I’ve been doing some work in the yard, weeding and the like. The butterfly bush is beginning to lose it’s blooms, but they aren’t completely gone yet, so one morning I put aside my gardening tools and took out my camera instead. When I got the photos on my computer I decided to give HDR processing a try with them, to bring out the detail in the flowers. I was pleasantly surprised to end up liking this monochromatic version best:
ISO 1250 50mm 0ev f/8 1/125
For this particular photo I was using my 50mm lens with a magnifying lens attached. I used a high ISO in part to deal with the low light and in part to be able to use a high shutter speed.
Here is the original middle exposure of the bracketed photos:
ISO 1250 50mm 0ev f/8 1/125
In the monochromatic version, I liked the way the purple blooms were transformed to very white. Most times, I use HDR for what it brings out in the detail, this time, what I liked most was it did for the tone of the image. For me, this was and interesting case of using a technique for one result and ending up with something unexpected. How about you, when was the last time your photo editing turned out an unexpected result? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
I like the transformation. The final photo looks like a photo out of an old photo book 🙂 I haven’t experimented much with HDR in post-processing, but when I do sometimes I end up with the over-HDR effect which I’m not a fan of…more practise needed. Sometimes less is more when it comes to post-processing.
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I would agree with you, most of the time I’m not a huge fan of what I would consider the over the top look HDR processing gives. Having said that, I can think of several bloggers that routinely post over the top versions of HDR photos that I really like, so it really is a case by case sort of thing.
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The tone really brings out details you don’t see in the purple version. I really like it 🙂
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Thanks, I have a few different versions in the original purple, but so far this one is my favorite.
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Definitely agree the edited version there is much more detail.
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Thanks, using HDR on flowers can bring out a lot of the detail that is in the petals.
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congrat ur post & Picture, i like this
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Thanks!
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Love the lion.
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Thanks!
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The purple color is great. Very vivid. I agree that HDR can bring out the details, but like you I’m also wary of “over-the-top” HDR post processing!
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There are some who can pull that look off, I’m just never happy with my work when it turns out that way.
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Yes, I do like the B/W version best here.
“Steadfast in Dormancy” is a tree portrait I made years ago in which the post-prod that I did for the colour variant resulted in the faint shadows that were cast showing up as washed out salmon pink. I think the white light in the air full of ice crystals had absorbed the brown of the tree, that actually looks more grey, and produced the effect when I slightly saturated the colours. I initially figured that the final production would be in B/W but the full colour variant turned out to be the one that I and others liked the most:
https://themofman.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/steadfast-in-dormancy-revisions/
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It’s hard to make a call there, or maybe I’m just feeling wishy washy this evening. I like all three versions. I also saw in the comments that I wasn’t the first to really like the first one and then scroll down and potentially change my mind.
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I agree, I like the monochromatic one best as well. Which IS surprising because we think of flowers as so colorful…but not think so much about their complexity until you take the color out of the equation.
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It is interesting, I agree, and I think always striking when you come across a flower where this works.
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