Sunflowers and using what I have: Out in the yard with my cheapo Kodak again and found these Sunflowers growing out of an old manure pile. Dark blue sky, low full sun, and bright...

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Out in the yard with my cheapo Kodak again and found these Sunflowers growing out of an old manure pile. Dark blue sky, low full sun, and bright yellow Sunflowers. After fooling around to get the final picture I liked my wife says I liked the original. I know I didn't use any fancy P.P program but I like the photo and I am learning how to use just what I have right now.

Original photo attempt. My old knees would allow me to get lower and remove background.

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Used "clone tool" to get rid of background then cropped

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Boosted contrast and satiation. Don't remember it I hit the sharpening tool

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Converted to "sketch"
Converted to "sketch"...

(Download)

sanhuberto Loc: Miami

Sunflowers have been one of my favorite photo subjects, always trying to recreate a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Tough to do in Miami though, we have no sunflowers. Loved the subject matter, color saturation. Wish it was not cut-off at the bottom.
Also can you tell me what you used to do the sketch.
Claude

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You're off to a good start. You might crop a little tighter pulling the upper left corner into the image to reduce slightly more of the blue space on the top and left of the flower. Fancier tools will help you more seamlessly blend in the 'replacement' blue with the original blue of the sky. But in this version, one would notice only when inspecting the processing as the uneven blue background doesn't pull the viewer's eye away from the flower.

TomC. Loc: Bel Air, MD

DIRTY HARRY wrote:

Out in the yard with my cheapo Kodak again and found these Sunflowers growing out of an old manure pile. Dark blue sky, low full sun, and bright yellow Sunflowers. After fooling around to get the final picture I liked my wife says I liked the original. I know I didn't use any fancy P.P program but I like the photo and I am learning how to use just what I have right now.

I rather like the first one, Harry. Looks great. Background gives it a sense of place.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

DIRTY HARRY wrote:

Out in the yard with my cheapo Kodak again and found these Sunflowers growing out of an old manure pile. Dark blue sky, low full sun, and bright yellow Sunflowers. After fooling around to get the final picture I liked my wife says I liked the original. I know I didn't use any fancy P.P program but I like the photo and I am learning how to use just what I have right now.

I like the last 2, good results.

twowindsbear

You've gotten 1 vote for 'crop tighter' I'll suggest not cropping quite so tight that you clipped off the tips of some petals. Really like the blue sky, too.

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

You sound like my wife..

TomC. wrote:

I rather like the first one, Harry. Looks great. Background gives it a sense of place.

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

It's a free program called FastStone Image Viewer that I found on file hippo.com.. The sketch tool is under effects in upper left corner... several things can easily be done with the program but I'd like to be able to do some of the layers stuff I've seen done here.. Got to get Elements on my machine and learn how to use it.

"

sanhuberto wrote:

Sunflowers have been one of my favorite photo subjects, always trying to recreate a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Tough to do in Miami though, we have no sunflowers. Loved the subject matter, color saturation. Wish it was not cut-off at the bottom.
Also can you tell me what you used to do the sketch.
Claude

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Thanks for your input. I'm going to give your suggestions a try.

CHG_CANON wrote:

You're off to a good start. You might crop a little tighter pulling the upper left corner into the image to reduce slightly more of the blue space on the top and left of the flower. Fancier tools will help you more seamlessly blend in the 'replacement' blue with the original blue of the sky. But in this version, one would notice only when inspecting the processing as the uneven blue background doesn't pull the viewer's eye away from the flower.

TBerwick Loc: Houston, Texas

I really like the sketch rendition. Looks like a really talented pencil artist was at work.

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Is this what you had in mind?

CHG_CANON wrote:

You're off to a good start. You might crop a little tighter pulling the upper left corner into the image to reduce slightly more of the blue space on the top and left of the flower. Fancier tools will help you more seamlessly blend in the 'replacement' blue with the original blue of the sky. But in this version, one would notice only when inspecting the processing as the uneven blue background doesn't pull the viewer's eye away from the flower.

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

DIRTY HARRY wrote:

Is this what you had in mind?

Yes, I think so. Pure Sunflower.

DIRTY HARRY Loc: Hartland, Michigan

Thanks.

nimbushopper Loc: Tampa, FL

Well done!

fourg1b2006 Loc: Long Island New York

Wow,these are just beautiful....good work.