Steve Estill, EPSA
April 2021 - A Jocund Company
Original
Original 2
About the Image(s)
The daffodils are in full swing now - and we have quite a selection. This vase of flowers was picked the day before while still in bud and by the next morning they were blooming. They were photographed into the sun with the front garden as the backdrop.
I must admit to cloning one of the pink centred ones and fitting it into the vase (just to balance it).
I wanted to brighten them some more, so I duplicated the layer and used Redfield Unobtainium > Portrait 2 preset, then to add some contrast I used Topaz Adjust AI > Ansel HDR preset in soft light mode at reduced opacity.
The treatment so far wasn't what I was looking for, so I used Topaz Studio 2 > Overhead Sunburst for the light source, duplicated the layer and used Redfield Quad Pencil > Watercolour at reduced opacity, then stamped up to give original 2.
I softened the image using ON1 for some glow then used Nik Viveza on the original layer to increase structure, brightness, and saturation, and dragged this layer to the top of the stack. A black layer mask was used to bring in the Viveza enhanced centres of some of the flowers.
Selective colour was used to tone back the greens and enhance the reds, then a vignette to finish.
9 comments posted
My only suggestion would be to tone the background down a little, as my eye keeps tracking away from the foreground to see what is happening out there.
Posted: 04/04/2021 23:41:49
I've toned back the background as you suggested. Posted: 04/09/2021 17:13:11
To me, the final image had the following mixture, which I found distracting: There was a bit more noise in some of the flowers, and not in others; some flowers were tack sharp, but others were blurry, though these areas seemed to be on the same plane. The blurriness did not appear in Original 1.Blurriness is appropriate for a watercolor treatment, but the dark outlines on some of the flowers is inconsistent with watercolor.
You are my favorite master of creative manipulation, but this month, I greatly preferred Original 1. However, I do really appreciate your pick of a subject! Posted: 04/13/2021 17:35:18