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Soft Dandelion
Soft Dandelion
diablo2097


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Pastels (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Location: Backyard
Date: Aug 29, 2006
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/1600
Galleries: Nature, Floral
Date Uploaded: Aug 29, 2006

 First member challenge, so i wanted to get something in, so here it is!!! Plan was to do a macro of b/w pastels, but it turns out my sister's pastels are colour, so it would kind of defeat the purpose... Wasn't exactly sure about the title either, so i thought something with not much colour should be ok... i.e. this :P

Its basically a mega crop with the 50mm lens at closest focusing distance. Still don't have a macro lens, and the coupling ring i ordered is on the way :)

PP
- raw conversion w/WB fix
- Levels
- HSL to give background colour a little more pop
- Curves to bring out brightness
- Cloning to fill in the "gaps" in the dandelion, and make it look a little nicer
- duplicate layer, gaussian blur, then set to screen mode and opacity down to about 15% to give a little glow (i missed out on the soft focus challenge :( ...)

Statistics
Place: 125 out of 203
Avg (all users): 5.3763
Avg (commenters): 5.0000
Avg (participants): 5.2639
Avg (non-participants): 5.4474
Views since voting: 587
Views during voting: 240
Votes: 186
Comments: 4
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 09/16/2006 07:36:03 AM
Critique Club Review:

I noted your comment about wanting to do b/w pastels. Most voters would not consider any shade of black or white a pastel. Pastels are usually considered pale colors. Here the green is a bit too dark to call pastel, and white is ummmm... white.

I see you wanted to so a soft focus piece, which is fine. But also what I see here is center of the Dandelion is soft, and then there is a sharper ring of focus before it goes soft again at the edges. The soft center competes with the sharp ring.

I like soft focus pictures, but most successful ones have less complex structures. As compex as this structure is, it is a good thing that there were sharp areas. Had the whole thing been soft, it would have looked somewhat like a cotton ball.

Overall, I like this picture. I think it has a lot of potential and I would encourage you to take it again when your coupling ring arrives.

 Comments Made During the Challenge
09/09/2006 09:26:55 PM
Good DOF and idea. The green isn't really a pastel in my opinion, but a bit is evident in the dandelion.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/04/2006 07:03:02 AM
I like the airyness of this, but the green background and white foreground doesn't whisper pastel to me. imho
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/03/2006 11:48:25 PM
needed a little more colour
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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