Among the files in my edit pile this week was this image:
ISO 640 22mm f/18 1/320sec
There is quite a bit going on in this image, but for this particular edit, I wanted to create an image that was still but deceptively so. I started my edits with a crop, the further stilled the water by cloning out some of the roots that were visible underwater. I’ve boosted the luminance as well. Then I applied a vignette, placing the center on the larger of the two blooms. Here is the final version:
ISO 640 22mm f/18 1/320sec
Because I chose to have the crop and vignette in areas that are not typical for a photo, and there are so many lily pads, there is a lot vying for your attention in this image. To me, that’s an interesting tension. Maybe it works for you and maybe it doesn’t, feel free to leave your thoughts on the edit in the comments below.
Cheers!
Added to One Word Sunday, Simplicity.
Picfair version is here.
Photography Journal Blog 
I find it very beautiful
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Thanks very much 🙂
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Great job. I would have added more blur and cropped the image to leave out the yellow in the left-hand corner, lowered the lightness and increased the higlights. What software do you use?
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Thanks very much for your thoughts on this. I am using Luminar 3.
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I use Corel PaintShop Pro 2019
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Nice, that’s one that I used a bit many versions ago so I’m sure it looks pretty different now.
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It has been made so much easier
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That’s good to hear and I think is true of a lot of editing software.
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I really like it, the finished edit has a really interesting feel about it! 😄👍🏻
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Thanks very much!
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Beautiful editing. The flowers jump out but in a subtle way.
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Thanks very much Sue.
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Like how the flowers pop!
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Thanks 🙂
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I like the large leaves forming a background for the more delicate flowers.
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It was interesting how large the leaves were.
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I like the crop and cloning a great deal. Maybe the luminance is a little overdone; the flower petals blend together in a harsh white fighting with a harsh yellow. : Full disclosure: not a white flower fan.
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Whites can be tricky to handle, so it is easy to overdo it. Red is another color that I think can be difficult to handle.
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Lighter is better IMO.
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Thanks for your honest feedback.
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I think the crop works really well. You get an accent from those two blooms that is somewhat lost in the original framing. The colors definitely popped in the edited version. You are an artist with an eye! – even in the editing room.
This shot reminds me, today I went to the Japanese Garden in Seattle, where my daughter and I took part in a Japanese Tea Ceremony. I usually don’t go to the Garden on a weekend day, and especially not a nice summer weekend day, because it gets really busy with visitors. My preference is a gloomy weekday morning when one is all alone, or almost all alone. Nevertheless, today the crowds were not that distracting, and being there with my daughter, we got to sit on one of the benches and look out at the ponds. She pointed out the two clutches of water lilies on the pond surface, one with pink flowers and a more distant one whose flowers were white. We used to read one of those folk tales when she was young about a girl who was one of the frog people, and she reminded me of that story. Thanks for posting this one!
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I can quite imagine that garden would be a heavily visited spot, it sounds lovely.
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Yes, on a nice day it can get busy-busy-busy. They ban photo tripods and wedding photos, which is nice because it reduces the congestion and makes it more enjoyable, in my opinion, anyway!
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Yes, sometimes I think it is completely appropriate to ban such things as it can really take away from other people’s experience.
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It does make it more peaceful. The weddings photo shoots especially seem to come with high intensity people who seem to overlook the beauty in search of the perfect photo. 🙂 my pet peeve! As we often encounter wedding and engagement photographers and their clients in other parts of the arboretum, who seem to have no compunction in blocking the way for others to pass. Hah!
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Yes, it’s a bit of a high stakes pressure situation, taking wedding photos like that, especially these days will all sorts of “perfection” in people’s social media accounts.
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You know it!
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The crop works well given your initial shot. The black top and left is good. For me the flowers are too low in the shot but hard to alter that.
I would have upped the highlights, as it feels quite heavy.
And I would have gone easy on the luminance as it makes the leaves look a bit plastic, but it does add to the simplicity of the shot.
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Thanks very much for this constructive feedback, it hadn’t really occurred to me to maybe mask some of the luminance back out of the leaves, but that is an interesting thought.
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