lightchime Loc: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Exported via Lightroom as 73% quality JPEG (1.88MB)

The originating composite TIFF was 631 MB

Processing in LightRoom 4.X and Photoshop CS4

Captures: Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA on different dates


Nikon D300
Micro Nikkor 105 mm

The jagged edges on the flower in the upper left were gifts of Mother Nature, not selection artifacts.

There was no attempt to capture images for a composite. Each component was part of a separate intimate landscape. I appreciated the similarity of the colors in RAW and determined to make a composite after all were initially processed.

I thought that leaving the stem and buds would add more visual interest and provide for a better overall balance of the composition.


I do very few composites and would appreciate your critique.

Orchid Composite

Trippmeister Loc: Los Gatos, CA

Nice, you must have selected them and put them on a black background. I'd wall-hang it.

lightchime Loc: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Thank you Trippmeister.

I have printed at 13X19, but the print heads on my Epson 3880 got blocked and I can't get the black. The flowers print beautifully even with the problem, but I the background is a pea soup green.

My plans for this week are to clear the heads. But, I have been promising myself that for months.

Attached is one of the original components.

Trippmeister Loc: Los Gatos, CA

I don't know where you live, but I use Costco for all my prints. there's lots of other services also, I only use the printer for minor tasks, not photos. I can wait a few days, and order more prints whenever I need them.

lightchime Loc: Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I used Costco exclusively a few years ago. I found that my prints were always too dark and no matter how I processed and re-processed, the conversion to sRGB always seemed to muddy my colors and darken tone. I used the presets (Dry Creek?) and they would turn off all automatic adjustments.

Printing my own is appreciably more expensive, but the time involved in driving back and forth from Costco just wasn't worth it.

I believe their prints are a tremendous value and have friends who use them all the time for competitions. The people in Pittsburgh are wonderful and very helpful. They just do not print on fine art paper and have not satisfied me with tone and color.

I appreciate your suggesting them. They are great, but just don't satisfy my personal requirements.

Treepusher Loc: Kingston, Massachusetts

Beautiful! You did a great job with this.

The anal control freak in me would have arranged the flowers a little differently, but it's yours, not mine, so I'll just enjoy it as is. Very well done!