Backlit Flowers

[Boatman]

I've been messing around in Photoshop most of the day, reading some manuals and watching a couple of Jeff Schewe videos. I grabbed a few .dng files from this summer and played around with them, just to practice what I had been learning. This one buffed up quite nicely and I thought I'd throw it out for C&C.

[PRSearls]

Hello Homer,

You have a lovely arrangement in that glass but it looks underexposed to me. When I think of a backlit flower or leaf, I think of its colors almost "glowing" from the light coming through it. This exposure looks like it was influenced by the bright sky background. I would suggest you try bracketing your exposures from normal toward overexposure if you have a light background. If you can get direct sunlight or bright light from behind your subject and then have a dark shadow or dark piece of mat board or foam-core (black works well), this will give a nice, high contrast to make the subject's colors stand out. Don't let direct sunlight fall on your front lens element.

Here is an example of some maple leaves. I shot directly into the light but was careful not to let the sun shine into the lens. A dark row of shaded trees formed the background. I was able to increase the contrast in post processing. With the right subject, backlighting is very pretty and can display delicate structures nicely. You've made a good attempt here and I would encourage you to try reshooting this or a similar subject with these recommendations in mind. I would also caution you to watch for distractions in the background. Many times, these can be cropped out (or cloned out) if there is enough space around the subject.

- Paul -

[Boatman]

OK, maybe "Diffuse Window-Lit Flowers" would have been a better title - at least more accurate - but it seemed a bit long. Getting the lighting right in this image was the challenge. It took quite a bit of curves manipulation to get the colors of the flowers to come out and the brightness of the window light to go down a tad.

Here's where I started - the .jpg from the camera:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=262r7mq&s=7

[JPS]

Homer,
you certainly have improved this picture using your PP skills.
Keep working to try and get the best possible photo in camera, it saves a lot of time not having to spend hours PP. Well done