I received some tulips as a gift this week from my oldest child, and was thinking of taking some photos of them this morning. I hadn’t really settled on how I wanted to take the photos so when the weekly photo challenge theme was posted as blur, I figured I found my answer.
I shot the tulips using two different cameras but ended up liking the results from my 50D best. For these photos I had screwed on a magnifying lens to my 50mm lens. I ended up editing two shots. Here they are:
For this challenge I decided I wanted one spot to be in sharp focus and the rest to be a soft blur. Making the f-stop 2.8 fairly easy way to accomplish this. Before shooting I had considered adding all the blur in Photoshop, but decided this time around to get the blur in the camera instead.
The two photos were edited different ways. For the top photo, I made a curves adjustment that I thought made the colors deeper and brought attention to the point of focus. I then sharpened the image. In the second image, I felt the point of focus was a bit less important than the overall soft feel. I added an oil paint filter and a color overlay of very light purple. Then I also multiplied the layer, just to deepen the colors. Here are the original photos out of the camera:
Interesting what just a few edits can do isn’t it? Do you have a favorite? Feel free to comment below.
Cheers!
So apt for Blur. Think I like the third one best, or maybe the first, or maybe the fourth or maybe…….
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It’s all a little blur perhaps? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
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These are sooooooo beautiful..! how did you get the center so perfectly? 🙂
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There are several other versions that are in the trash 🙂
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Do share them 🙂
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I hope you’ll share them too 🙂
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Gorgeous!
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And what a thoughtful child. 😄
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Agreed 🙂
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Thanks!
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I just bought some tulips today, but our older daughter send me flowers last month for my birthday and I was constantly taking photos of them. 🙂 Such fun. I like all your photos.
janet
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Thanks!
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I like the unedited first one, with the lens giving the blurred background, but they are all lovely examples of what we can achieve these days – first with the camera, and then with the electronic fiddle 😉
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There really is so much you can do and change with a photo these days. I know photo manipulation has pretty much always been around, but it seems so easy now.
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Love these, Amy. The second one is my favourite. 🙂
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Thanks for saying so.
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Brilliant shots for this week’s challenge. I love the processing you’ve done. Subtle, but enough to bring out the colours in both of the shots. It’s always tricky to figure out which effect to use first over the other in post-processing as they can give different a different look in the end.
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Agreed, and I edited these a few other ways and didn’t care for the results.
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Good shots end editing, Amy!
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Thanks!
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I love the deeper colors in the 2nd photo. Plus, it does have a softer touch. Well done, Amy. 😉
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Thanks!
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What creative ways to capture these gorgeous spring flowers. As the snow falls the lovely colors warm me through and through.
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Yes, we are done with the snow here, on to tornado season.
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Oh dear that does not sound very good. 😦
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It does keep you on your toes.
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Beautifully done, love the edited second shot especially.
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Thanks Tina!
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Lovely shots 🙂
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Thanks 🙂
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Difficult to chose my favorite, they are all excellent !!!
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Thanks, I’m glad you like them.
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my fav is the first with the curve adjustments – it does make the color richer – but I actually just like all four images – I have not seen very many flowers today and so coming to your post was a treat – it is raining here and blah – so this tulip color was a splash of nice –
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Thanks, I’m not a fan of blah days…
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Very nice shots, the last one being my favourite – love the softness in the photo:)
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Thanks.
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What an elegant gift. The atmospheric portrait you have created is such a lovely record of these blooms.
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Thanks so much 🙂
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I love the top photo – Georgia O’Keeffe-ish I think!
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Thanks, I hadn’t gone for that look intentionally, but she is one of my favorite artists.
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Reblogged this on monicgye and commented:
es ta suave….delicado,que rompe todo.
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Your approach is ace. Your final result is well balanced between the sharpness and the subtly blurred parts.
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Thank you very much.
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