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Bishop's Cap Cactus in Red
Bishop's Cap Cactus in Red
Paul


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Stars (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: Flora
Camera: Olympus E-410
Lens: Olympus 35mm f/3.5 Macro ED Zuiko Digital
Location: Home
Date: Dec 12, 2008
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 100
Shutter: 20.0s
Galleries: Abstract, Nature
Date Uploaded: Dec 12, 2008

 I had shot and PP'd this cactus in a very different way but I was concerned that one of my techniques, swapping out a pure white background for black might cause a problem - a SC member confirmed this, so I reshot.

Here the cactus has been placed in a glass egg-cup which is sat on black paper which has a hole cut in it. The whole lot is on a light box.

The camera was above on a tripod facing down.

During the 20 second exposure, I gave a quick paint of light to each of the 5 limbs with a Maglite torch to supplement the paltry backlighting.

In post processing, I rotated and cropped, changed the hue of the green to red and then desaturated the other colours with Aperture 2. I then round-tripped it to PS CS4 to run Neat Image and Smart Sharpen.

Back in Aperture 2, I used the repair tool to tidy up some bright corners and then used the Dodge and Burn plug-in to desaturate some of the edge of the cactus.

Resized to 720 X 720 at a quality <200K. I think this had introduced some nastiness into the background but hopefully it hasn't spoilt it too much.

Here is the original offering that I tried out with a Site Council member:



(Exposure, contrast and saturation was ramped up in Aperture 2. I then round-tripped it to PhotoShop CS4, changed the background from white to black, softened the edge of the cactus and used the Smart Sharpen filter.

Finally, selections were made of each of the limbs of the cactus, and the hue of each changed. The green limb went unaltered.

I then returned the image to Aperture 2 and removed the few bright pixels that emerged from the above process and then saved the resultant image as JPEG.

Job done)

Statistics
Place: 24 out of 87
Avg (all users): 5.8323
Avg (commenters): 6.6250
Avg (participants): 5.5455
Avg (non-participants): 5.9459
Views since voting: 2636
Views during voting: 294
Votes: 155
Comments: 21
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
 08/27/2014 11:31:07 AM
I love this. The muted color is very nice and keeps it from going overboard. Very nice job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/29/2008 12:18:01 PM
thanks for listing how you shot and edited this, pretty cool steps involved. really cool photo in my opinion, great red tones as well.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/23/2008 02:44:00 PM
this one has so much more depth than your outtake.

Message edited by author 2008-12-23 16:11:56.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/22/2008 07:54:18 PM
PostLuminous Award Nominee!
intriguing
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/22/2008 12:37:46 PM
I liked how this was an in-your-face kind of photo. The background color really complements the star color. Great capture of textures too. I love how it looks like it is just kind of hovering in the air.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/21/2008 11:09:42 PM
Interesting idea, well executed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/21/2008 01:52:42 PM
Cactus? I thought it was a throw pillow before i read the title! Very neat looking.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2008 10:10:04 PM
Learned something new here - thanks! 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/20/2008 10:47:24 AM
Pretty cool. I Googled 'Bishop's Cap Cactus': too bad you didn't find one with it's flowers. That would have been awesome! As is, the edit is just slightly strange and not natural looking to me. I still like it: 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/19/2008 07:14:22 PM
nice shot, love it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/19/2008 08:36:17 AM
bishop's cap is a cool cacuts....never saw it in red....cool image, great drama
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/17/2008 06:31:43 PM
This is an interesting plant, but it looks overly sharpened or something; maybe it really does look like that. I had to Google it to find out, and it looks like the texture is pretty accurate but you did some major colorizing. It's an interesting background. You met the challenge creatively.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/16/2008 09:52:21 PM
really good work here - the center crop, the deep rich reds, the lighting choices to give an almost 3D feel - very good work
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/16/2008 03:30:40 PM
nice tones
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/16/2008 12:49:33 PM
interesting..looks a little grainy/noisy???
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/16/2008 12:09:23 PM
I like the impact of the red on BW.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/16/2008 08:23:52 AM
Captivating - an unexpected answer to the challenge. Quite well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/15/2008 10:07:02 PM
Wow. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/15/2008 02:13:34 PM
This is so well done. The focus, the colors - wonderful! My favourite so far.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/15/2008 11:00:46 AM
What a cool looking cactus, I've never heard of it before.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 12/15/2008 01:01:29 AM
hmm, i like the composition, but the photo lacks a certoin pop needed, maybe a more contrast around the background against the flwoer. either way. intersting
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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