* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #782 / Revived #003 on 2023 04 19 *

*Lou, I almost missed this. One of the problems of the format of our new home (and I know the admin are trying to find a solution) is that it is very easy to miss posts. Things get buried away in remote corners.
I have no idea what you and Andrew are doing with these, a kind of digital polarization with colour? It is certainly eyecatching and dramatic. It needs images with interesting edges and that, this shot, has. All the lines might have overwhelmed, but no. The composition contracts at both top and bottom so the central shapes emerge strongly. The colours and contrast of the central burst are stronger as well. These things give movement and focus for the eyes.
I'd like to see the original that you worked from here but please don't post it. That would be like a magician spoiling things by showing how the trick was done. *

I am posting this pic because I can easily revisit and take more from the same spot. I will try and get the foreground branches in focus and hopefully still keep the background as well. Also get light from different times of the day. This one is later afternoon. I have upped contrast and saturation about 20 each. I think my camera is a touch light on saturation, Australian bush tones are often that way and I guess time of day all add up. As you see, outer Eucalypt branches are rather random but they do frame the pic (somewhat). I am refurbishing a tripod and hope that may improve things a bit.

You and Linda have shared some fascinating art from simple seed pods this week, hers in monochrome and yours in rich velvet blues. Your composition is like a classical flower portrait but with electric-like etched lines to reveal the intricacies of the form. Shows how a simple subject can be presented dramatically. As someone who enjoys playing with pixels during or after capture, I know artistically captured or altered photos are not universally appreciated, and I'm very glad to see a healthy mix of them here.

I empathize on the vision issue. It is a fight I have shared for many years. Good luck, and I hope things keep getting brighter and brighter!

Hi Lou, new member here, I love your result! I can get lost for many happy hours at a time, exploring the fanciful and fantastic fun of alternate realities :)

Here's my issue with this. There is a nice natural framing between those branches, and what's inside of it, isn't framed to be inside of it. It's a sloppy jumbled mess of whatever just happens to be there. Frame something in there; those trees, a bird in the water, just something to draw the eye towards, and I think you'd have a real winner there.

Thank you so much, Mike! I'm sorry if I've quoted the wrong comments I couldn't discern yours from others you included in the quote. I'm easily confused!

Hi MikePDX,

Mike I like your efforts to see more and find new ideas like the pup and also your feel how to bring up more light and how and yes I myself find it also a bit dark, but for now it is what is is.

Thanks for your comment and ideas, very appreciated.

Lou

Bryan, you can certainly pick some challenging scenes to photograph. Here the dilemma is similar to your duck: the framing (the branches) are close to you and the scene (the water, reeds, reflection) is so distant that it will be hard to get both in good focus. You could back up, but that would introduce more branches and lose the frame effect. You could try a smaller aperture to try to get more in focus (you have plenty of leeway to handle that - good light, room to lower ISO and perhaps shutter speed) but that still might not solve the focus. When I shoot a near and far object in the same frame I usually end up taking more than one photo and focus blending them by some method, unless I am able to find some pleasing way to compose letting the nearer thing blur. An example might be to shoot through very blurred pink flowers to a focus on a single bloom further away.

There are pictures to be had here. Your reeds and reflections alone would yield a whole slew of good images. It would be even better if your duck could be persuaded to swim through. The small tree on the right has possibilities. A close up of the eucalyptus leaves with the background blurred has potential. I love the slightly muted yellow/green color palette, have spent time trying to emulate that in PP toning without success.

Tripod may help when you're trying to work with slower shutter speeds. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who "refurbished" one. Mine is a Frankenstein's monster made of parts of 3 different tripods.

I want to do something with this image on my computer when I get home tomorrow. I don't know if I'll succeed but I have an idea.

Hi Andrew,

I think the technique you've used is pretty close to that of my flower. I'm also surprised by the amount of responses to my post, as my image is quite dark. That could have been found in the colors, I don't know. Say!

Lou(/a/pxgwCuP4aQP4Zjfo2W0wONNBZGWWgeZuBtzVRhNDcQR2GpIlgdGRZjWnDy4coL16/5007/?shva=1)
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It appears my camera has focus stacking racking. I will investigate... Must be done post process

It has gone very quiet here and I suspect that is because maybe some are having the same problem many DPRevived users had today. To cut to the chase, the solution is to clear cookies (and maybe cache) in your browser for DPRevived, then log back in. Hoping you will actually see this post...

Clearing cache worked for me for Safari and Chrome though finding the right buttons in Chrome on iOS was a bit tricky.

I did a little experiment where I ran this through Topaz Sharpen and told it to resolve focus blur on the branches. It ain't perfect but it did a decent job. Then I softened the whole thing to mitigate the crunchy feeling that Topaz tends to leave behind in its wake ☹️. Then I lightly cropped and rather clumsily pruned the eucalyptus (better job can be done), nudged the photo rightward a degree to counteract the perceived (not real) tilt that the uneven far bank of the pond creates. Sometimes you can get by with that much without being caught at it. My goal was to sharpen the foreground framing branches and reduce their messiness so we can better see the background scene you were framing. It would still be better with that duck swimming through though...

I had missed your photo in the chaos of flat format (oh how we hope Bob and Alan can find a way to give us threaded posting) until Lou mentioned it, and went hunting. There is a lot of similarity in what you two have done and I have no idea what it might have been. Lovely detail and creative coloring of what was probably a nice flower photo to begin with. It picked up and emphasized all the veining and edging in the flower. I am curious as to what you two are doing to create these images.

I sent you a private message Paula.

Andrew

Thx minnie, I can see what you have done. The branches look a lot better. I imagine retouching over water reflections could be about as hard as it could get - time and patience... I wonder could I insert a duck or two. Cheating to me...
I was down there again with the dogs today (overcast didn't take camera). I could back up a little and zoom in a little for similar shot but will lose a bit. But don't need all of what was in the original. Just the reeds on a still day might be good - and in morning light. I put my vf glasses on and saw quite a few shots that may be interesting. More single subject oriented. Australian farms / bush can be pretty drab though. Also up the hill is a good panorama opportunity.

Simplification is always a good idea to try with most scenes. I agree the reeds and their reflections would make a nice almost abstract image.

I am reluctant to move in ducks and such too. I don't know why. It is no worse than any other kind of editing but would rather find them there and capture them on site. Oddly, I don't mind at all dragging all kinds of different elements into a fantasy art piece but no one would mistake those for a real scene, so I'm happy with that.

Retouching is a lot easier with Photoshop and the other pixel level editors than it is with raw editors like Lightroom and similar.

Keep using your scene spotting sense to find good places that you can make your own. There are many discoveries to be made when deep-diving photographically in one location. Enjoy your journey!

Dear all,

Bryan and Minniev have been having a very productive conversation in these last posts.
I have nothing to add.
Bryan, you noticed that the thread had gone a bit quieter in recent hours/days.

That is not unusual for our weekly gathering.
Tuesday is often a slower day, winding down and replying to messages and comments.
Everybody is gearing up of tomorrow's new edition.

Please be advised that if you want to post another image, it is often better to wait until the new edition on Wednesday.
This is good for the poster in order to get more traffic and for the group in order not to confuse the different sequential weekly threads

I will take care of starting the new edition tomorrow before noon (Brussels time).
Most often, I manage to get it online between 8.00 AM and 10.00 AM (again : Brussels time).