csr

Wonderful Mark, Thank you very much!

Marc G Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England

more than welcome, must say its awesome software but tricky to get to grips with

CliffB Loc: Bristol UK

Used paintshop pro clone and smudge, need to enlarge and use a brush just a coiple of pixels in diameter. Took about five minutes

donnz Loc: Auckland, New Zealand

Well I differ from the others here. All you have done is crop them more.
I was told very early never crop the petals out or an insects feeler off.
both your pic you have done just that. Apart from that they are ok.
Don

csr

DON,
This is my photo...look above and you will see
I have removed a stem and telephone line from the top right.
I have not cropped this photo. As well...
I am happy to report....that THREE not two of my prints
Are indeed in a gallery now!!! Not high dollar
But I am in there! And the judge liked well enough excepted three
Not two!!!! Yes...I feel good about that!

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

I recently upgraded to Photoshop Elements 11. I purchased (Amazon has it) Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 Classroom in a Book. It is the official training workbook from Adobe Systems. What I like best about it is that there is a CD with images on it. Then as you go through the book, you work on the same images that the author is explaining. It makes it very clear. I have not finished yet. I got hung up with the organizer section and have not really gotten into the editing section yet. There is also the same book for Lightroom 4. Guess I'm trying to do too many things at once. It happens. I would recommend either or both of these books.

isisbaby1987 Loc: jacksonville,nc

i think you just need to brighten up the colors and they would be great i also agree i think your not supposed to crop out parts of the flower but anywho your photos are good just bring out those awesome colors i took your last photo to show you...

csr

Thank you...it is brighter...you may want to watch out for hot spots, they are the all white over bright areas.
When you lighten up this much...could be our computers... my acual shot had great natural light of the sun behind it.
This flowers center is the focal...so in this instance, not having the whole petal is ok! I should have gotten a better angle for the sigma. This was judges first pick and was sent in untouched!

isisbaby1987 Loc: jacksonville,nc

i liked it untouched just saying brighter is better try using a reflector i just thought it was a little dark... i like the angle :thumbup:

csr

I am still trying natural light...I do not have reflecters yet.
Seeing you like light...I have a new project involving ways to keep
Unwanted shadows and light off of a clear vase! Images keep showing up
On the sides of any thing holding light..trees.windows..furniture..
Tried white back ground..not...told to try black on glass table with light coming from bottom...what do you think?

JimiJones Loc: Owings Mills, Maryland

csr, looks like you've come up with the solutions, which is great. Good deal. :-)

Glad you were able to resolve this. Best of luck.

Larrie Loc: NE Ohio

Nice flowers but the first thing that struck me was the light is too close to midday

csr

Being new at this.... I had to wait for that sun to come play with the flower! I have no idea why you are saying it was to close to noon. And it would be helpful to know why you say it is. I also do not know how to tell the sun what time it should be where I want it. My mother taught me not to pick her flowers and even at the age of 55... I am not about to pick one!!! LOL
Do you realize how lucky I was to have the sun show through the flower that way? Has not been that way sence.
So please help me out here and tell me!!

Ernie Misner Loc: Lakewood, WA

Welcome to the nicest little forum on this planet! Those are excellent photographs; thanks so much for sharing. On the first two, I think ideally rather than cloning, that you will eventually learn to isolate your subject a little more by using different camera angles, switch to a telephoto lens, throw the background out of focus with a wide aperture, etc. There's no free lunch - just a lot of thought and checking all the angles many times. Even then sometimes a pleasing background is not going to happen. Notice everyone is talking background here! That is so important. After while it will be come second-nature and as you look at a promising subject you will be automatically scoping out the background. Now what is really cool is when the background will have a complementary hue but still not clutter or will not steal the show.

donnz Loc: Auckland, New Zealand

He's mentioning midday because of the way the shadows are being cast by overhead light, later in the afternoon the shadows will be long. Idealy you want a flower to shows its colours without distracting backgrounds.
There is a book called understanding exposure, by Bryan Peterson. Its recommended reading by this forum. The book explains methods of bluring the background so that only the flower shows up ,or having the flower cut out and pasted on a black background, or some other colour.
That makes the difference between an also ran photo and a great photo, and as I mentioned in an earlier post you " should" get in all the petals and you "should" place your flower in a 1/3 position .
These are only " should rules" but sometimes breaking a rule can be really good. Have a look in the photo contest thats running at the moment, titled rule of thirds.Look at how many flower shots are in there , or look in the macro section at flowers, that should give you some ideas.
I hope this makes sense. Oh and you dont have to, pick a flower, but there is no rule to say you cant "move" the background clutter
Don