Macro " Bird flower "

[just me]

I found this flower in the Botanic Garden recently, and took it with the Olympus E-M5, and the Panasonic 45mm macro lens.

C&C welcome please....

[Geoff F]

Good clear shot of an interesting subject.

The only little thing I might change is to tone down the blue spot in the upper right corner.

[just me]

Thank you Geoff, I agree with you about the blue spot in the upper right corner, but I do not know how to do away with it ?

[dje]

Very interesting macro shot Griddi. Nicely done. Great light and colour.

Dave

[just me]

Thank you Dave, you made my day

Griddi........

[Geoff F]

Thank you Geoff, I agree with you about the blue spot in the upper right corner, but I do not know how to do away with it ?

Just a 'quick dab' with a Clone Tool or Healing Brush etc depending on your software. I used a 50% opacity so it mixed easily with the rest of the background.

Eg.



I don't have my favourite image editor on this computer, but most software will do basic stuff like this.

Also ran over the leaves on the left side with a light Blur Brush because they were fractionally 'noisy'.

[ajohnw]

If your package has local retouching with a mouse a large diameter setting on blur will make blue spot fade away as well.

Nice shot. Might tempt me to visit our local botanical gardens.

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[just me]

Geoff, thank you so very much, it looks so much better now.......

The only PP I have, and use is Panasonic " Photofun Studio " and Olympus " Olympus Viewer 2 " both came with the purchase of the camera's......

Perhaps I should use something else.......

Griddi.......

[Geoff F]

We had quite a long discussion about best editing software fairly recently.

The process tends to start with asking about any previous experience and size of available budget.

For some years, I used Serif Photo Plus and an older version like X2 or X3 should be available fairly cheaply. Windows only though. But now, I have moved on to more expensive options.

The free Gimp is popular with many although some people find it initially a little difficult. But there are a number of users here who are always willing to offer help.

Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are other widely used options although slightly more expensive. And there are several others in a similar league.

Personally, I wouldn't use anything which doesn't include the use of layers and masks but some photographers seem to get by without this.

But, that is just a few ides to get you thinking about something extra. You can easily ask for more information before actually committing yourself.

[ajohnw]

There is a book called Gimp from beginner to expert that can help finding out how a variety of things can be done with it. It relates to an older version than was available when the book came out but little has changed really. Big thick book. It relates to graphic art type use as well as photography so the content is limited in both respects. It's a fairly enjoyable read. Unusual for books like that. On of the main problems with Gimp really is finding out what it can do. There are a huge number of plugins available for it. One of the best source for info on standard techniques using Gimp without a specific plugin is youtube. There will often be a tutorial available. There are lots of them but I feel that the book needs reading 1st.

If some one runs Linux I would suggest looking at Fotoxx. There are a set of video tutorials for it on youtube which should allow anybody to get a head start. It doesn't use layers and is designed to carry out the vast majority of photo finishing processes as quickly and easily as possible. In practical terms it is creating layers and using them as needed without the user being aware of it.. Retouch operations can be applied to a whole image, a selection/selections within it and via brushes. The brushes take the form of a user specified size of circle that is mouse controlled with the power specified in the centre and edge. Any retouch can be applied this way. Bit's can be cut and pasted out of images, distorted and more. One of it's interesting aspects is plugins. Unusually these are any other photo modification type application. It will also merge hdr images and stack images to gain increased depth of field. I find the plugin aspect useful for certain operations. Mainly filters in a package called Photivo and perspective correction in Hugin where the simple barrel and keystone corrections in Fotoxx can't cope eg wide angle shot with many verticals in the distance.

Actually it's worth watching the videos to see what software can do. Most packages have similar facilities so it's then a case of finding out how to do it on them.

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