Guy Davies, EPSA  


Tuscan Poppy by Guy Davies, EPSA

February 2021 - Tuscan Poppy

About the Image(s)

I thought a nice bright sunny image might help to cheer us all up in these rather bleak times. This was taken in a poppy field in Tuscany in early May 2016 on a very bright sunny morning. I noticed that this flower was standing out from all the others and was at the edge of the field. Camera was my Nikon D7100 with the Nikon 70-300 lens at 300mm. Exposure was 1/640 at f/5.6 and ISO 200. I did nothing with it until recently when I was looking for an image to enter in a camera club competition for the set subject of Flora, and came across this one in my archives. I opened it in Photoshop and applied Topaz Sharpen AI at the Auto setting. Then I set to work to clone out edge distractions and tone down some others. After that I used some Curves layers and a Levels layer to brighten the main flower and tone down the background. Finally I merged all to a new layer and applied Unsharp Mask at a large radius and small amount, limiting the effect to the red petals of the main flower plus some on the out of focus poppy head at the lower right. It didn’t get anywhere in the competition after all that, but I still like it.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




Dr Isaac Vaisman   Dr Isaac Vaisman
Guy, beautiful red poppy indeed. Very sharp considering you created it with a 300 mm lens on a cropped sensor camera D7100 which is equivalent to 450 mm in full frame, and at f/5.6 you were able to obtain focus throughout the flower. Red is one of the most difficult colors to handle in digital photography, and here with the exceptions of a few light areas (probably overexposed). due to the light conditions which looks harsh By the same token you were able to blur the background which is uniformly green with some patches of red, which complement the image and frame the poppy. I do find the two poppy buds (or pods ?) distracting. In this image less is more. I cropped in portrait mode and added a vignette.   Posted: 02/06/2021 11:03:20
Comment Image
Guy Davies   Guy Davies
Nice crop Isaac. I wasn't sure about those out of focus red blobs.   Posted: 02/06/2021 11:21:52



Vella Kendall   Vella Kendall
It is beautiful with the black center contrasting with the red. I like Issac's crop and vignette. What a nice memory and after we just received snow it brightened my heart. To me the highlights make the flower shiny which is pleasing to me.   Posted: 02/08/2021 14:18:26



Vella Kendall   Vella Kendall
It is beautiful with the black center contrasting with the red. I like Issac's crop and vignette. What a nice memory and after we just received snow it brightened my heart. To me the highlights make the flower shiny which is pleasing to me.   Posted: 02/08/2021 16:37:20



Vella Kendall   Vella Kendall
It is beautiful with the black center contrasting with the red. I like Issac's crop and vignette. What a nice memory and after we just received snow it brightened my heart. To me the highlights make the flower shiny which is pleasing to me.   Posted: 02/08/2021 23:10:35



Ian Chantler   Ian Chantler
Hi Guy
Mission accomplished nothing but howling winds and dark grey overcast skies in this part of the Kingdom so a bright sunny picture of a glowing poppy is a real tonic for the months ahead.
I must say I always take time to study a picture carefully but the power of the red just held my attention and the out of focus green background so compliment one another I had'nt noticed the lower right corner until Isaac mentioned it had a glance and was attracted straight back to the main subject,like both the original image and Isaacs crop,thanks for the tonic Guy.   Posted: 02/12/2021 14:51:51



Erik Rosengren   Erik Rosengren
I am enjoying it as well Guy. The main subject is perfectly placed and offers vibrant color that produces IMPACT. The soft background adds depth to this inspiring image.   Posted: 02/22/2021 14:03:37