POTD 19 May 2015 (Alternative) - Garden Workshop

[Mike Farley]

Another shot from this year's Chelsea Flower Show.

[davidc]

Do you have the colour version? Although the mono conversion is good (as in I like how you've done it) I find that because the textures are all quite similar things are blurring into each other. Wondered if keeping the contrasts look without full desaturation might help if the wood items are then sufficiently different colours to make them more distinct?

[Mike Farley]

Do you have the colour version? Although the mono conversion is good (as in I like how you've done it) I find that because the textures are all quite similar things are blurring into each other. Wondered if keeping the contrasts look without full desaturation might help if the wood items are then sufficiently different colours to make them more distinct?

This is the image after processing in LR 5.7. Personally I find the pale strip along the top jars with the rest, which is one of the reasons why I converted it to mono.

After LR processing

Garden Workshop - Original.jpg (136.08 KiB) Viewed 1485 times

The mono conversion was done, as ever in Silver Efex Pro 2. I found that some of the tones were blending into each other, so I did some selective dodging with the U-Point tool, which I find incredibly useful and straightforward to use. To give you an idea, this is the shot with the monochrome layer blended using Luminosity. The final print* looks gorgeous and I am not sure that a small image displayed on screen really does it justice.

Monochrome layer blended using Luminosity

Garden Workshop - Luminosity.jpg (142.42 KiB) Viewed 1485 times

* I produced three prints from the Chelsea Flower Show, intending to use them in the final round in the 2014/15 internal print competition which was held the day after I had been to the show. In the event, for various reasons I held back this and the "Garden Idyll" shot posted in a separate thread, on the night using just the weakest of the images. The judge agreed and was singularly unimpressed with that particular effort.

[davidc]

The lumo-blended one definitely does look good, even on this scale, and works better than the monochrome one for me - happy the print works out for you too Maybe I should claim a co-credit?

I like how the lantern and the metal box come out completely differently to the wood, catching your eye because they are different to the wood.

[Mike Farley]

The lumo-blended one definitely does look good, even on this scale, and works better than the monochrome one for me - happy the print works out for you too Maybe I should claim a co-credit?

I like how the lantern and the metal box come out completely differently to the wood, catching your eye because they are different to the wood.

While I am pleased that you like the enhanced colour version, which is rather overdone for my taste, it is not something that I ever envisioned. I only posted it here as a discussion point following your earlier comments and from the outset at the taking stage it was always my intention to produce a monochrome image. The differences between the low res JPEG I posted here and the print are subtle, but the latter is so much better. There is something about the shapes, textures and tones which do not really come across on the screen, even when looking at the original high resolution shot. At present I have it on Permajet Oyster paper, but I suspect that it would be improved further with a matte finish. It will be going to the club at some stage, possibly next season's monochrome competition, so most people will have the opportunity to see for themselves.