I love having flowers in the house. These however, had seen better days:
ISO 1600 50mm f/11 1/30
No amount of new water in the vase was going to bring them back, but I still thought they would make a beautiful photo. This version was created using the Nik collection, which is a set of plug-ins that are compatible with Adobe editing products. I was pretty excited to find out that the collection is now free. The collection is, in its simplest form, a bunch of presets to choose from, just click and add. As much as I love presets, I do tend to look at them as a way to start and then I edit from there. Because I have found a lot of good things come from asking a simple question, I’d like to share that I found out that the Nik collection is free because of a question I asked Jane Lurie about a photograph she had created. She was nice enough to share how she had edited and passed along the tip about the collection. If you have a moment to stop by her blog, I would recommend it, she does lovely work.
Having created my black and white version a few days ago, I sat down to write this blog post and was again looking at the color version of the photo:
ISO 1600 50mm f/11 1/30
I’ll be honest, I’m now not sure which I like better. I am thinking now of going back and working with the color version a bit more to see if I can come up with something that I really like. For now, the black and white version is available in my Picfair portfolio.
Do you have a preference of the black and white or color version? Have you ever asked a simple question only to have a whole new world opened up to you? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
I am not an “edit” fan… (I think I already said that). In fact, I like the colored version better, the little yellow heart of the flower giving a drop of life to that fading bouquet.
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Yes, I am thinking of taking another look at it today but that yellow heart is what has my interest.
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In this instance I prefer the BW version. There is something melancholic about the withered flowers, and I think the BW version convers this better. When I first heard about photo editing, I thought it was pretty straightforward until I got to play around with Adobe. There are so many layers of photo editing, and so many ways you can turn a photo into.
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My original thought was to do black and white to capture that melancholy. In this case, missing water. Yes, photo editing can be never ending. As long as you are happy with the journey it is fine, but good to know that you can just stop at any time.
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For this one, both are beautiful ! I like the texture and lighting of the B&W and softness of the second one. 🙂
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Thanks Amy, I do like the black and white. It’s just then when I was looking again I got to thinking about the color possibilities…
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Nice but I like the b/w best for this subject.
Just note that because the Nik presets are now free, Google has essentially admitted it will no longer be updating or supporting them. Use them while you can. One day, an Adobe update to PS/LR will come that will no longer be compatible with them.
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Yes, that’s a good point about the presets. I do find that I have to change how I go about editing and what software I use based on what’s available. That can be a bit of a challenge, I usually come up with workflows that I like and don’t always like to change.
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Usually I would choose the color but in this case the black and white seems more suitable for the aging flowers. More a personal gut feel than anything. Both images are beautiful.
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Thanks Sue, I’ll be blogging about this again next week, but I have been going back and forth about the color/black and white issue for this particular set of flowers. My original thought though was that black and white would express the age of these flowers best.
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I like the colour one! It looks more real and bring the photo to life.
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Thanks Zee, I have revisited this photo and edited a color version as well which I will be posting next week. It is interesting to me the difference.
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They are both beautiful, but I think I prefer the color. However, I agree the b/w is a good representation for the topic.
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Thanks, in keeping with this challenge I do think black and white was the way to go.
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I love the bw most.
The colored one is good and that yellow in it also caught my eye, but side by side the first one I like.
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Thanks, as you know, this one is a bit of a moving target for me as I came back and did another color edit. 🙂
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How fun!
🌺🌺🌺🌺
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Hi, Glad you are enjoying the Nik Suite. I love the monochrome image you processed with it. Nice work and thanks for your kind mention. Sharing technique is a great aspect of the blogging world. 😉
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Thank you, I agree that sharing is one of the nice things about blogging. I also find it interesting to think about how I got to a final version of the photo, what I was thinking about, who I was talking to, that sort of thing.
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Yes, the artistic process is fascinating, indeed.
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