Michael Moore
August 2022 - Flower Still Life
Original
About the Image(s)
I used a Lensbaby Velvet 85 with an aperture setting of around f8 to get a soft glow but still retain detail in the flower. I rearranged the leaves and removed extraneous stems to get a more balanced composition and minimize distractions. I added my primary texture and stamped up the image to make a duplicate which was processed in Topaz with the AI Remix filter to achieve a painterly quality. These two layers were then blended together. A curves adjustment layer was added for contrast and a Levels layer to create a slight vignette. Finally, I added the border. I look forward to your feedback on how this turned out.
17 comments posted
Michael, you've done some super things here. I love the background you've added and how you've recomposed the image. Still, I think your original soft flower has so much appeal that I would work to selectively bring back some of that flower's softness into your image. I'm a big fan of selective processing to add interest and focus.
Posted: 08/03/2022 10:33:32
Posted: 08/03/2022 10:33:32
Thanks Witta and clearly the rest of the group agrees with your opinion. I plan to rework this a bit. Posted: 08/06/2022 13:01:24
Having spent years trying to reduce grain in our B&W images, adding grain/noise doesn't really appeal to me. But this image is quite nice. Perhaps as Witta says, bringing out a little more detail in the flower would be a plus. Actually, the flower center looks a little blown out. I copied the center from the original and adjusted the hue/saturation to match the tones of the fianl image. Posted: 08/04/2022 10:48:25
Thanks Connie. I normally never let my textures bleed onto my flowers and understand your perspective. In this case, as I masked out the texture on the flower I thought that it not sit as well in the image and so I selectively brought some of the texture back. Nonetheless, I think everyone would like to see the original flower with no texture and I will absolutely give that a shot. Posted: 08/06/2022 13:05:29
See my comments and revised image below. Posted: 08/08/2022 16:57:06
Michael, Very artistic image. Love the texture and the color and contrast. The only thing that I would do is to darken the vignetting. Posted: 08/05/2022 13:12:20
Thanks Linda. I like your version and will darken my vignette as I rework this image to take into account all of the good feedback I have received. I might have the final vignette fall somewhere between my original and yours. Thanks. Posted: 08/06/2022 13:08:25
I like your version Linda and tried to move more in that direction. See my comments and revised image below. Posted: 08/08/2022 16:56:43
I like the composition of this image and the texture that you have applied to the background. I am not a fan of applying textures over flowers and would certainly remove some of it. If you want to retain the colour toning of the texture then if you select the flower on the texture layer and then apply "Average Blur", this will give you the toning without any texture. Posted: 08/06/2022 07:23:08
See my comments and revised image below. Posted: 08/08/2022 16:55:07
Thanks for a great idea Carol. I have not tried using Average Blur to apply toning without the texture and will definitely give this a try. Posted: 08/06/2022 13:09:56
I am looking forward to seeing your modified image.
Posted: 08/06/2022 14:58:49
Posted: 08/06/2022 14:58:49
Here is the next version of my image. All the texture has been removed from the flower but I used Carol's suggestion of toning the flower by applying Average Blur to the texture. I think this worked very well. Without the toning the flower looks stark and unnatural with the rest of the image to my eye. I played with a darker vignette but didn't like the way it was turning out in my hands so went with what you see. Thanks for all of your suggestions! Posted: 08/08/2022 16:54:16
Glad that you found my comment useful, I do like the revised version. Posted: 08/09/2022 02:14:38
Great Job. Beautiful Image. Posted: 08/14/2022 15:26:53
I agree with everything others have said about reducing the amount of texture on the flower. I really like the composition and texture you chose for the background. This is a beautiful image Michael. Posted: 08/07/2022 10:09:15
See my comments and revised image below. Posted: 08/08/2022 16:55:25