Lisa Auerbach  


Welcome Spring by Lisa Auerbach

April 2021 - Welcome Spring

April 2021 - Lisa Auerbach

Original

About the Image(s)

Nothing says spring like the bloom of the Cherry Blossom Trees in the DC area. For this image I added texture and clarity in Bridge. In Photoshop, I blurred and lightened the background, and added a vignette. Finally, in Topaz DeNoise, I checked for noise.
One specific problem I faced is refining a selection. After I selected and masked the blooms I viewed it at 200% and refined the edges. I added an inverse and blurred and lightened the background. I found that there was still a ring around the flowers from before I lightened the background. I tried cloning, and it worked to a degree. I’m interested if you have suggestions that help refine edges.

Hand held; 55mm; 1/40; f/29/ISO 100/


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




Mike Cohen   Mike Cohen
Very pretty blossom. I see the glow but don't find it offensive. I would guess that Photoshops select subject would make a pretty good selection and then maybe reduce it a pixel or two to keep your adjustments away from the edges. I should but rarely make selections and usually just paint with a brush or use a radial filter in LR or Camera Raw.

I am a bit distracted by the branch which drags my eye to the upper left. I brought your image into PS and lightened that corner, so that it was more consistent with the rest of the background, and added some blur.   Posted: 04/08/2021 16:52:28
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I like both. I think somewhere in the middle would be good. More than yours and less than mine.   Posted: 04/14/2021 16:00:06



Pamela Hoaglund   Pamela Hoaglund
You did capture the true sign of spring in this cherry blossom. I think you did a wonderful job at blurring the busy background into a nice background that highlights this blossom. The edges of the blossoms don't bother me. I'm also not really bothered by the dark branch as it is obviously in the shade and lightening it too much would in my opinion make it look unnatural.   Posted: 04/12/2021 12:08:40



LC Boros   LC Boros
(Group 90)
I like the initial shot as its well focussed and lit. Tips: try featuring your mask more as that would reduce the glow you are worried about. Additionally if you have the Topaz Mask tool, you could play about with it. Compositionally I think you could go even tighter on the blossoms.   Posted: 04/14/2021 15:46:58



 
I don't understand what you mean by "featuring" my mask. Please elaborate.   Posted: 04/14/2021 15:57:26
LC Boros   LC Boros
(Group 90)
Ah...autocorrect how much mischief you make.

Feathering. That is what I meant. Should be an option in your tools to reduce the strength of the mask/layer edges.   Posted: 04/15/2021 10:28:46



Sharon Prislipsky   Sharon Prislipsky
I think this is a fine close up of a perfect cluster of blossoms (ours froze in the big winter storm). In my opinion, glow filters are very useful enhancements, and I think it helped a great deal in dealing with the busy background. It is really hard to isolate one blossom cluster, so I usually move around and try to positon myself in a spot where other branches are a distant from my target blossom as possible which makes it easier to get them out of focus. I am curious about your choice of aperture. I find f/7.1 or 6.3 ususally works well. After that the focus starts to fall off on the edges of the flower(s). I am not particularly bothered by the brance in the uppoer left, but I do think a closer crop would be worth a try.   Posted: 04/15/2021 09:43:14



 
I'm glad you mentioned aperture. I am never sure about that in a flower cluster. Often I get the center right and then the outer leaves soften. I think I chose an aperture for the whole image. When I am out again, I will try a smaller aperture.
  Posted: 04/15/2021 11:41:33



Ally Green   Ally Green
A great image depicting Spring and i love the soft pink colour of the blossom. Nice detail in the stamens too. The glow doesn't bother me but i used the Chronic Aberration manual sliders in LR recently on an image to clean up the edges and that seemed to work. But in your case i like how it is. Blurred background is perfect and agree with Sharon maybe trying a smaller aperture and perhaps less of the branch on the left.   Posted: 04/16/2021 11:23:40



Judith Lesnaw   Judith Lesnaw
Lisa, great job blurring the background. You have an impressionist image that matches perfectly the gentle affect of Spring. I agree with Mike that the perpendicular branches seem out of place; they dont blend well with the soft style of the image. I would mute and blur them to leave only enough detail to avoid hanging the blossoms in space. The halo around the blossoms blends well with the blurred blossoms in the background, and they do not detract at all in my view. You mentioned adding texture and clarity to the blossoms, yet they look sharper in the original. How then did you achieve the impressionist style?   Posted: 04/22/2021 19:17:24



 
I used: Select> Select subject> Inverse> OK. This identified my flower and removed it from the blur. Only the background was active. Then I added a gaussian blur to the background.

When I tried to remove the unblurred edges from the flower, I might have softened the edges more than I wanted to.
This process involves the refine edge brush, which I am still trying to learn.   Posted: 04/23/2021 06:19:50
 
I tried reducing the stem both by blurring part of the branch and cropping. I like the effect. Thank you for comments   Posted: 04/23/2021 06:44:13
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