Jim Overfield
July 2024 - Blue Flag Iris
Original
About the Image(s)
While walking the shoreline early one morning at a nearby lake, I saw a group of Iris’s in the water near the shore. With no close access to take close-up photo’s, I found small openings in nearby shrubs and took several photos through these openings focusing on a single Iris with the water as the background. I made a few subtle post-processing changes in lightroom but spent some time trying to decide the best crop option using lightrooms crop overlays. The original image is quite busy with lots of distractions making my choice a challenging one, but ultimately decided on the Golden Spiral. I welcome group members feedback and suggestions, particularly with a recommendation for any of the other Lightrooms crop overlay options.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
8 comments posted
I love this dreamy photo! I think it is amazing that you were able to get the blue of the water directly behind the iris bloom! I did download the original - which I also enjoy that crop. I could not come up with a better crop
Posted: 07/07/2024 21:41:52
Posted: 07/07/2024 21:41:52
Thank you for the effort Sylvia. Water background was the easy part, finding an opening in the bushes with a clear shot of the iris bloom was the challenge. I forgot to include my camera data in my statement; full frame camera body, hand held 400mm, 1/2000 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1600, shutter priority and partial metering. Posted: 07/09/2024 13:18:25
Jim, First of all I love the wonderful morning mood you captured! The combination of sharpness and blur is very well done and enhances the atmosphere. Definitely the light intensifies the color of the iris, it is the focal point, even it is not in the center.
You asked for suggestions on how to crop the photo. I tried a square, but it looks boring, too normal.
Maybe that`s worth considering. I chose the 20x30 format and cut off a bit on the right and bottom.
This results in an immediately recognizable triangle, starting with the flower on the right, continuing with the Blue Flag Iris and ending with the closed flower on the left. The triangle composition with the tip pointing upwards brings calm into the picture. You have certainly already seen this when photographing the iris.
A successful, well-composed image.
Posted: 07/09/2024 14:24:22
You asked for suggestions on how to crop the photo. I tried a square, but it looks boring, too normal.
Maybe that`s worth considering. I chose the 20x30 format and cut off a bit on the right and bottom.
This results in an immediately recognizable triangle, starting with the flower on the right, continuing with the Blue Flag Iris and ending with the closed flower on the left. The triangle composition with the tip pointing upwards brings calm into the picture. You have certainly already seen this when photographing the iris.
A successful, well-composed image.
Posted: 07/09/2024 14:24:22
Thank you Sabine for your work. In all honesty, I liked your crop of my original the moment I saw it. Your reasoning for a different crop makes so much more sense to me and I wonder why I didn't see it during my initial post-processing. It's always so interesting to me to see a different perspective from the same image that can turn into a learning experience. I spent a lot of time deciding the crop I used, but I think revisiting an image later on after post processing is completed, might help me to identify possible improvements. Thanks again Sabine. Posted: 07/09/2024 19:21:19
The blur adds such an ethereal backdrop to the very simple and quite beautiful flower! Agree that Sabine's crop is an improvement but your work with the colors, blur, saturation/vibrancy is really great.
I'm spending a lot of time learning Lightroom (enrolled in an online course that was recommended to me. It's offered by Tim Grey (https://www.greylearning.com/) that's really good (and not very expensive). I thought of you today during the class and glad I remembered to mention it! Posted: 07/15/2024 23:00:48
I'm spending a lot of time learning Lightroom (enrolled in an online course that was recommended to me. It's offered by Tim Grey (https://www.greylearning.com/) that's really good (and not very expensive). I thought of you today during the class and glad I remembered to mention it! Posted: 07/15/2024 23:00:48
Thank you for your kind words Douglas. I was lucky, as there was very necessity for post processing this image. Cropping was my biggest challenge so work done by Sabine was a great improvement to the original, and was also a good learning exercise for me.
I'm really glad you've found a source you're happy with to learn Lightroom. You work hard at learning how to post-process images, which is evident in your monthly photo submissions.
I looked at the greylearning website which I filed for future reference. Thanks again Douglas. Posted: 07/16/2024 19:00:35
I'm really glad you've found a source you're happy with to learn Lightroom. You work hard at learning how to post-process images, which is evident in your monthly photo submissions.
I looked at the greylearning website which I filed for future reference. Thanks again Douglas. Posted: 07/16/2024 19:00:35
Jim, I admire the decision you made in photographing the iris in the water. Even before editing you captured such elegance. Bringing out the two flowers on the right was good call.
You asked but I can not improve on your cropping decision. Thank you for the crop overlay tip. Beautiful image!
Posted: 07/19/2024 19:44:17
You asked but I can not improve on your cropping decision. Thank you for the crop overlay tip. Beautiful image!
Posted: 07/19/2024 19:44:17
Thank you Yvonne. Posted: 07/19/2024 20:36:52