I have discovered an inexpensive soft diffusing filter that is easy to take with me when I want a soft focus: my breath! After a thunderstorm the air was very still and extremely humid. I left my air-conditioned car to get some shots at the gardens and my lens fogged immediately. I had wanted to use my 12-24mm but I didn't want to chance getting the inside of my camera fogged up while changing lenses. So I had to use the lens that I already had on the camera and I had to keep cleaning it over and over again. To give me the soft focus I had brought with me some plastic bags and some KY jelly. I was going to try various ideas to get the soft focus, but I didn't get to try them because I couldn't keep the lens from fogging for quite a while. By the time it stopped fogging up, I realized that I was getting some decent shots and I ended up having to breath on the lens and quickly compose and shoot several shots as the fog on the lens quickly dissipated. After downloading, I found that actually very few came out well. Many of them produced colors that seemed to merge across their boundaries and didn't look good. This is one of a few that worked out well (I hope).
Post processing: Adjusted the curves in the individual channels numerous times to get the colors to come out like I wanted. Despeckeled one time, twice made it way too soft. Cropped to improve the composition and resized for web. No gaussian blur (took care of that with my breath).
Here is a shot of the same flower taken without applying my 'diffuser'.
Statistics
Place: 39 out of 252 Avg (all users): 6.0252 Avg (commenters): 6.7692 Avg (participants): 5.8551 Avg (non-participants): 6.0947 Views since voting: 1032 Views during voting: 329 Votes: 238 Comments: 14 Favorites: 3 (view)
Camera Work/Technical: Great color and very nice focus. While I can see the effects of the diffuser in comparison, the image looks pretty sharp as a stand alone.
Lighting: Very nice and very even lighting. There are no overpowering highlights and no deep shadows to compete for attention. With a flower this color, achieving a balance like this is not always easy.
Composition/Content: I like your choice of composition for this image. Off-centering and loosely following the rule of thirds adds interest and allows the eye to wander through the frame.
My Opinion: I think that you have a fabulous image that is technically well done. I also think that it is a bit too crisp to compete in a soft focus challenge. I do see a very distinct difference in the two different versions, and that would have been helpful in voting. Unfortunately, we can only see the single image. Still, very nice work and a strong, well-deserved score.
as I said this is a bright and lovely photo and looking at how the shades are in a sharp focus photo I am more than happy to up your score as not only have you managed to give it the soft focus but it is still nice and clear, if that makes sence
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