Chan Garrett
October 2025 - Colorful Candles
Original
About the Image(s)
I had been photographing areas outside of our community club house and then went inside to find a place to sit and relax for a few moments. As I sat there with my camera beside me, I turned and saw a display of colorful candles and artificial flowers and plants. On a whim, I decided to record a few views of the setting. When I returned home, I loaded the images into Lightroom Classic (LrC).
Over the next few months I returned to this one image to see what I could do. Using LrC and Photoshop (Ps), I continued refining the image by decluttering, refining the colors, and cropping. Here, I offer the results of my efforts for your critique.
2 comments posted
It is an interesting image. The colors are vibrant in the candle juxtaposed to the muted colors of the orchids. I would, however, remove the molding in the top left. I go back and forth between removing it and leaving it, as the diagonal add to the geometry of the round candle. Posted: 10/04/2025 20:22:34
The color pallette of this image is quite beautiful. I think I agree with Cincy that the molding might be better off gone. It looks like you must have used a fairly wide aperture with a very shallow depth of field, causing the upper part of the candle to be a bit out of focus, That, on its own, might not have been a problem, but the flowers make up a dominant amount of the image and they are very much out of focus, which I find distracting. Perhaps you could try cropping out even more of the flowers, thereby emphasizing the candle. Also, a small amount of straightening might also improve the image. It amazes me how continuing to work on a single image can really be a learning tool. Posted: 10/06/2025 17:21:32