I'm just sitting watching flowers in the rain

[susaan]

- which is a tad frustrating if you want to go out and play with your camera.

[Frog]

Looks like you are making good use of rain and light.
A bit close at the top.

[scott-devon]

Very nice shot Susaan. I like the colours and composition in this a lot.

[PRB]

Another winner! I would add about a quarter inch more black background to the top but this truly is excellent work. :thumbsup:

My Best to You,
Penny

[Ambrya]

what a cool flower... what is it? different.. LOVE the black background..... cool contrast and colors...

[Abiciriderback]

Very nice. Great lighting and background that really makes the flower "pop" very nicely done.

Ray Still

[Old Timer]

Outstanding image susaan. Glad to she you putting the new equipment through it's paces. As others have said a bit more room at the top other than that no crit at all.

[susaan]

Thank you all,

Ambrya - its a hibiscus.

Penny - It does need that extra room at the top,not sure the best way to do that,some research needed,I think.

[Anbesol]

Susaan, great capture! I agree with everyone else that it needs some room on the top, in photoshop just increase the canvas size, make sure the image anchors to the bottom, then paint the top black - it looks like you've got a solid black back - so no tricky tones to deal with. You've gotta tell us how you did this! This couldn't have been the black t-shirt trick, right!? Great focus too, and bizarre flower!

[draymorton]

Gorgeous, susaan. Aside from there not being enough room to breathe at the top, I can't think of anything I don't like.

How was this lit?

[susaan]

Thanks Anbsol,

I was playing with photo editors,waiting on the rains to get back out there and trying to rescue an over-exposed shot:blush2:
- Currently trying to recreate the effects,getting close,but keep ending up with a too soft image.
Lighting was dim after-a-storm gray,on the street.

[LightBright]

O my thats lovely

[PhoebeG]

Very, very nice.

I've never seen a Hibiscus that color. Is that natural color?


Phil G.

[susaan]

This has been a lesson in frustration - trying to get the same effects from scratch.
(I have recently bought Adobe "Elements",but not familiar enough with it to add space,and Googling has not yet enlightened me)
I've learned to be more careful in saving edits,as the weird crop was a result of hitting the wrong button,while half asleep....still trying to get the sharpness of the first image.

[OldClicker]

To add background to the top of the first one (Elements 6):

- Open the file in the Editor
- Image>Resize>Canvas Size – Opens a box. You are resizing the canvas, not the picture itself. So you are adding pixels, not resizing the existing.
- The top part of the box shows you the current size (inches, pixels, etc.)
- The center part of the box is where you tell it the new size.
-- Check the Relative box. This means that the size you specify will be added on to the existing. If you do not check this box, the size you specify will be the whole canvas.
-- In the right two little boxes you specify the units you want to work with (Note that the units in the upper box change as you change these.)
-- I’m going to say that you chose ‘pixel’, your current photo is 8000x6450 and you want another 50 pixels at the top.
-- Put ‘50’ in the height box because this is the dimension you want to increase.
-- For Anchor, click the bottom arrow (one that is pointing down). This ‘anchors’ the picture to the bottom and makes any additions to the other three sides. Since we are only adding to the vertical, it will be added at the top.
-- Since your background is pure black, in the bottom drop down box set the Canvas Extension Color to Black. You will see that you can also choose white or gray. If it was another color, you could just click the little box to the right of the drop down box. The color choice box will open and the mouse pointer will turn into an eye dropper (when over your photo). Just click the eye dropper on the color you want on the photo and click OK. The little box will now be that color and that will be the color of the new canvas. (Very easy way to add borders that match a certain color in the photo.)
-- Click OK and you have the extended, black canvas at the top.

Note that the photo is now larger – 8050x6450 in the above example – so if you needed it that size for printing, posting, etc., you will have to resize it. This time use Image>Resize>Image Size.

TF

[susaan]

Thank you so much,O.C,

I had planned tp spend more time playing with my new editors,but found the lure of the outdoors,new camera in hand,has dominated my spare time.i usually fall asleep after deleting the no-hopers.

I'm totally obsessed with these flowers,you may have noticed,the textures (in the less cultivated versions) and colors - either hot red/pink or subtle peach and white .
.Hope to get out to the yard with my portable,homemade "3 sided backdrop" this week,and catch some late day light on them with the new lens.

[Coastal Flyer]

susaan,

Very impressive. You have turned the original into a really terrific shot with the additional space. Really nice. Congrats.

CF

[Anbesol]

Susaan - using layers can help you keep your original. What I do to keep originals is add a duplicate layer and work on and on top of that, then keep the bottom layer as the original, then of course saving in PDS format. Adds quite a bit of size to each image, but its the most useful way to keep originals and make lossless edits. Saving in jpeg again and again really degrades the image (adding unique compression to each edit).

[susaan]

Anbesol - you have answered a question I was forming for the PP forum,thank you .

Larger files could be tricky,right now,as eating up disc space with a new project,but I'll keep this one in my back pocket ,and work on copies of the best shots from each day.

[Anbesol]

yes yes, tis why I picked myself up a terabyte (to augment another collective terabyte I've got). Those terabytes are super cheap any more, heres one thats $88 + free shipping! link

Multi-layered PSD files will eat up disc space pretty damned fast (I've got many 180mb images), but at the rate hard drives cost are plummeting, its not too much of a problem any more.

[susaan]

Thanks again,Anbesol,
I'm looking at your link and chasing it down over here - Asia is quite up on its tech,so should be no problem.
Looks like another re-edit needed to get the sharpness of the original back- what do you think ?

[shootme]

Post 3 nails it. As usual great shot Susaan. S

[gahspidy]

Lovely work, and great edit thanks to the good advice of the forum.
Beautiful photograph.

[susaan]

THANK YOU to all who have taught,critiqued and inspired me - and I've only been here since May,last year,but already feeling very much at home - seeing a huge difference in how I shoot - and a long way to go from here.

Gary,you are spot on, - its all on here,from Loupey's "basics sticky" on the wildlife forum,to tutorials and specific advice like Anbesol and Old Clicker gave me,earlier in this thread.
-Not to forget how many times I asked questions about this or that DSLR,before buying my 40D , now I' m going thro' all the reviews looking for my next lens....

[PRB]

Congratulations on this WELL-DESERVED sticky!

My Best to You,
Penny