Denise McKay  

Translucence by Denise McKay

March 2025 - Translucence

March 2025 - Denise McKay

Original

About the Image(s)

Photo shot on a tripod with OM-1 mark II and 90mm macro lens at ISO 250, f8, 1/15 sec.

Wishing for Spring to get here, I picked up some tulips from the grocery store for an indoor photo shoot. I wanted to do something rather light and airy and tried using lighting and some editing to add some translucence to the tulips leaf and petals. Here's what I did:

I shot this tulip with a light pad standing up behind it. After basic edits in Lightroom I took it into Topaz Studio 2 and added 3 layers: a texture, HSL color adjustment, and a colored vignette. I made adjustments to the blending modes and opacity of each layer to enhance the background rather than the tulip itself, masking off the texture and other layer changes from the tulip. I took it back into Lightroom and used a brush to mask certain areas of the petals and leaf and increased exposure and white points hoping to enhance the translucence a bit more.

Your feedback is most appreciated.

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

Mary Hinsen   Mary Hinsen
Kia ora Denise - I love this image. It is serene and ethereal with its backlighting and your processing. I wouldn't change a thing!   Posted: 03/11/2025 15:22:44
Denise McKay   Denise McKay
Thanks for your feedback Mary!   Posted: 03/13/2025 13:03:21
Jan Handman   Jan Handman
Stunning fine art image Denise! The composition is lovely, and you did a beautiful job with your original set-up to capture the translucence of both the flower and leaf. Adding the slight bit of texture and colored vignette added a lot, without detracting from the subject. It was genius to remove the texture from the tulip. Now the ethereal feeling of the subject is heightened even more. Nicely done!.   Posted: 03/12/2025 16:07:17
Denise McKay   Denise McKay
Thank you so much for your feedback Jan!   Posted: 03/13/2025 13:04:10
Rita Johnston   Rita Johnston
Denise, I agree it is stunning fine art image. You made a simply flower into a work of art. I would hang this in my home, during spring!   Posted: 03/19/2025 19:06:23
Georgianne Giese   Georgianne Giese
This is a beautiful image. I like that you have the tulip at an angle. The background you developed is perfect. I really love the colors and texture. The background almost looks like a watercolor. That inspired me to add a watercolor look to the entire image. Also, I wanted to make the tulip a little more translucent.
I duplicated the initial layer and selected the tulip to an additional layer. Back on the second layer, I took the selection of the tulip and used Edit > Fill > Content Aware Fill to remove the tulip from the background. Now the tulip layer was ontop of the filled background. I put the tulip layer in Darken Blending Mode and added a mask to the Tulip layer. On the mask, I used a small soft brush to paint with black at 20% opacity over the light areas at the top of the tulip, so the blue background would slightly show through. After stamping up, I took the result into Topaz Impressions 2 to finish the watercolor look.
Thanks for the lovely image. I think I will go purchase some tulips! The squirls ate all the tulip bulbs I planhted! Pesky cute rats!
  Posted: 03/22/2025 20:08:33
Comment Image
Carol Watson   Carol Watson
Hi Denise, I love the simplicity of this image and you have successfully captured the translucence of the tulip. I like the subtle colour toning you have added to the background, it adds interest but does not draw the attention away from the tulip.   Posted: 03/23/2025 09:38:21