I am first!!!....It looks like a flower to me!...and a beautiful one....I wish I would have your photoshop skills....this is a wonderful picture!
I can see a fingerprint in one of the petals...am I wrong?...or it looks like a fingerprint......The colors are wonderful...Great work Samson!....top marks!......Now I will be afraid to post my next picture that is also a flower.
Carlos

It's not a fingerprint. The flower is made of silk.

OK there you are...Thanks...I just corrected my self...and said or it looks like a fingerprint!
Carlos

It is beautiful. I only wish you would explain your technic in tutorial or something, because I would love to know it. (I'm sure others would also

Great - sure, it's the Magritte's light . But I like the focus.

It's nothing special. I put the flower next to a window while the sun was in the right position. To help it out a little, I shined a flashlight on it too, to get those shadows inside the petals.

I shot the image with bracketing turned on (1.5 step difference) with a wide aperture (3.5) for short DOF. I was careful not to make it too wide though because I wanted as much of the subject in focus. I find that many flower images on this site have such short DOF that only a part of the flower is in focus. And usually, the photographer gets the wrong portion in focus. That's not what I wanted. I wanted to be sure that this was not a hit-or-miss snapshot. I wanted everything about this photo to be intentional. So I took a lot of test photos until I found the DOF that I liked. Then took my bracketed shots.

Then I took the image into a program called Photomatix and made an HDR image out of it. This can also be done in Photoshop CS2 but I find Photomatix to be better at it. Then using the Tone Mapping feature, I made the adjustments so that I would get the highest and most pleasing exposure. You could also use Exposure Blending, but it flattens the image quite a bit. You'll have to take it into Photoshop and adjust the curves and increase the saturation to fix it.

When I took it into Photoshop, I noticed some grain that didn't look good. So I used the blur tool to soften it a bit. Then I created a mask for the background and on a seperate layer, I filled the mask with a dark red and set it to multiply and transparency of about 40%. I duplicated the layer and made it black and set it also to multiply and transparency of about 20% or so.

Then I just created the frame and added the text.

Oh, the Magritte reference is from his work called "This Is Not A Pipe."

OK Samson...piece of cake!...LOL
Carlos

I think this is excellent, and I loved your 'mini-tutorial' above. It really shows that you've put a lot of time and effort into this picture, it's perfect.

No crits at all!

8/8

Great work man! I wish I had the same patience you have to prepare a picture...
Super!!!

beautiful

wow i think this is one of the best photos here!

This is a really beautiful image Samson!! The software technique is a bit more than I care to decipher but it really works well!! The framing is also excellent!!

Hi samson, in this photo I'd prefer a slightly different composition - the rose more centered on the y-axis and more out-of-center on the x-axis, but that's just me.
I can understand your choice for that high (okay, not really high, but for a flower pic it is high) f-number, but I have to argue that you could, as much time as you took yourself for the shot, you could have used manual focus and therefore at least gone down to 2.8 if not lower - I just prefer the background more blurred, for me it's even if you darkened it too distracting. Also - and that, as well, is just my opinion, you could have had it all in just one shot. Just shot a RAW (you can change the lighting conditions there a big deal without losing much quality) and blend the background using a layer mask.
Okay, and one more crit: in the highlights, it's just too easy to dedect the rose's true nature so I'd try to avoid that a bit more.
Now, some really positive aspects:
The framing is great. It's a perfect choice here, as well as title and placing of title.
You've shown some real patience with this. I could never
Overall, you've done a great improvement over the past few months - waiting for your next

Dont like this border.
But nice

Phryneas, it's so good to hear from you! Thanks for your crits. I did shoot lower f-stop. Although the blur was nice the DOF was too shallow for my taste. It made almost all of the flower out of focus except the very center. Not what I was after. I can't remember, but I think this was shot at 3.5. I'll have to go back to the original RAW files to find out.

Also, I never intended to hide the true nature of the rose. The full sized image shows the texture of the silk very well. Hence the title.

>It made almost all of the flower out of focus except the very center.
That dilemma is why most of my flower pics are taken from the side, not from top But if you tried, I guess you made the right choice
>Also, I never intended to hide the true nature of the rose. The full sized image shows the texture of the silk very well. Hence the title.
I didn't mean to hide it, just to make it less open, to give more reason to look at the photo more precisely.

The only thing that gives it away is the
frayed rose petals.
I like the way you used the lights to make it glow.
+10

beautiful composition and framing emarts +10

I have nothing specific to crit, just that maybe that I wish I were the one who take this photo, so...And hum liking the border/frame a LOT!

Very beautiful. Well done. +10

Just saw this in the "post a comment", superb work, +10

lol...silk flower...I saw the threaded edges on the right and guessed it!

Still, I wish others would take their flower pics to this level. I feel the technical side of this has been critiqued to death, but in terms of layout/comp I think it's just fine. This probably one of the most unique (in a good way) framing jobs I've seen at this site.

Beautiful! you've manage to make it alive, with the exception of the frayed edges.

as  Wysiwyg I noticed the threaded edges inmediately, on the other hand the tecnique facts of this shot are very well achieved, the focus, light, balance of color, and even centered composition, have made that the "flower" stands out perfectly, great quality work! +10/10

I love the use of strait obvious lines framming the tattered edges of the silk flower.

It's a good blend, But I think It would be more engaging had you kept the bottom left of the flower as lit up as the rest. and perhaps run the sharpen tool just around the flower's edges to pull it out of the BG a little more.

Very nice Sam! This presentation is so elegant. I like the opacity of the borders, the background, and the lighting. Perhaps you could explain to me "tone mapping" when you have a moment. Please e-mail me about this when you have a moment.

Excellent work!

Michelle

Congratulations pal, MsMichelle said correct...the presentation is really elegant, and I think this is the best +7/7

Wonderful image, and well presented. Heh... Magritte, yes. Anyway, great photo!

+8 great shot - good colors and tones in this

Thanks everyone! I'm pleased that you guys like it!

It reminds me of one of those motivational posters. Very beautiful! The texture looks amazing.

all I can say is... Amazing!
looks like all the hard work has payed off.

-Tom

oh wow

very beautifull colors!
i'm gonna use it as a my desktop! if i may ofcours

you made flower real ...great ... +9

abysmalgail: Go right ahead! Enjoy!

Wonderful work¡¡¡¡¡¡The fact that the rose is not a real rose gave to the photo a strange and subtle quality.
+10
)))))
Bea

Good effect, and it's well taken too I'd love to see this type of shot with other subjects, this is really nice.

As I mentioned in "Ride" it's very refreshing to see someone who has a goal and then strives to accomplish that goal. Thanks for the info on Tone Mapping, I'm definitely going to give that a shot. Everything else has been mentioned already...a few times Keep up the good work!

Really beautiful