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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Can you rescue "Musings" that don't yet show their best!

R

Rachel McLain

New member
I find it interesting how something I've shot can grab me so much at the time and even later in PP, but then months later when I look at it I see nothing too interesting.

I spent a huge amount of time yesterday uploading a backlog of new photos to my website. (Backlog due in part to procrastination and in part to website troubles which are finally all fixed.) As I went through a big folder of photos I had intended to upload, I ran across several which just didn't thrill me any more. And I also ran across some photos that I had loved originally, then not loved, and then yesterday I loved them again.

So here I will upload some of those photos and maybe someone can offer thoughts on whether they think they're worth adding or not, and if not, why not?

But the main point of my post is that I'm just wondering if this happens to other photographers, too? Or maybe I'm just a weirdo. ;-)


DSC_0912_2895.JPG



DSC_0286_2866.JPG



DSC_0053_2863thumbnail.jpg



DSC_0039_2828.JPG



DSC_0056_2807thumbnail.jpg


See what you can do, but describe how you did it!! :)


https://www.dropbox.com/s/iebqcar7rs5qly1/Rachel McLain DSC_0056_2807.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/479cdqjvlhngfs1/Rachel McLain DSC_0039_2828.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n0ogwnrsmkd363o/Rachel McLain DSC_0912_2895.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2gqadztgjvc688/Rachel McLain DSC_0286_2866.JPG?dl=0
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
All of these ideas have an essence of wonder.

The fact that you are not happy with the fruits of this set of journeys, justifies some alternative approaches by others.

Asher
 
S

Sam Hames

New member
Rachel McLain said:
I find it interesting how something I've shot can grab me so much at the time and even later in PP, but then months later when I look at it I see nothing too interesting.
....

But the main point of my post is that I'm just wondering if this happens to other photographers, too? Or maybe I'm just a weirdo. ;-)
Click to expand...

This is the story of my life I think :).

For me it seems to happen because I really like a part of the photo, but not the whole. But getting past the infatuation with the part I like and seeing that the whole thing doesn't hang together requires time and distance.

For what it's worth I would be leaving that first one as it is - I don't think it needs to be rescued.

Sam
 
M

Maggie Terlecki

Moderator
Rachel,

I saw these earlier today but was not available and now see this evening that nobody had touched anything, so I thought I'd give one of them a try.

I chose the wilting little lavender flower.

rachelflowerredux.jpg


Rachel Flower Redux​

You may or may not like it but it is a different take.

Here is what I did and how:

1- I recropped to make the flower a bit more important

2- I set a soft brush to color and using the lavender in your background I recolored the yelowish/greeny bit at the top that was pulling my attention

3: I added a soft noisy texture with a vignette in a cyan color and multiplied it.

4- I brought back the saturation a bit on the vignette as it was too bright

5- I added a mask to the texture layer and masked out the main flower bud and the sharper petals.

6- Added a high-pass filter and set the Blending mode of this to Soft Light

7- Added a mask filled with black (click ALt + Mask icon) and then with soft brush set to white selectively sharpened only the bits of the flower that I thought should stand out.

That's it. I hope you enjoy my interpretation.
:)
Maggie
 
R

Rachel McLain

New member
Maggie, that's beautiful!!! (And a lot more PP than I even know how to do!) :)

Thank you for doing that and sharing you're process. It gives me a lot to think about!

Maggie Terlecki said:
Rachel,

I saw these earlier today but was not available and now see this evening that nobody had touched anything, so I thought I'd give one of them a try.

I chose the wilting little lavender flower.

rachelflowerredux.jpg


Rachel Flower Redux​

You may or may not like it but it is a different take.

Here is what I did and how:

1- I recropped to make the flower a bit more important

2- I set a soft brush to color and using the lavender in your background I recolored the yelowish/greeny bit at the top that was pulling my attention

3: I added a soft noisy texture with a vignette in a cyan color and multiplied it.

4- I brought back the saturation a bit on the vignette as it was too bright

5- I added a mask to the texture layer and masked out the main flower bud and the sharper petals.

6- Added a high-pass filter and set the Blending mode of this to Soft Light

7- Added a mask filled with black (click ALt + Mask icon) and then with soft brush set to white selectively sharpened only the bits of the flower that I thought should stand out.

That's it. I hope you enjoy my interpretation.
:)
Maggie
Click to expand...
 
R

Rachel McLain

New member
Good point, Sam. Infatuation is probably the right word!

Thanks!

Rach

Sam Hames said:
This is the story of my life I think :).

For me it seems to happen because I really like a part of the photo, but not the whole. But getting past the infatuation with the part I like and seeing that the whole thing doesn't hang together requires time and distance.

For what it's worth I would be leaving that first one as it is - I don't think it needs to be rescued.

Sam
Click to expand...
 
M

Maggie Terlecki

Moderator
Rachel McLain said:
Maggie, that's beautiful!!! (And a lot more PP than I even know how to do!) :)

Thank you for doing that and sharing you're process. It gives me a lot to think about!
Click to expand...

Rachel, it just seems like a lot, but seriously, not at all. This took me only a matter of a few minutes to do. There is also nothing wrong with your version; just a different point of view. I'm glad you liked it. :)
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
DSC_0286_2866.JPG



Rachel,

Top my eyes, there's too much uninteresting and unjustified space on the left side. One can keep all this by adding some engaging shadow there, but That's another task to try down the road. Moving the object to be photographed to different windows or positions in the room can grab shadows that will complete the composition naturally. Then the low contrast might work just fine.



Rachel_01_800.jpg



I felt that the flower needed to occupy more of the frame. I have still underutilized the fellow reflection in the upper image. Again, that's for an additional exploration. So here's my workflow:

I used the Clarity filter in the Topaz PS plugin to bring out the detail and dimensionality and then cropped with a rotation leaving a blank right lower corner. That I rebuilt using Edit-Fill-Content Aware until it looked pretty natural. So the stem is longer than the original. I have no conscience for such things!

The odd pattern in the original lower mid frame is also removed.

Asher
 
R

Rachel McLain

New member
Beautiful, Asher! Thank you!

This is an interesting exercise and leaves me much to ponder. (never a bad thing!)

Rach




Asher Kelman said:
DSC_0286_2866.JPG



Rachel,

Top my eyes, there's too much uninteresting and unjustified space on the left side. One can keep all this by adding some engaging shadow there, but That's another task to try down the road. Moving the object to be photographed to different windows or positions in the room can grab shadows that will complete the composition naturally. Then the low contrast might work just fine.



Rachel_01_800.jpg



I felt that the flower needed to occupy more of the frame. I have still underutilized the fellow reflection in the upper image. Again, that's for an additional exploration. So here's my workflow:

I used the Clarity filter in the Topaz PS plugin to bring out the detail and dimensionality and then cropped with a rotation leaving a blank right lower corner. That I rebuilt using Edit-Fill-Content Aware until it looked pretty natural. So the stem is longer than the original. I have no conscience for such things!

The odd pattern in the original lower mid frame is also removed.

Asher
Click to expand...
 
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