Flowers of the Laburnum tree. Need advice.

[Anthony J Howe]

I like this picture of these colourful flowers of the Laburnum tree overhanging my garden with the blue sky.
It has potential to be a good shot.
This shot has no PP at all except resizing for the web.
I would like you to nit-pick and tell me what I need to do with this picture please. Afterwards after the advice and help and improvement of the picture I will then put it into the Nature/animals forum to view.
Could you advice and help please, many thanks.

http://web.mac.com/anthonyhowe1/iWeb/Site/Photos_files/Laburnam.jpg

[Terrywoodenpic]

Nice bright shot.
I have never managed a good shot of laburnham
Your problem is the closer of the set of four blooms being out of focus.
It is a pity you did not bend it out of the way exposing a group of three...always better.
I have tried turning it into a portrait shot. and used curves to brighten the colour contrast.
Added a little sharpening.

http://xs305.xs.to/xs305/06352/Laburnam.jpg

[delinian]

Tony, Here's my edit, I hope you approve. I did a basic layers adj. with curves for contrast, curves for color, and adj. selective color, and cropped, smart sharpenend.
105973

[catsith]

i prefer terry's version, sorry, dennis, the sky is too purple for me.
Tony, i don't have time to play, but my first thing would be to use highlight/shadow tool. Sometimes i use levels instead of this, depends on how the picture looks when i've played. A little bit of contrast too may boost the yellow colour. Aso use the dodge/burn tool if u want to lighten/darken a small portion of the picture.However, i have only been doing this for 8 months, so my ideas may be amateurish. (and a tighter crop too.) Look forward to seeing your version.

[catsith]

here is my very very quick try

this one is a bit of a tough one, not sure one can really do too much with it. The highlights are too blown out. Can you get another photo?

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f24/ottine/Laburnam111.jpg

[Anthony J Howe]

These are really nice edits. The first one by Terry making it into a portrait shot and getting rid of the blurred section, which can be a little distracting. The colour is better and also the sharpness, nice one.
Dennis's edit with an alternative colour to the sky is also very nice and I do indeed approve. I like the crop to take out the left space from the image, well done. But the sharpness is better by Terry than yours Dennis.
Tina you have done very well with the sharpness and colour on the image and can be difficult with the little blown highlights noticeable. BTW, it's the only image I have and the flowers don't last long and have now gone.
Good work everyone and yet I have to decide which one to pick.

[PhotogJeff]

I removed the stem or little branch. Did some standard PhotoShop stuff & added a frame.

I have to say that this photo is really in need of some other element in order for it to stand out. A bird, a butterfly or some other entity.

Jeff

[Frank_Hollahan]

Tony, I really enjoy the the yellow and green against the blue sky. I usually don't get the exposure right whenever I try this type of shot but you've seemed to have gotten it spot on. Very nice.

[Hellashot]

I removed the stem or little branch. Did some standard PhotoShop stuff & added a frame.

I have to say that this photo is really in need of some other element in order for it to stand out. A bird, a butterfly or some other entity.

Jeff

The best version, but the subject is too "clumpy" and lacks definition - just a blob of flowers to me. Everyone seems to have trouble getting the sky blue. The original image has a very weak sky color.

[form]

Spose I'll take a crack at editing it, since I'll probably be fixing a bunch of photos for small prints tonight...

Well, nothing I know how to do with it...I'm not a very good PPer for fixing up shots anyway. Oh well, back to "real" work.

[Anthony J Howe]

Thanks PhotogJeff and form, both your edits are good, well done.
Thanks Frank for your kind comments.