A chocolate box cover, a flower and a duckling

[stevegreen]

We had a wander around Coalport again today, I think this is our favorite place to go despite there not being a lot there really. We went into the China Museum but there wasn't much going on and China doesn't really interest me that much.........anyway, a chocolate box cover type picture first

Coalport Reflections




and another....





There were quite a few newly born ducklings on the canal.

Duckling




And some nice bell type flowers in the hedges, if anyone knows what these are, please let me know





Comments welcome.

[iGiDK]

Great sense of depth in #1 and #2, excellent job on the PP

The duck looks rather cute, and the colours & DOF on your flower shot are fantastic, really like the framing on this one

[IAN P]

No's 1 and especially 2 are cracking images,as you say,very chocolate box like,sums up the English countryside imho.

[johnaalex]

4 very nice shots, especially the duck

Now can we have the chocolates?

[cedmondson]

I'm yet to try this 'Orton' malarky but you seem to do it particularly well.....any tips?

[TarMoo]

They all look good - I prefer No 1 and No 4. The flower is my favourite.

[Yandros]

*came here for the chocolates*

*is now disappointed*

Love #1 and #2, very idyllic!

#4 is Comfrey - Symphytum officinale

[Biscuit761]

Great shots Steve, like them all but especially the last one, love that dreamy effect - how did you do that ?

Bill

[stevegreen]

Originally Posted by cedmondson

I'm yet to try this 'Orton' malarky but you seem to do it particularly well.....any tips?

It's a case of playing about with the amount of gaussian blur that you apply I think. I usually do the Orton effect and then have to lighten certain parts of the image as it can make the darks very dark, a touch of dodging usually sorts that out and brings the detail back through.

Originally Posted by Biscuit761

Great shots Steve, like them all but especially the last one, love that dreamy effect - how did you do that ?

Bill

Thanks Bill, that is what I was aiming for I simply selected the parts of the flower that i didn't want to blur in quick mask mode then feathered the selection and added gaussian blur to the background. The trick is to mask off using quite a soft brush so that when you add the blur it starts to affect the edges of the bit you want to keep sharp. Difficult to explain and I am only just starting to realise just how useful layer masks in photoshop are.

Thanks for the comments everyone, appreciated!

[Yandros]

I have to admit Steve that I'm not a fan of #4. I love the dreamy quality of #1 and #2, but the blur on the Comfrey looks too false for me. I suspect though it's because I muck around with shallow DOF flower shots a lot, and there's just a 'wrongness' about it.

Rasputin loves it though, and he's another flower macro nut, so maybe it's just me!

[stevegreen]

Yep, I see what you mean. I was mainly playing around with masks trying to get that 'dreamy' quality to the shot without using the Orton thing. The depth of field was pretty shallow on the original but I wanted to really make the flower heads pop out of the shot a bit more than they did.

I have just burnt it to disc in PDI format with the top and bottom cropped off for entry into the next digital comp at camera club. It will more than likely get slated but it will be interestng to see what the judge says about it anyway........he will probably bemoan the fact that there are four flowers instead of the 'favoured composition' of three

[edwardtickle]

Very nice photos mate, i especially like the duck one, looks very professional