Judith Lesnaw  


Princess Allium    by Judith Lesnaw

July 2021 - Princess Allium

July 2021 - Judith Lesnaw

Original

July 2021 - Judith Lesnaw

Original 2

About the Image(s)

Several months ago I photographed with an iPhone 7plus the detached head of a Barbie doll to illustrate a poem my sister was writing. A few days ago I photographed an Allium pod in my garden just after a rain storm. The Allium pod was in front of orange day lilies and green leaves. I used a Canon 80D with a Tamron lens at 200mm. Camera settings were ISO 1600, 1/250 sec, f6.3. The lens had a circular polarizer attached. Camera was hand held. I cropped and adjusted various parameters of the image in Lightroom. I liked the image's colorful bokeh, and the reflections in the raindrops. I was not entirely pleased with the dark center. Then I remembered the Barbie head and thought it might be perfect to add interest to the image. I imported both images as layers into photoshop, selected and masked the head, lightened it, and reduced the opacity of the allium to subtly reveal the head. Layers and masks still confound me, but by forcing myself to experiment with them I hope to improve my processing. Suggestions are most welcome!


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




Lauren Heerschap   Lauren Heerschap
Um...Barbie looks like she is undergoing acupuncture...ouch. I would suggest that you swap the layers so that the face is on top of the flower, not vice-versa. You could do this by dragging and dropping the layers in PS to reverse them. That way she is the center of the flower. Perhaps you thought that the flower was coming out of her, but I see those as needles going in...just a sense of perspective. You are right about the background blending well into nice colors!   Posted: 07/07/2021 12:58:17



Peter Newman   Peter Newman
Judith, I think you are showing us a clever and interesting image. I prefer your version because it has a bit of mystery. I think that placing Barbie in front is like starting a novel with: "It was a dark and stormy night." However, agree with Lauren about the "acupuncture," look. If you place a fading blur on the filaments, fading more from the bottom, to less than 1/8 of the way up, you will lose that look.   Posted: 07/09/2021 11:41:04



Karl Leck   Karl Leck
Hi Judith, The concept is good. Barbie looks like a deep sea critter. The edge of the right side of her face is soft, like emerging from the deep. I liked that and suggest softening the edge of the face on the left and the chin. Also perhaps bring the entirety of each eye up to 80-90% opacity. Strong eyes with a soft edge face will be ethereal with impact. Karl   Posted: 07/12/2021 21:50:47



Freddie Kelvin   Freddie Kelvin
This is a really intriguing image. The needles lend an aura of mysterythat is eye-catching. I'm not sure that I would change anything!   Posted: 07/19/2021 17:24:08



 
Very creative idea! I do agree with Lauren that the doll looks like she's kind of plagued with something, but I think overall it's a really interesting image!   Posted: 07/20/2021 22:00:27