Small Red Flower

[slejhamer]

Selective desaturation, diffusion filter, soft focus, noise, duotone - the whole bag of tricks. Too much?

Comments welcome. :)

http://members.cox.net/mschlesinger/smallredflowerdiffused.jpg


P.S. The small dots on the flower are actually tiny yellow blooms. I probably should have cloned them out, but didn't want to make too many adjustments. Ha ha!

[henkbos]

Good work, Mitch. Would like to see the right shoulder a little darker. Any chance to explain the workflow in more details?

[slejhamer]

henkbos wrote:
Any chance to explain the workflow in more details?

Hi Henk.

The processing was in Photoshop, but I'm sure there are ways to achieve the result with other programs. Lots of steps, but none of them difficult.

I started with this slightly over-saturated color image:
http://members.cox.net/mschlesinger/smallredflowercolor.jpg

To selectively desaturate, I made a new layer from the LAB mode lightness channel. Then I selected the flower and stem using the magic wand and feathered the selection a bit so it wouldn't look like I cut it out with scissors. Applied the eraser to bring up the color image from underneath, then I adjusted the hue slightly on the lightness channel layer using the "colorize" mode (okay, it's not really a duotone, but the effect is similar)and got this:
http://members.cox.net/mschlesinger/smallredflower.jpg

I was going to stop there, but I thought the image was too contrasty. I wanted it more fuzzy/dreamy. So I made an oval selection around the flower and her hand, feathered it, inverted it, and applied the Photoshop diffusion filter - I think I used level three or four for effect, with 6 for noise and 15 for clear. I'm debating whether to redo it without the noise.

I like softer diffusion than what PS gives, so I applied a soft focus action to smooth things out further. The action is a nice bit of freeware that I found on the web - it basically applies gaussian blur to two copies of the background layer, one in lighten mode, the other in darken. I then adjusted opacity to my liking.

Whew! Really, it was only a 5 minute project. The only time consuming part was selecting the flower with the magic wand, which took 4 of the 5 minutes. The rest was just running the filters and actions and then some modest tweaking.

There you go!

[slejhamer]

henkbos wrote:
Would like to see the right shoulder a little darker.

Yeah, I agree. That was the lightest area, so it got the most diffused when I ran the filter. Oh well. Back to the drawing board... :)

[cgesteland]

Hey there Mitch,

Overall I think the shot is distracting. The girl (gorgeous cutie!!) grabs the eye immediately. She's the subject. The red flower detracts from her, IMHO.

Maybe if the red were softened...

Love the framing of the girl though and the background is breathtaking. She looks like the live version of the Swiss cartoon about that girl who lived in the Alps. Can't remember what it was called. 8)

Thanks for posting.

[slejhamer]

Thank you Clio. I agree that having dueling subjects is not a good idea ... I will attempt to simplify future shots. Appreciate your comments.

And while I can picture the little Swiss girl, I can not think of her name either. :)

[eland]

Hi Mitch

I think this shot is really lovely.

Personally I don't feel the double subject factor between
the face and the flower and like it as it is.

And the soft light ( L ) is wonderful.

The child's left shoulder has been mentioned.

The only minor adjustments I would like to see are

1. Less empty space above the head. ( R )
ie crop a little off the top of the image.

2. A very thin dark brown/gray border around the whole image
to " hold in" the content, particularly the white areas.
I usually use the eye-dropper and choose the darkest
relevant tone on the image itself for the frame.
That makes sure that it doesn't clash with the
colors in the photo.


You are improving faster than the speed of light, Mitch.

PS Were you thinking of " Heidi " ?

eland

[cgesteland]

Yes Eland! That's exactly who I was thinking of! :)

[slejhamer]

cgesteland wrote:
Yes Eland! That's exactly who I was thinking of! :)

I knew it was wrong, but I kept thinking "Maria," a la The Sound of Music. Swiss Alps, Austrian Alps, all the same to me. :D

Eland, thank you as always for the comments.

[Leighow]

MITCH

I appreciate the tutorial, and will bookmark for future training – ‘cause I just do not know how to do the stuff in PS. But back to the photo. I can appreciate all of the arguments that have been presented. In the end I feel a little indecisive.. soooo… as my office colleagues would insist ; “Howie, what’s your take !

1: RED FLOWER
***************
I am not strong on the red flower, because it feels like a set-up, ; like something has been staged and is being pushed at me. More sizzle than steak. You didn’t push in the tank-on-the-beach scene. So, I would go with monochromatic all the way. I should also mention that my eyes "eventually" saw the water in the B & W image, but then I had to go back to the color image to conclude that it is less visible to me because of the green reflections.

2: Now the right shoulder.
*********************
I hear Henk. The expert opinion may well be to alter as proposed. But I want to say that I feel that this – as well as the leaves that branch out on the right side of the tree -- conveys a hot summer feel., and I like that. Yes, it probably is more intelligent to correct same, but my take is that it is less artistic.

3: Subject size.
************
I really have to think more about how much of a subject to include or exclude in any picture. I really have not developed this knowledge or ability. It has something to do with balance, and framing. Having said that, I think that this dress-sized subject here works better that the "outside-the-edge-of-the-image" framing in "On the Beach"! I like it – although I admit that my eye-time is spent on the face.

4: On close.
********
Just another fine picture of your wonderful daughter. Keep shooting. They grow up fast.
See Yah

HOWIE

[slejhamer]

Thank you, Howie, and you are welcome, too.

It's nice to see healthy discussion about a photograph on the forum, instead of the more common arguments over lenses/printers/software/etc. :)

I appreciate all of your feedback.

[jd_D60]

Mitch

I really like the effect you created here, I here all the the suggestive comments (and agree with most) but it doesn't distract from a 1st class image.

john

[slejhamer]

Thanks John! She's a 1st class little girl. :)