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Flower Power
Flower Power
yanko


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Flowers (Advanced Editing IV)
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM
Location: Austin, TX
Date: Jul 1, 2006
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1 second
Galleries: Abstract, Floral
Date Uploaded: Jul 1, 2006

 Setup:

I used two appliance light bulbs for the shot. The first one met an untimely demise when it slipped out of my hand. I used a small wrench to pop open the bottom and then pry out the filament. The flowers were then slipped in there. Now that I think about it I probably should have added a ladybug. Actually, I'm glad I didn't because a clean looking ladybug on some grungy flowers wouldn't have looked so good, which may have led me to doing something terrible to the bug. :P

The lighting setup was simple. I used some lightboxes to provide backlighting and top lighting. However, this didn't provide enough front lighting but since I wanted this to be a bit artsy/grungy the noise from the underexposure was beneficial.

Post processing:

- RAW conversion using fluorescent white balance.
- Shadow/Highlights was used to bring out the detail in the flowers.
- Curves was used several times at different stages to tweak the brightness.
- Dodging and Burning.
- Gradient Map was used several times to boost contrast as well as desaturate parts of the image.
- Cloning/Healing was used to remove sensor dust, other blemishes and a little on the screw near the border.
- Rotate tool was used to slightly rotate the image before cropping.
- USM was used to boost local contrast.
- Smart Sharpening was used on the entire image.
- Cropped to final size.
- Save for Web.

I really like the result but it's heavily edited, uses selective desaturation and isn't totally clean so I'm not sure how this will do. I just hope there aren't too many others with the same idea. :)

*Post*

Sweet. A new personal best. Thanks to everyone who commented. Btw, had I known everyone at DPC was going to shoot light bulbs in the concurrent glass challenge I would have stuck the flowers in a wall socket instead. Would have been easier too. :P

Statistics
Place: 13 out of 375
Avg (all users): 6.6732
Avg (commenters): 7.5417
Avg (participants): 6.5145
Avg (non-participants): 7.0000
Views since voting: 3786
Views during voting: 419
Votes: 205
Comments: 52
Favorites: 18 (view)

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AuthorThread
 10/13/2006 07:21:42 PM
This is a great shot with a great result ... very creative.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/10/2006 12:09:54 AM
A super capture and quite creative. The idea to insert the flowers give it that "wow" factor. Nice work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/26/2006 09:41:45 AM
Wow! This is an awesome photo. Very creative and well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/20/2006 07:16:17 AM
Cool idea, looks great.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/24/2006 11:48:33 PM
ahhh man! this is soooo soo sooo awesome!!! so creative! i did not vote in this challenge but i would've given it a ten, i would have given it a danged ribbon! but 13 out of 373 aint too bad either!! awesome job man!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/22/2006 07:07:52 PM
Hi Richard-

It's difficult to critique this once since it placed so well. The only fault I can find is that the lightbulb shot has now moved into the realm of DPC cliche. Time to start a new trend!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/17/2006 03:09:02 AM
What - no ribbon?? Voters must've been as tired of light bulbs as they are of flowers. ;-) I think it's great! Congrats on a personal best, yank!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/15/2006 11:30:10 PM
Nice !

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/14/2006 04:19:26 PM
hahah this is so cool i like it alot good job on your high placement!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2006 10:16:17 PM
Hey, Richard with a new PB. Noice, man.
Rather clean selective desat, good job here.
Grunge-y feel works, too. I so hate flower shots, but this one's cool.
Great job, dude.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2006 10:34:29 AM
Hi!

I like the title. The lighting and colours are good...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2006 01:03:44 AM
Congrates Yanko on PB. This is really nice shot. I really like the way you lit the bulb. Really nice. Congratulations..
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/12/2006 09:22:53 AM
Congrats on the new pb!! This is a really cool looking shot. Creative, which was nice in a challenge where a lot of the shots started to look the same after awhile. I like the blue/b&w tones. Very pretty. And the slight grunge feel works well. Great shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 11:31:29 PM
Nice picture Richard! I really thought this would would have finished in the top 10 but 13th is not bad at all! Congratulations
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 11:28:00 PM
Now this is excellent, great score, and just love how you have done this.....
I must add it to my favorites as well.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 06:29:19 PM
Congratulations on your top 20 finish. Great idea, excellent shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/11/2006 09:10:13 AM
Awesome concept and presentation! Well done on a great shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 03:12:18 AM
Oooooh...now this was close. I really like it...well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 12:56:48 AM
Brilliant idea! Great job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 12:51:51 AM
I still think there's a lady bug in there somewhere. Dead! Congrats d00d on Top 20 ;)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 12:49:31 AM
Loved the colours in this beautiful image. Congratulations on your top 20 finish.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 12:30:36 AM
Amazing! I missed this one in the voting! It's so creative! Congratulations on such a strong finish!

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/10/2006 12:22:17 AM
Such a COOL shot! Congrats on the high placement & score. This was a VERY competitive challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
07/09/2006 05:43:50 PM
very creative. I hope this makes the top 10 for you.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/09/2006 04:17:42 PM
love the idea. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/09/2006 01:23:16 AM
I maybe going against what some may be saying but I know you would want my honest opinion. You had a good idea here but I think it fell a little short. One thing that is distracting to me is the selective desaturation. You have destaturated the green of the leafs but a few around the flowers retained its color. The flowers themselves offer very little detail with dark centers that distracts me. The layout of the your subject in the bulb is leaning all to the right giving me an allusion that the bulb is not symmetrical.

The focus is good along with the lighting. Maybe it's just me but the processing did little or anything to enhance this photograph especially when comparing it to the title to try to arrive at a connection. The background is nice and even and the DOF is good.

I think this could be a great photograph executed properly.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/08/2006 09:41:15 PM
I do declare I must learn to hollow out light bulbs...ALL the ones in challenges lately are GREAT...gl 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/08/2006 01:35:22 PM
Interesting concept but where's the desaturated lady bug? Is this a Where's Waldo type of image? Bummer that the winner's of glass were light bulbs so I suspect people are scoring this down. Good luck.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/08/2006 10:17:38 AM
Nicely done! Great job with the lighting/colors. It seems a little too tightly cropped IMHO.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/08/2006 06:09:05 AM
Great Idea well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/08/2006 04:51:00 AM
Lol, flowers in a ligthbulb. I don't like the selective desaturation but the idea is very good.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/07/2006 10:03:23 PM
Very cool idea. So unique. Your creativity has taken two ordinary items and combined them into a wonderful image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/06/2006 10:16:01 PM
Re-use of the bulb from the glass challenge? Very well done - love the blue/gray tones chosen.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/06/2006 07:38:32 AM
Good concept, nice selective desaturation. good title
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2006 11:04:47 PM
WOW! How cool is that?!?!?!?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2006 09:24:14 PM
how in the world did you get those in there? 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2006 04:21:30 PM
Great photo. Colors are really nice. Great job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2006 01:48:01 PM
neat idea!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/05/2006 01:02:11 AM
pretty neat idea, looks good too, coloring is weird but makes it better
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 11:52:51 PM
Well, somebody's "Idea Bulb" is looking quite floral. ;)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 10:35:12 PM
Thanks for your originality.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 08:47:52 PM
Very well done. My daughter wanted to do this (with marigolds) for the "Glass" challenge, but we she was never able to get it just right. Our Her problem was the reflections on the lightbulb. They were nasty. I lovethe selective desaturation. It really adds to the photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 01:33:52 PM
Very creative and artistic photograph. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 01:15:26 PM
Like the title, and the use of partial desat really works well here, but perhaps another choice of flower color would have really made more of a connection to the 'power' aspect of it, IMO.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 09:47:26 AM
Different!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 08:47:40 AM
Considering the number of bulbs used by photographers, I would not be surprised to see an entrepreneur start selling ones in which the glass had been cut away ready for insertion of.... Cliched but clever. 7.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/04/2006 12:58:54 AM
very original! one of those "why didn't I think of that?" pics ;) i'm not sure how i feel about the selective desaturation, but it's still a wonderful image. good luck! 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/03/2006 08:11:18 PM
Unique vision!
Love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/03/2006 07:13:22 PM
Outstanding! Great idea and great photo!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/03/2006 01:12:06 PM
I want this shot to win. It is the most original and lovely of all the ones I've seen. 10.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/03/2006 01:47:06 AM
Good Job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/03/2006 12:43:42 AM
great title and a nice job with this
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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