Shot RAW, natural sunlight from a window, small gold reflector on the backside. Converted in Bridge.
Edited in PSCS2.
I didn't write down the steps, and worked on it over a couple days, but here it goes:
Cropped first, then cloned out (stamp tool/healing tool) a couple irregularities. Worked on levels and contrast/brightness. Turned to just about b/w (I think I did this). Created a copy layer and turned it to a dark purple blue, darkened edges to the left hand side a big more. Made a copy layer of this second layer and blurred with gaussian. Blended layer two with background in normal, layer three in soft light (different percents, played around with it). Flattened.
After that I worked with the dodge/burn tools, mainly dodge, to get the dandelion lighter. Resized, sharpened overall, reduced noise overall, sharpened selectively around dandelion, cloned and blended a few more imperfections mainly at the bottom right side of the dandelion, saved as JPG.
NOTE: The end product doesn't look much like the original. I'm not sure I like the type of editing, it is more than what I usually feel comfortable with, but I wanted to try something like this for a while, so here it is.
This is the original (shot RAW, so this is converted to JPG and downsized to 640x426, no other adjustments whatsoever):
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 163 Avg (all users): 6.7762 Avg (commenters): 8.5882 Avg (participants): 6.6393 Avg (non-participants): 6.8780 Views since voting: 12047 Views during voting: 272 Votes: 143 Comments: 53 Favorites: 28 (view)
great idea, work and postprocessing ... i see the postprocessing artifacts but i admire the idea and the outcome, and of course the work you put in it , congratz !
Very eye detailed! i've got to admit, when i saw it on the homepage, i didn't double-click it to see the full image, as i usualy do with the ribbon winners ( i didn't look at any of the seeds, don't worry ursula ;-) Anyway,i saw it through the forums, and i'm sure you know what i'm talking about. Just wanted to say i'm sorry they picked you for the unfortunate example, but it is a verry appealing image, and very well deserved. thanks for entering
Awesome results. The lighting is magical. I really get a feeling of some great sacrafice that resulted in something even greater than itself - if that makes any sense. Very well deserved medal.
You sure know how to shoot flowers. This is a very pretty composition. The artefacts of over-sharpeing or JPEG compression spoil the impression a little bit.
Oh man, where do I start? THIS IS AMAZING!! Awesome duo-tone, DOF really works well here. Good use of the ROT. Nothing more to say than 10 for this stunning work. Very NICE!
Interesting POV. THe outside of the puff ball is a bit funky, probably a bit too much USM. I also can't figure for the life of me what the dandilion is flopped over, and it's bright top distracts from the main thrust of the image.
Nice. Crisp, clear, interesting to look at. I like the color tone you've selected (kicking myself - almost used this tone and chickened out). Nice use of bg material to add, yet not impose, to the image overall.
I'm sure this will end up with a high score. I like your shot a lot: excellent composition, the colors are beautiful. I love the look of the seeds: they almost seem to glow. Great!
Oh my. The silvery blue really enhances the dreamlike sense of the dandelion. Quite lovely. I can't figure out what that ovule shaped metal looking thing is. I don't care - I still love the shot.
wow, this is just lovely. everything from the blue tones, the dof, and the lighting...just..wow. the only thing that bothers me here is it seems the ends of the seeds seem to be just a bit over sharpened.
the end and the beginning
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Ursula. Always have a new trick up your sleeve huh?
