Setup: Black fabric backdrop, shop light in front and to side of backdrop, flower (sprayed with water/glycerin) in front. No other light source, dark room.
Camera settings: f2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO 200, aperture priority, custom white balance.
Handheld (because I'm too lazy to use my tripod).
Post-processing:
- Flipped horizontally
- Cropped slightly (keeping 1:1.5 ratio)
- Adjusted levels
- Increased saturation a bit
- Adjusted contrast/lightness
- Resized, sharpened, noise reduction, sharpened again, and saved
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NOTES:
The light circles are out of focus water droplets that look light because light is shining through them. The closer you get to your subject at shallow DOF, the smaller your field of clarity will be, which allows for beautiful out of focus effects.
When you have a circle out-of-focus, if you want it to appear circular, you have to go wide-open. It is the same with the sun when it is an out-of-focus circle behing something that you focused on. If you close a bit the diaphragm, the oof circles turn into the form of the diaphragm because of the refraction of light on it. MANY THANKS, SILVESTRO (srugolo) FOR THIS LAST PARAGRAPH!
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 324 Avg (all users): 6.9718 Avg (commenters): 8.0714 Avg (participants): 6.8793 Avg (non-participants): 7.0246 Views since voting: 35193 Views during voting: 514 Votes: 319 Comments: 111 Favorites: 205 (view)
Stunning. I don't know how I kept from commenting. Nice to see it again after all these months. Love the variations of blue. Love the sparkle of the droplets.
I completely disagree that Cartier-Bresson's photography would score low here. I think it would do great here. I think there is a real appreciation for his kind of photography here, but there are pathetically few images that rise to the occasion, really, really very few.
when i was doing Henri Cartier-Bresson for tribute challenge, i was thinking about two ribbons you won recently. Crisp images, wonderful photos for eyes. They are comple delight to watch. And no wonder they won ribbons.
But then i was thinking about my entery for tribute challenge, solid composition, but will score near 5, since its not crisp and not an eye delight. I asked myself what do i want to do, do i want to shoot flowers with 1.4 lense and make them eye candy or do i want to take pictures like whom i am giving tribute. His pictures are not eye candy but are strong on compositions. Then i asked myself would any of his pictures would have won ribbon here. My answer is mostly 'no'. They would not have won more ribbons than you have with flowers.
The thing i want to say is, your pics are wonderful but they are not great, i wish you become great photographer as i think you can do it. But then i think how many blues you want to win first.
I gave this an 8. The colors and lighting and OOF 'circles' really made it in my opinion. I wondered what type of flower this is and thought it was real, but on closer inspection - perhaps it is 'fabric'(?). If so, the fact that you 'hid' that so well (mostly via angle/lighting/water effects) created a good illusion. The only real 'criticism' I may have had, and very minor, would be (again, especially for this size), to have had perhaps a little more 'height'. If this is a real flower, and you know what type it is, if you could include the name in your comments, I'd be interested. Nice shot and yes, 'Congratulations'.
It definitely is real. It's a coloured daisy (a white daisy that was coloured blue); my daughter really liked them at the store when we went to look for flowers, so I got them.
BTW, we tried to get them to turn purple by adding red food colouring to the water, but it didn't work.
I gave this an 8. The colors and lighting and OOF 'circles' really made it in my opinion. I wondered what type of flower this is and thought it was real, but on closer inspection - perhaps it is 'fabric'(?). If so, the fact that you 'hid' that so well (mostly via angle/lighting/water effects) created a good illusion. The only real 'criticism' I may have had, and very minor, would be (again, especially for this size), to have had perhaps a little more 'height'. If this is a real flower, and you know what type it is, if you could include the name in your comments, I'd be interested. Nice shot and yes, 'Congratulations'. edit:even better then (I thought 'perhaps' it may have been 'colored' whilst voting, that or a flower I didn't recognize - it was only after looking closer today I 'wondered' whether it was fabric), thank you for including that information.
I missed this one when skimming through the entries to comment (but not vote). I'm glad it's presence on the home page alerted me to my loss. It's a beautiful image, lovely lighting, lovely composition, lovely colours and lovely bokeh. Congrats on the ribbon, Ursula!
Love how your flowers are far from generic, far from the ordinary everyday flower macro. There's always that little extra touch that translate into something special.
For me, this comments says it all (thanks rgo!). I've never seen anything like it. Sure have a thing or 2 to learn from you ... Congratulations!
I'm so happy that a picture I like (you got a 10 from me) finally got a blue ribbon! Usually my taste is a bit off from the rest!
Great to be able to have appealed to almost everyone.
Well done!
And I'm definitly getting myself a macrolens!
I'm gonna find out where you live, and then buy up all the flowers within a 50-mile radius of your home. I'll direct my minions of flower-eating bugs to then eradicate all other pesky freedom-loving, free-growing petals within the same area. As a pre-emptive strike, I'll then turn on my weather machine and direct 100 years of winter for your town, to prevent a floral recovery. And then what are ya gonna do???
Beautiful shots in recent weeks. Love how your flowers are far from generic, far from the ordinary everyday flower macro. There's always that little extra touch that translate into something special.
Therefore...I'm gonna find out where...etc.etc.etc.
First Impression - the most important one: Wow, stunning image. Was not surprised to see this getting a ribbon!!
Composition: Beautiful shot! I like the composition just as it is...it splits the screen well and the angle is really good, especially for showing off the backlighting. Might be interesting to see the flower tilted ever so slightly with the face towards us...but really, I love it just the way it is!
Subject: Great choice of subject for this challenge! Really works well to show the lighting technique that was carried off so well here. Beautiful colors that keep the interest of the viewer, and the water droplets add a nice texture.
Technical (Colour, focus, and light): Love the shallow DOF on this shot! Again, seems to show off the lighting and gives an ethereal air to the photo. Colors are spot on! Truly fabulous. Lighting is spectacular!
To grow its vote?: Oh goodness....I really don't think there's anything I could suggest!!
Summary: Wonderful photo and masterfully captured! Congrats!
Dang it Ursula everytime I see your images I try and add you to favorites and your already there.. Another great Photo and congrats on the blue this time!
Ursula: you are throwing the ball out of the park over and over again with the most beautiful images. Congratulations on your BLUE. Very well deserved!
I very much enjoy this type of photography and very much hope for you that this does better than my attempts in other challenges. Nicely done. Great detail in front, good interest in back, pleasing colors.
Creation Glory again! What a shot! Nice touch catching the subject after a rainshower (either real or manufactured.) The varying hues of blue caused by increasing density & decreasing translucency make for an interesting study! Great Photo!
Outstanding photograph! By far my favorite of this challenge. The color and DOF are amazing. I'm not sure if this is more of a macro or an abstract, either way excellent work.
winter blues
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