka highlights without details. If you start moving the slider slowly back towards the center, you should also see quite a few areas with RGB value close to 250. Usually you would like to keep the whites not higher than 246 or even 245. Some even suggests 243.

    The histogram I checked has clippings on both ends, actually.

  7. #7
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    I am not good with PS yet however I checked the original like you said and I didn't see any blown highlights. Here is the original unedited. Can you check and see if I missed something? I am trying to learn and this is a great help to me.
    Thanks in advance
    Frank

    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

    Sony A 100
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    Minolta 35-70 Lens
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    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22083244@N06/

  8. #8
    Senior Member AgingEyes's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Quote Originally Posted by sparkie1263
    I am not good with PS yet however I checked the original like you said and I didn't see any blown highlights. Here is the original unedited. Can you check and see if I missed something? I am trying to learn and this is a great help to me.
    Thanks in advance
    Frank

    [/IMG]
    This one only has some tiny spots that are pure or close to pure white. Personally I'd not worry too much about them since they are not in the important areas of the image. What you can do in the future is check where the whitest spots are. Use the eye-dropper tool or similar and shift-clicked on them. When you further process the image, keep an eye on those highlight spots to make sure they don't go over. If you need to brighten the whole image a bit, use a mask afterwards to hide/protect those already bright spots. Hope this helps.

  9. #9
    Nature/Wildlife Forum Co-Moderator Loupey's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    I like the original image posted.
    Please do not edit or repost my images.

    See my website HERE.


    What's a Loupe for anyway?

  10. #10
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Lovely image, it would look great in a frame and hung on the wall.

    Cassie.

  11. #11
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    Re: Water Lillie

    i like the original image too, i wouldn't put too much emphasis on exposure some rules are meant to be broken to get an effect of your own, that and depending on where you meter your exposure can be totally off from the beginning so go with what you like and give the technical aspects a miss. Sometimes blown out highlights can be a good thing as well as underexposed areas

  12. #12
    Nature/Wildlife Forum Co-Moderator Loupey's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Frank - would you mind if I play around with your original (uncropped) image? Need your permission.
    Please do not edit or repost my images.

    See my website HERE.


    What's a Loupe for anyway?

  13. #13
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Yes, give it a shot. I would like to see what somebody who knows what they are doing can do.
    Frank
    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

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  14. #14
    Nature/Wildlife Forum Co-Moderator Loupey's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    OK, will be tomorrow morning at this point.
    Please do not edit or repost my images.

    See my website HERE.


    What's a Loupe for anyway?

  15. #15
    Nature/Wildlife Forum Co-Moderator Loupey's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    OK, here's is a quick edit.

    Performed 5 main steps in the following basic order (some steps I repeated later):

    1) curves adjustment - to bring back the shadows in the reflection - I think a little separation between the flower and its reflection helps

    2) desaturate - performed several times in increments of 5%~10% at a time between other steps to keep the colors toned down

    3) levels - to keep the lightness in the flower while bringing down the water (for separation) and enhancing the reflection

    4) color balance - this is a tough one always with water reflections - the water still seems off to me but my main goal here was to try to get the flower actuately depicted.

    5) hue adjustment - something I don't normally do, but again, a slight 4% adjustment to try to balance out the water.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Water Lillie-sparkies-crop-reworked.jpg  
    Please do not edit or repost my images.

    See my website HERE.


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  16. #16
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Great job. I am going to keep trying to see if I can get it close. If so I am going to make a print.
    Thanks
    Frank
    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

    Sony A 100
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    Minolta 35-70 Lens
    Quantary 70-300 Lens
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    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22083244@N06/

  17. #17
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    How is this.

    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

    Sony A 100
    Tamron 70-300 Di
    Sony 18-70 Kit lens
    Minolta 35-70 Lens
    Quantary 70-300 Lens
    Minolta 400 SI
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22083244@N06/

  18. #18
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    Re: Water Lillie

    I like the first one..
    CAMERA BIRD NERD #1




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  19. #19
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Congrats on the FP.

    Cassie.

  20. #20
    Senior Member Knight's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Love it Sparkie, Congrats on the FP
    Nikon Samurai # 24

    ( The hiker's creed. )

    Take only pictures, Leave only footprints, Kill only time.


  21. #21
    banished
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    how about the water drops


  22. #22
    Member sparkie1263's Avatar
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    Re: Water Lillie

    Thanks Everybody
    Frank
    Critiques and edits of my images are always welcome.

    Sony A 100
    Tamron 70-300 Di
    Sony 18-70 Kit lens
    Minolta 35-70 Lens
    Quantary 70-300 Lens
    Minolta 400 SI
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22083244@N06/

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