Same flower, different image, different crop, different gravy...

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Macro Wednesday & 100x :)

Tags:   nikon z 6 105mm f/2.8 100x:Monochrome blooming bright Closeup Floral flower garden Macro photography Macro Wednesday Mittwochsmakro Monochromatic monochrome Monochrome photography natural daylight Nik Silver Efex stamen 100 x: The 2020 Edition 100x:2020 Image 51/100

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Hedgerow flower.

Another experiment, part of my high key allergy therapy...

I tried one of these a short while ago and quite surprised myself with how relatively successful it looked. So I resolved to experiment again

This is a bright yellow flower in real life, shot with normal exposure. Not sure what it was - perhaps one of the St John's worts. No matter. 'twere pretty.

The black and white conversion in Affinity was standard filter stuff and the high key treatment was simply done using Curves and raising the left end of the curves gradient line. This creates a much flatter gradient from light grey to pure white.

The effect is quite minimalistic with very few grey tones with which to make the image. But I quite like minimalism at the best of times so that's OK in my book :)

High Pass/Linear blend to sharpen and a white vignette. Then split toned it (brown light and blue dark) to increase the tonal range subtly (the theory being that it reudces tone-banding in the 8bit jpeg too), and we are about done...

For Mittwochsmakro and also my 100x monochrome and toned (currently almost a month behind lol).

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the image. Happy Macro Wednesday and 100x :)

Tags:   nature flower no person flora delicate leaf summer blur purity blooming bright beautiful growth bud pollen floral outdoors Closeup Macro photography Macro Wednesday Mittwochsmakro Monochromatic stamen nikon z 6 105mm f/2.8 100 x: The 2020 Edition 100x:2020 Image 55/100

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In a departure from my normal approach for Sliders Sunday, I am taking several images and using the same technique rather than trying different techniques on the same image.

My longsuffering follower will certainly be aware of my tendency to super-zap most captures with high saturation, contrast and sharpness, a bit like a Marvel film.

Well, nothing at all like a Marvel film, actually - I just fancied saying that…

So high key is a challenge for me. It’s not the way I naturally think and take images. But then that’s sad because I rather like them, especially for flowers. They can show off the delicacy of the flower, and emphasise its form and texture.

And therefore I’m stuck. I’ve struggled with ordinary images in the past, getting them into acceptable high key, and had loads more failures than I care to admit.

Then into the story comes my friend Kerry on her dazzling white (naturally) destrier and gives me lots of tips and techniques on how to achieve it from a starting image which has normal contrast.

And so today I tried some of these on three flower images from the archive: a paeony (of course), a Californian poppy, and a Cornus Kousa bract. I leave it for you to work out which is which - I hope you still can :)

The basic approach is the same for all of these. Process in Capture One reducing contrast and Clarity and using selective colour adjustments to lighten the background. The conversion to High Key is mainly carried out in Nik Silver Efex starting with the Antique Plate II preset and removing the grain and toning. Silver Efex gives you terrific control over the tone of a picture and this preset makes High Key easy.

I have used Nik Color Efex once or twice on each of these images, firstly to further adjust tone and apply coloured and blur vignettes that can be centred wherever you like, and secondly to add colour tints. For the paeony I just had one shot for everything after Silver Efex, whereas for the others I mangled the tone before the Silver Efex and did the tinting afterwards. The Kousa also has a double exposure added with Analog Efex.

Let me know if you want the presets for the Nik filters that I came up with - these will tell you how it was done better than words if you want to have a go yourself.

Finally, I used High Pass sharpening on the final result as well as some subtle split toning, both in Affinity.

All of the images are rather subtle minimalist ones and depend a lot on the device that you look at them with (that’s dreadful English!) to see that subtlety. I hope you manage to view them OK. Do let me know if you like any of them - I’m afraid you will have to bear with me while I sort out what works, so comments help (but don’t worry if you don’t have the time).

I’ll post the in-camera image in the first comment of each. They all have the same commentary, and I’ll post the paeony in Sliders Sunday mainly because I think that flower works best with this technique (or I may, of course, just be besotted with the plant :) ).

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the images. Happy Sliders Sunday!!

Tags:   Pastel flower wedding Floral desktop love blooming Abstract color delicate romance nature petal romantic beautiful botanical high key Nik Color Efex Nik Silver Efex paeony peony

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In a departure from my normal approach for Sliders Sunday, I am taking several images and using the same technique rather than trying different techniques on the same image.

My longsuffering follower will certainly be aware of my tendency to super-zap most captures with high saturation, contrast and sharpness, a bit like a Marvel film.

Well, nothing at all like a Marvel film, actually - I just fancied saying that…

So high key is a challenge for me. It’s not the way I naturally think and take images. But then that’s sad because I rather like them, especially for flowers. They can show off the delicacy of the flower, and emphasise its form and texture.

And therefore I’m stuck. I’ve struggled with ordinary images in the past, getting them into acceptable high key, and had loads more failures than I care to admit.

Then into the story comes my friend Kerry on her dazzling white (naturally) destrier and gives me lots of tips and techniques on how to achieve it from a starting image which has normal contrast.

And so today I tried some of these on three flower images from the archive: a paeony (of course), a Californian poppy, and a Cornus Kousa bract. I leave it for you to work out which is which - I hope you still can :)

The basic approach is the same for all of these. Process in Capture One reducing contrast and Clarity and using selective colour adjustments to lighten the background. The conversion to High Key is mainly carried out in Nik Silver Efex starting with the Antique Plate II preset and removing the grain and toning. Silver Efex gives you terrific control over the tone of a picture and this preset makes High Key easy.

I have used Nik Color Efex once or twice on each of these images, firstly to further adjust tone and apply coloured and blur vignettes that can be centred wherever you like, and secondly to add colour tints. For the paeony I just had one shot for everything after Silver Efex, whereas for the others I mangled the tone before the Silver Efex and did the tinting afterwards. The Kousa also has a double exposure added with Analog Efex.

Let me know if you want the presets for the Nik filters that I came up with - these will tell you how it was done better than words if you want to have a go yourself.

Finally, I used High Pass sharpening on the final result as well as some subtle split toning, both in Affinity.

All of the images are rather subtle minimalist ones and depend a lot on the device that you look at them with (that’s dreadful English!) to see that subtlety. I hope you manage to view them OK. Do let me know if you like any of them - I’m afraid you will have to bear with me while I sort out what works, so comments help (but don’t worry if you don’t have the time).

I’ll post the in-camera image in the first comment of each. They all have the same commentary, and I’ll post the paeony in Sliders Sunday mainly because I think that flower works best with this technique (or I may, of course, just be besotted with the plant :) ).

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the images. Happy Sliders Sunday!!

Tags:   nature Closeup beautiful flower flora desktop color season wedding garden leaf no person summer Floral close outdoors bright dof branch high key Nik Color Efex Nik Silver Efex Cornus Kousa Nik Analog Efex

© All Rights Reserved

In a departure from my normal approach for Sliders Sunday, I am taking several images and using the same technique rather than trying different techniques on the same image.

My longsuffering follower will certainly be aware of my tendency to super-zap most captures with high saturation, contrast and sharpness, a bit like a Marvel film.

Well, nothing at all like a Marvel film, actually - I just fancied saying that…

So high key is a challenge for me. It’s not the way I naturally think and take images. But then that’s sad because I rather like them, especially for flowers. They can show off the delicacy of the flower, and emphasise its form and texture.

And therefore I’m stuck. I’ve struggled with ordinary images in the past, getting them into acceptable high key, and had loads more failures than I care to admit.

Then into the story comes my friend Kerry on her dazzling white (naturally) destrier and gives me lots of tips and techniques on how to achieve it from a starting image which has normal contrast.

And so today I tried some of these on three flower images from the archive: a paeony (of course), a Californian poppy, and a Cornus Kousa bract. I leave it for you to work out which is which - I hope you still can :)

The basic approach is the same for all of these. Process in Capture One reducing contrast and Clarity and using selective colour adjustments to lighten the background. The conversion to High Key is mainly carried out in Nik Silver Efex starting with the Antique Plate II preset and removing the grain and toning. Silver Efex gives you terrific control over the tone of a picture and this preset makes High Key easy.

I have used Nik Color Efex once or twice on each of these images, firstly to further adjust tone and apply coloured and blur vignettes that can be centred wherever you like, and secondly to add colour tints. For the paeony I just had one shot for everything after Silver Efex, whereas for the others I mangled the tone before the Silver Efex and did the tinting afterwards. The Kousa also has a double exposure added with Analog Efex.

Let me know if you want the presets for the Nik filters that I came up with - these will tell you how it was done better than words if you want to have a go yourself.

Finally, I used High Pass sharpening on the final result as well as some subtle split toning, both in Affinity.

All of the images are rather subtle minimalist ones and depend a lot on the device that you look at them with (that’s dreadful English!) to see that subtlety. I hope you manage to view them OK. Do let me know if you like any of them - I’m afraid you will have to bear with me while I sort out what works, so comments help (but don’t worry if you don’t have the time).

I’ll post the in-camera image in the first comment of each. They all have the same commentary, and I’ll post the paeony in Sliders Sunday mainly because I think that flower works best with this technique (or I may, of course, just be besotted with the plant :) ).

Thank you for taking the time to look. I hope you enjoy the images. Happy Sliders Sunday!!

Tags:   nature no person delicate purity outdoors Blur Smooth Abstract softness flower cold Snow disjunct fair weather leaf bright elegant simplicity one high key Nik Color Efex Nik Silver Efex Californian Poppy Back Light

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