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Friday, June 27, 2014

simple gifts: roadside bouquet





mouse over to see the original

***

Notes:

INSPIRATION
noticing the weeds/flowers along the road
(as usual)
during a bike ride last Sunday;
I drove back right after our ride
and gathered
'a roadside bouquet'




SETUP
Side Lighting
(Be Still 52 Assignment: Week 5)
early morning, before work
summer sun streaming in thru patio door
north-facing, with a covered patio...
more light than I expected
IMPROVISATION
I just needed a bit more height:
two tuna cans under each tripod leg
worked just fine.
I hung a black t-shirt from the chandelier
opposite the light source
to heighten the effect.
Subtle, but definitely noticeable
in the photos.
I tried various backdrops...
After reviewing the early morning shots
with the light quilt background
I realized that the white dandelions
needed more contrast.
Home for lunch on a mission:
arrange dark fabrics
and re-shoot
the whole thing.
I should have listened
to Lillian
in the first place.

I also noticed
the different quality of light
in the early afternoon -
again, more noticeable
in the photos.

original photo SOOC
I purposely over-expose my shots
(+2 on my camera's Exposure Level Indicator)
because most of the data is located
on the right end,
giving me more digital 'stuff'
to play with in Lightroom.
David duChemin explains this
much more clearly in his book
"The more elasticity my digital negative has,
the greater chance that I can make
a gorgeous print
that expresses my vision."

LIGHTROOM
I cropped (4x5),
started with Auto Tone
then adjusted Exposure and White Balance;
I experimented a lot with the Tone Curve
then several presets
before settling on Kim's
kk_daysofold.

PHOTOSHOP
one layer of kk_simplemagic (Screen 64%)
with the blossoms masked off
Font:

***

Linking up with





9 comments:

  1. adore that top image.... and wonderful inspiration... in this post!!! so informative... not to mention innovative!! LOVE.

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  2. A great post Cindy looks like you have a technical advisor there !!!

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  3. Very pretty set up and love how you took the weeds and made an arrangement, goes to show you how it can be done.

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  4. Love your final image ! Thanks for sharing your set up, so useful ! Love the kitty .....:)

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  5. I just love reading and seeing your behind the scenes work. Love the cans of tuna! LOL!!

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  6. hi cindy ... lovely photo of your roadside bouquet! Thank you for sharing your "pull back" shots. I love to see how others do their magic!

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  7. My first thought was, I love your pairing of plants. Then after reading and looking back at the first photo about five times, I thought, my gosh you went to a lot of work, but it turned out great. I really have to be in the mood these days to go to that much trouble. You can come wander around the farm with me any time.

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  8. I adore your assistant! That first photo is wonderful! All the effort you put into this lesson really was worth it....but it also helped me to read about it:) Thanks for sharing your process!

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  9. In response to your comment on OXOXO - I usually send an email but yours wasn't included with your comment - Still I wanted to say Thanks so much for stopping by. My daily photo/journal blog started a few years ago and originally included my daughters...their lives got too busy but I continue to enjoy doing it:) It was originally influenced by the blog Habit which I adore.

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