Hey, Bud!

[FrankMi]

I am looking for your viewpoint.

There is no absolute right or wrong, just your opinion as to what you prefer.

The subject in this image has lots of space around it and for good reason. You have the opportunity to rotate, crop, colour, B&W, anything you would like.

I am interested in what other people prefer in post processing treatment of this simple subject.

Feel free to copy, change and repost if you so desire, or just tell us what you think should be done to make this image better and why.

Hopefully I, we all, will get a better understanding of what makes a better image. Thanks in advance for viewing and participating!

[Ryogenetic]

Been looking for something to work with in Paint.net here are my results:



I did find the backdrop to be more interesting. I used my system in Paint.net that is very similar to the Jiro Effect, but its better on cars for highlighting details and lines. I started to use my process on this branch and noticed how much I enjoyed the back drop. From there the Bud became secondary and I focused on bring out the marbled backdrop.

Ryo

[Photon Hacker]

How can we improve this image?. The first thing I noticed is that structure at the end of the branch, that's the subject of the image IMHO. I think by cropping the branch we can make it stand out more.

I don't know what make diagonal arrangements look better but sometimes they do look better. P.S: Maybe totally vertical and horizontal look too artificial, a forced position. What do you thinkg?



Ryo: I don't understand what you're trying to achieve here. Could you be so kind to elaborate?.

[epmi314]

My three deadly PP sins are oversharpening, hard light layers and oversaturating colors. I tried to keep all three in check here. In any case, here is my effort...

[Poaceae]

I just blended in another background as I liked the colors of your original. It's unfortunate that the branch takes your eye off the page but a branch floating in air would bother me more.

[Steve S]

[ScoutR]

This is sort of my standard treatment for this type of shot. This might be a bit overcooked, I'm still not used to LR sharpening.
I like Mario's crop, so mine is similar. Then I do what I can to emphasize the bud and smooth out the background. In this case lighten the lights and shadows, play with individual colour and luminance sliders, sharpen, apply feathered vignette, readjust black point, used the adjustment brush to darken and sharpen the bud.

I'd think my cropping preference would be this or Mario's crop with the textured background.



8wwegi-1 by Wendy FS, on Flickr

Wendy

[FrankMi]

It looks, so far, like half prefer a tighter crop and most would rotate the image but retain the same coloring. I was a little surprised that nobody has cloned out the spider web but that's OK. Hopefully more folks will chime in with their thoughts.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Thought I'd do a slightly different take on everyone and lose the texture instead. It's probably not what I would normally do, but given two minutes to think about it before I race off to golf, this is all I could come up with.

[Kris V]

Flipped it over, cropped, blurred, played with blending modes, Vignette, and not totally happy with it, but here's my effort:

[Mark Lawrence]

Cropped it and converted it to Black & white and left a little color to spice it up and draw the eye in!

[Steve S]

Here is something a little different.............

[FrankMi]

Wow! Some really interesting options!

[Kris V]

Wow! Some really interesting options!

You created a monster - I have been photographing close-ups from branches and buds the whole friday afternoon, until my husband started to wonder if I totally lost it!
I kept about 5 of them. I won't hijack your thread, so I won't post any of them.

[FrankMi]

LOL! Please! Go ahead and post them, Kris. We'd all like to see them! If folks can have a landscape or spiders thread, why not a "Hey, Bud!" thread?

There have been some really great renditions posted so why not yours, or anybody elses for that matter. If it gets us out shooting, we'll all learn! <grin>

[jjbacoomba]

Love Mark's B&W conversion.

[Kris V]

LOL! Please! Go ahead and post them, Kris. We'd all like to see them! If folks can have a landscape or spiders thread, why not a "Hey, Bud!" thread?

There have been some really great renditions posted so why not yours, or anybody elses for that matter. If it gets us out shooting, we'll all learn! <grin>

Since you asked......
Here goes - This was actually taken this morning with my Kodak P&S and an extension tube:
Fig tree bud.



and a different kind of bud:
Prickly pear - I keep trying to keep this thing alive.

[Kris V]

Here is something a little different.............

Was this done with Pixelbender?