POTD 31 August 2015 - High Key Dahlia

[Mike Farley]

A dahlia from the garden given a high key treatment in Lightroom. This might be a work in progress as I am thinking about putting some sort of frame around it to emphasise the flower more and give it something extra. The main challenge is working out the best way to achieve this.

[Paul Heester]

I really enjoy this shot Mike, the high key effect makes the petals even more delicate. Would be interesting to see if a border would enhance the look.

PS I suspect a judge would talk about the (almost) blown out petals but they would be missing the point...

[GrahamL]

Hi Mike,

Very delicate, could be hand-drawn.

Interesting shape and out of curiosity I tried a little play with inversion and contrast - not so delicate, but so many possibilites...

HighKeyDahlia-Inverrt+123Bright+76Contrast.jpg (150.16 KiB) Viewed 2047 times

Cheers,

Graham

[davidc]

The inverted one does a grand job of showing burnt out highlights

[Mike Farley]

I really enjoy this shot Mike, the high key effect makes the petals even more delicate. Would be interesting to see if a border would enhance the look.

PS I suspect a judge would talk about the (almost) blown out petals but they would be missing the point...

Thanks, Paul. It was something to do during a typical bank holiday Monday monsoon.

You are right, it definitely needs the right judge. I am still smarting from the comment last season that a study of a steam locomotive's driving gear was a strong shot but it needed motion blur*. When I held my exhibition during the summer, that was the first shot which sold. Strangely without the addition of motion blur.

* The shot was a print and scored less than 10, so I would be tempted to resubmit it as is in the DPI competition, if only to see what someone else made of it. Unfortunately the club's rules do not allow me to do this unless there has been a significant change and there is nothing more I would want to do with it. No motion blur, that's for certain.

[Mike Farley]

The inverted one does a grand job of showing burnt out highlights

Interesting effect, although I am not sure I would want to take things that far. Lightroom did not indicate any blown highlights, which are more likely to be a result of the lo-res JPEG and/or the contrast adjustments. it is something I will be checking when I make the print.