Lynne Hollingsworth  


Waterlily by Lynne Hollingsworth

July 2017 - Waterlily

About the Image(s)


This image was taken at McKee Botanical Garden in Florida. Most of the waterlilies were singles, but these 2 were very close to one another so they caught my attention. I used Nik software to convert to monochrome, made a few adjustments and added a vignette.


1/60
f/8
iso 250


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




Stephen Levitas   Stephen Levitas
Lynne, this is a very nice composition, and I think the vignette is very effective. Would you tell us more about the lighting situation? Where is the light source? Is it diffuse or direct? Is the right flower front-lit or back-lit? How is it that the background is so dark--was that the situation, or did you do that in post-processing? Everything looks very sharp at f/8--what was the focal length of your lens and how far were you from the flowers?   Posted: 07/07/2017 22:29:25



 
Welcome to the group Lynne!
We hope you feel comfortable and that our comments are useful, as I know that happens to us all.
Regarding the photo, lighting and composition is nice.
For me it has the peculiarity that, being illuminated the flower of the bottom and not especially the one of the foreground, it gives a particular and delicate composition, favored by the vignette.
I only find the support of the foreground flower very dark.
  Posted: 07/14/2017 07:58:51



Wes Odell   Wes Odell
The two levels of brightness (light) on the two blossoms is interesting, and as said earlier, raises some curiosity as to how that came to be. Nothing bad or wrong (ever), just curiosity. You have nice edge definitions, good blossom specimens, unique vignette-ing. When/if you print, consider a textured fine art paper, and a wide white matte. Ought to be stunning.   Posted: 07/17/2017 09:21:05



Diana Magor   Diana Magor
I prefer the lighting on the right hand flower as it appears almost translucent whereas the left hand one is more ordinary. I wondered whether it would be improved by brightening it a little. I also feel that you need a 2px white line around the image to separate it from the background which would have the effect of increasing the vignette effect. Try it and see! Your shot is unusual as normally the front flower would be the brightest and the back one darker.   Posted: 07/25/2017 12:52:04



 
Thank you all for the feedback, and also the suggestion for printing on a textured fine art paper. The waterlily on the right is yellow in color, the one on the left is dark purple. I did a lot of playing around in nik silver effects pro with vignetting, contrast, and some content aware to darken out some background ghosts. Even though it was sunny, the flowers were in a shady section of McKee botanical garden during a bright, hot and real steamy Florida morning.   Posted: 07/25/2017 17:49:51



Jennifer Doerrie   Jennifer Doerrie
This is an unusual lighting effect you've captured in your monochrome conversion of this image. I like how you managed to keep detail in the very bright parts of the lighter flower. The darker flower looks a bit flat on my monitor. I tried darkening it more and increasing the contrast. I'm not certain that helped, but you can see what you think.   Posted: 07/27/2017 23:52:14
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I like the darkening effect and yes - I think it does make a difference. Now that you've mentioned it, the flower on the left does look a bit flat.   Posted: 07/28/2017 13:53:38



 
Very nice flower mono image... With white images, you want to bring back detail - you can use Curves layer or plug-ins like Topaz detail to do this. I like Topaz detail which will add structure and detail to the white flower as well as the gray flower. In Nik, you can use the structure and contrast sliders to create some detail. Good flower image.   Posted: 07/28/2017 21:20:49
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