Flowery impressions ~ IR [limwhow]

[limwhow]

An Obsession with Flowers

Until very recently, as a typical busy citizen of this cosmopolitan society rushing through the daily grind, I have never given flowers, leaves, trees and many of these lovely botanical co-habitants a second glance.

But IR photography changed everything. At least for me it does.
Now every day, as I walk or drive around, my eyes are constantly on the look out for unique foliage, trees with ferns-covered trunks. And of course, flowers.

This afternoon I had the pleasure of visiting a colleague in the hospital ward.
And I happen to lay eyes on this set of beautiful flowers on the table.

Would like to share with all my humble rendition of these simple little objects of love.

#1

#2

#3

I did some selective Hue and Saturation colouring, and added some vignetting on the first two photos to place more emphasis on the centre flowers.
Thank you for visiting my humble thread.
And as always, please feel totally free to C&C.

 

[limwhow]

#4 Selective Hue and Saturation on the rose. The rest - the usual Channel Swap and Hue and Saturation.

#5 No selective colouring done. Only Channel swap and Hue and Saturation.

#6 Only Channel Swap and Usual Hue and Saturation.

Again, please do C&C with all liberty.
Thank you all very much.

 

[vngks]

Bro, like u, IR has opened up my eyes to nature around me. Similarly, I have also been on the lookout for beautiful tress and settings.

Nice pics :thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[LowLights]

Very nice :thumbsup:

I am not sure but for #2 .. if the contrast can be up a little it "sharpen" the flower a little more.. for now it looks alittle "over exposed" to me..

Just my 2 cents

 

[limwhow]

Bro, like u, IR has opened up my eyes to nature around me. Similarly, I have also been on the lookout for beautiful tress and settings.

Nice pics :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Vngks, thanks so much for your encouragement on my still very new attempts at IR with different subjects. And I am glad that IR has given all of us a new perspective in looking at photographic subjects.

 

[limwhow]

Very nice :thumbsup:

I am not sure but for #2 .. if the contrast can be up a little it "sharpen" the flower a little more.. for now it looks alittle "over exposed" to me..

Just my 2 cents

LowLights, very many thanks to you for your encouragement too! You know me lah... So new to IR, but so itchy... Just want to keep experimenting.
I have been in close discussion w fatigue on the sharpness of the AF of my modded 20D. His opinion is that the AF after modding will be different already. So I need to be mindful and perhaps learn to compensate for AF point.
Still your advice is a very good one, and I will relook my contrast and sharpness.
Thanks again!

 

[fatigue]

Challenging shot.
Shooting at close range (shallow DOF) + indoor + IR

 

[Winduhs]

Nice pics..Actually, for this case, I like the soft focus effect more than if the photos had been sharpened. The selective colouring was done well too. Good job!

 

[limwhow]

Challenging shot.
Shooting at close range (shallow DOF) + indoor + IR

Yes indeed, fatigue.
Challenging because it's indoor and I can only depend on the natural light coming from the window. Also challenging to me as I have a constant internal struggle on how far I should stretch the colour creativity for my pictures before they would be frowned upon as highly unorthodox IR Post processing.
Still struggling on that very issue. Haha..
Was really hoping to have all experienced IR shooters shed some light on this and offer me their expert opinions. Truly.

 

[limwhow]

Nice pics..Actually, for this case, I like the soft focus effect more than if the photos had been sharpened. The selective colouring was done well too. Good job!

Hello, Winduhs.
Thank you for your positive words on my attempts on selective colouring.
My intention is to explore all subject possibilities with IR and to explore the use of various lenses.
Would be very happy to hear more of your opinions on my further photos.
Thanks again!

 

[limwhow]

Outdoor Flowers

It was a gloriously sunny day today at around noon.
I was fortunate to have an opportunity to step out of my four walls for a couple of hours to find myself basked in Ultra-violet and Intra-red rays.
For the first time, I noticed tons of flora around my neighbourhood, and grabbed my cameras lest I miss such good weather.

I came across many species of flowers. Quietly I blamed my own laziness for not studying hard enough, and thus not knowing the nomenclature of many of these beautiful flowers.
The came in all shapes and colours, and these hues excited me tremendously.
Upon examining the shots on my laptop screen, I surprised myself that all these flowers turned out as white as the leaves around them!

#7 The Hibiscus in the garden.

#8 Just right next to the big Hibiscus flower on the same plant, I found a small bud.
Here is it, with an incidental ant on its petal... probably hunting for nectar?
Ants... hunting for nectar? My...!

#9 Any small little bud adjacent to the former two flowers on the same plant.

#10 Right next to the Hibiscus plant, I found this... Hmmm... it looked nice, but I just don't know what's its name....

As my current addiction is with selective Hue & Saturation, I have taken the liberty to experiment with this in all these four photos.
Still has quite a long long way to go as even in my untrained eyes, the PP are far from good.
Thanks for viewing them.

 

[limwhow]

#11 White Ixora.
I remember what our good friend LowLights said about increasing contrast to bring out the sharpness.
In this one, as well as a couple of others, I pumped up the Clarity and Contrast in ACR,
and in PS I added in another layer to adjust the Brightness & Contrast.
But somehow, I just can't bring up that kind of sharpness. This is the best I could come up with.
I reckon it could be the softness due to the wide aperture. Will keep trying.

#12 White Fern.

#13 Red brick wall. I stumbled upon this interesting site as I walked further around the neighbourhood.
The weed at the foot of this brick wall, and the dark red bricks with moss growing on it, presented a
good opportunity for me to see how the end result would turn out to be like.

 

[LowLights]

This one I like alot :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Hmm.. sad that the increased in contrast did not help..

 

[limwhow]

This one I like alot :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Hmm.. sad that the increased in contrast did not help..

Brother, thanks!
Don't worry about the contrast issue.
What you said makes a lot of sense.
Nowadays I am quite careful cos after every shot I chimp the histogram to make sure there is no clipping. In fact, I keep the histogram smack right in the centre.
What I am going to do is to experiment with adjusting the contrast and curves even before I do the channel swapping, hopefully to enhance the details in the white areas.
Will report back to you if I stumble upon anything.

 

[limwhow]

#14 Water droplets on a simple leaf
Well, LowLights, this one I decided to do heaps of contrast before I do the channel swap.
After the channel swap, I masked out everything except the centre leaf with the droplets,
and did an Auto Level. It does make things better.
Will continue to try some more.
(Sorry about the artefacts on the background. I pushed the Cyan just a little too hard... haha)

 

[AlexK]

Bravo ! Mo tak teng :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[limwhow]

Bravo ! Mo tak teng :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

大哥, I am your humble 小弟.
All of you just haven't put up your shots only lah...
I face skin hard hard simply put up for criticism.
Thank you thank you!

 

[nleong]

wee how,!! Great series can't wait to join you guys. taking delivery my 20D tmr (then need to find someone to convert it )

 

[AlexK]

wee how,!! Great series can't wait to join you guys. taking delivery my 20D tmr (then need to find someone to convert it )

Welcome to the "club". :devil:

 

[takeshi.lum]

wee how,!! Great series can't wait to join you guys. taking delivery my 20D tmr (then need to find someone to convert it )

welcome!! u will soon get addicted to it!!