Find your happy place :)

Gallery: FloraPosted September 15, 201062 views11 comments

A bit of a departure from what I've been playing with lately. These lovely Californian Poppys just stood out beautifully against a bold blue sky.

D700
50mm f1.8
f4 1/4000 ISO100
PP - levels, curves, TK luminosity and sat masks.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Walt Sterneman on September 15, 2010 at 10:04 AM

That is really nice Andrew. I might have tried just a little fill light on the front to light the flowers a bit.

Registered on March 24, 2010, 73 Posts, 1268 Comments

Comment posted by Bob Duff on September 15, 2010 at 11:12 AM

Very nice POV Andrew. Can see why you got very low to catch the backlighting

Registered on April 21, 2010, 160 Posts, 1675 Comments

Comment posted by Debashis Bandyopad on September 15, 2010 at 11:18 AM

Very effective Andrew.. I was a bit unsure about the flare spots in the blue but the more I see this more it acts as a focal point ! Well done

Registered on June 24, 2007, 130 Posts, 1309 Comments

Comment posted by Carol Hyman on September 15, 2010 at 12:44 PM

Andrew, I especially like the angle from which you shot. My favorite corner in the whole image is the lower RC with the poppy in-focus and the OOF bud in the BG.

Out of curiosity (too lazy to look it up), how much does that 50mm lens weigh. It looks like a honey and I'm assuming you're handholding this particular image, and I could be wrong.

Cheers,

Carol

Registered on January 18, 2007, 597 Posts, 8062 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on September 15, 2010 at 2:00 PM

Very cool shot . . . I've seen similar poppy shots before and there's something about that color combo (blue sky, orange poppy) that is always a winner. And with that in mind, where's the color? It's pretty muted here, and perhaps that's intentional. I actually kind of like it but thought I'd raise the question anyway.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Brigitte Lorenz on September 15, 2010 at 3:24 PM

very nice comp. and light....beautiful work, Andrew...

Brigitte

Registered on January 10, 2009, 187 Posts, 1507 Comments

Comment posted by Andrew Finlayson on September 15, 2010 at 4:07 PM

Thanks for the comments everyone. The fill light is a good idea which I'll certainly keep in mind for next time thanks.

Carol, the 50mm is incredibly light (155g) but IMO the D700 isn't :). The lens is the cheaper version of the two 50mm that Nikon make but I quite like the results I get out of it.

Phil, these are actually a pale yellow in colour, more or less how they appear on the screen. There were some orange ones around but I quite liked the yellow on blue for its cheeriness.

Thanks again everyone.

Registered on July 29, 2010, 26 Posts, 404 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on September 15, 2010 at 9:59 PM

I like the larger version of this a lot Andrew. I might be tempted to rotate it 90 degrees CCW but certainly like it as posted. The backlighting is very effective and I also like the flares. Strong comp and interesting pov. Very nicely done.

Pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Ramamohan Pai on September 15, 2010 at 10:09 PM

Andrew, Love this photo. Yellow Blue combination is hard for me to resist

. Transluscence in the petals is also interesting.

If Content Aware Fill in Photoshop can handle it, suggest removing the two partial blooms in the top left corner. The photo seems more impactful to my eyes that way.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 550 Posts, 9037 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on September 16, 2010 at 7:32 AM

Lovely composition, Andrew - it gives a real feeling of joy. Not too sure myself about the flare spots, but fine image nonetheless.

Registered on May 18, 2007, 1108 Posts, 7647 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on September 16, 2010 at 8:36 PM

Great perspective and exposure. I also really like the comp.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments