Have I Gone too Far?

[Meerkat17]

Two shots, I didn't like the background as I found it too busy, plus I wanted to isolate the flower but keep the colours of the background.

Has it worked? - IMO I don't feel it has and I've possibly gone too far with the blur - or is this acceptable? I don't care for the halo effect that amount of bluring has caused, is there anything which can be done to stop the halo from happening?

Your comments would be welcomed and if you want to try your skills then you can download a higher-res image from here (http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/flower0060C_fullsize.jpg) 732KB

Thanks in advance
David

Before:
http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/flower0060C.jpg

After:
http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/flower0060C_2.jpg

[robertwgross]

I much prefer the second flower shot over the first one. Apparently you did it in Photoshop, but it might have been easier to shoot it that way using a very limited Depth of Field. Whichever.

---Bob Gross---

[blinking8s]

the blur feels un-natural to me...as in not from a lens...and i dont like the glow on it, but do i think you went to far...no

[PacAce]

Maybe the blurring of the bg was a tad too much but still ok IMHO. But I think it would have worked much better if you had darkened and/or desaturated the bg a little so that the colors (especially the yellow) wasn't a distraction.

One other minor point. You seemed to have lost some of the details of the flower with whatever processing you did to it. There are more details in the original flower which you can readily see by comparing the left petal of the topmost orchid (?).

But overall, I think you did a good job in getting rid of the very distracting background of the original picture.

[Meerkat17]

Thanks Leo,
However, the background is only OK on screen - after posting I tried a small 4x6 print and it was terrible.

You seemed to have lost some of the details of the flower with whatever processing you did to it. There are more details in the original flower which you can readily see by comparing the left petal of the topmost orchid (?).

You mean the white dots? If so I cloned them out as they were highlights that had burned out.

I've had a real bad time photographing these orchids. Firstly, losing all the images with a problem with the Flash Card, then with this batch too much light and focus problems. The image I've posted is the best of them all and now the flowering period is over - so I'll have to wait till next year.

All I wanted to do was try and make the best of a bad job (ever had that feeling that you wern't meant to photograph something!?) :lol:

Anyhow, thanks to everyone that has commented.

Regards
David

[XXWoodmanXX]

Personally, I love the second shot. Although, I do feel as if the exaggerated DOF has gone a bit "far", yeah. To be able to still see some hints of yellow and green in the background would be nice. :)

[SWPhotoImaging]

I do like the second better than the first, but as others have said, I feel like the "artificial bokeh" is a little too unnatural. I have struggled with trying this myself, and have never been completely satisfied with the results.

[stopbath]

The forced background blur is an improvement over the first, but... you have the halo effect happening which really hampers the image (not so much to invalidate it, but enough for most people to notice it.)

I have not tried this, but this should work... create a new layer with just the flower and stem you want sharp. Then back on the background layer, clone some background to replace the flower (need not be accurate, just replace the tone and colour of the subject with more background filler.)

Then blur the back ground.

The subject now won't bleed into the background since it's not part of the layer that was blurred.

I'm sure there are still otherways to blur the background without the subject bleeding into the background....

[Meerkat17]

Thanks for the advice Stopbath,
I had another go after my last post and this is what I came up with - I use a similar technique as you have described.

On this one i've not taken it as far with the blur and seem to prefer it - i've not tried a print as yet so can't say how it will look.

Thanks to everyone again and if you care to leave any further comments please feel free to do so.

Thanks again

David

http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/bee_orchid_1.jpg