Well...this sort of turned out the way I wanted, not quite, but sort of. I think I could have use one more leaf on the right side (there was one there but it kept moving and had to go) and may be something else that exemplifies fall in the bottom corners....but I was away most of the weekend and considering the monsoon conditions yesterday, I was happy to just get the leaves.
Yesterday, I picked the leaves off the ground at the 'farm' we were out for a choir retreat. I put them in a plastic bag and got them home relatively intact. They were a bit dirty, so I put the in a bowl of clean water to clean them a bit, shoke them off, put them on paper towells on a flat surface and placed a large, heavy book on top of them and let them sit overnight.
I had all the flowers from shooting them last week....mums are great in that they last a good while before going bad. I bought some thumb tacs and had some black thead. Tied the thread to the leaves on the stems or, in some cases, taped the thread to the back of the leaves. I placed the end of the thread on a small piece of tape and put the tack through it and stuck into the top of my shooting area which is, conveniently, a piece of white foam board.
Lit with four clamp lamps, two on either side, each with a 100w halogen bulb in it. They all point up to the white foam board. Too cut down on some drafts that were moving the leaves, I place my larger two lite discs behind the lights.
The background is a piece of black velvet... which I need to replace soon.
Post: Open. Crop. Layer adjustments for levels (50% Opacity), contrast/brightness and hue saturation (both 75% opacity). USM. Cloned the visible threads from the back gound on from the stems of the leaves. Burnt the upper black background cause the full size showed a bit of blue there that I did not like. Also cloned a few hot spots in the background.
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Terrific autumn colors against the black background. If I were to show this to someone who wasn't aware of the challenge itself, I'm not sure they would say celebration, but a very well thought out photo.
Wow, this is beautiful. The lighting is great, the composure is maybe a little too centred. I just feel it's in the wrong challenge as it doesn't say celebration in any way but the title
Nice still life. If I had to crit something it would be that there isn't enough space around the edge. The leaf stems almost touch the edge of the frame and I would prefer them to be a little further in.
i wonder how this picture would have looked with a dark brown background instead of black, to highlight the fall colors? it also looks like there's a string or seam behind the second leaf from the top on the left side. interesting idea for a shot, with the leaves flitting about the boquet.
Good contrast and lighting. Background works perfectly. The only little picky picky thing I would have changed are the leaves. I think the stems tend to draw your eyes away from the centre focus, and lead you off the page in different directions.
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