Lily Pond

Posted by Laurie (New Jersey, United States) on 20 March 2007 in Plant & Nature and Portfolio.

This is a shot from last August taken at a little park near where Russell has his bassoon lessons.

I seem to be on a flower kick.

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Comments (18)

Arjun Kachru from Pune, India

Lovely, that pair of lilies really stand out. Awesome b/w!

20 Mar 2007 5:23am

@Arjun Kachru: Thanks.

Art Monkey from Salt Spring Island, Canada

I love it! - interesting to make it black and white - it works!

20 Mar 2007 6:45am

@Art Monkey: thanks

Manuela Photography from Hainburg (near Frankfurt/Main), Germany

Love the b&w, plus the glow effect of the lilies!

20 Mar 2007 9:10am

@Manuela Photography: Thanks. It was actually just the way they looked, not a photoshop thing.

Alborz from Tehran, Iran

nice work on B&W, and use of exposure on that pair, excellent shot Laurie

20 Mar 2007 9:49am

@Alborz: Thanks.

KM Faisal from Kerala,Kalpakanchery, India

you have nice work.

20 Mar 2007 10:14am

@KM Faisal: I appreciate that. Glad you like!

Suby from Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

As you know, not really a flower shot persdon, but this shot just screams perfect to me, love the way the white flowers sort of shine in the image and very good choice to go B&W.

Suby

20 Mar 2007 10:52am

@Suby: Thanks Suby!

Jerry from Tampa, United States

Laurie - this is WONDERFUL!!! The tones in the b/w are excellent and the white flower just jumps out! I would gladly send you a nickel if you would tell me how you did it!

20 Mar 2007 11:34am

@Jerry: Hi Jerry,

You asked how I achieved the result in the image Lily Pond. It was a pretty good original to begin with, shot when the light just dappled the pond. As far as post processing goes it was really straightforward. I did my RAW conversion for white balance and exposure, which was pretty good right from the camera, but since I knew I would be converting to black and white, I knew it should have a positive exposure compensation, so I pushed the exposure up a bit. I opened it in CS2 and did a gradient map conversion in layers to black and white (my favorite method) and then adjusted levels in layers. That's really it.

Sometimes I will adjust curves, and color balance in levels before doing the gradient map and convert the image to black and white, and I don't always have to tweak the levels, but there was a lot of shadow in the image so levels helped to balance it a little better.

david from Chesham, United Kingdom

i love the way the light seems to just pick out these two flowers - a beautiful shot.

20 Mar 2007 1:19pm

@david: It was a very lucky moment. The pond was dappled in the morning light.

Craiger from Vacaville, California, United States

Nothing wrong with a flower kick as long as you come up with stuff like this! Sweet!

20 Mar 2007 3:59pm

@Craiger: Thanks you.

badala from Leiria, Portugal

Beautiful - the way the flower stands out from the background is excellent.

20 Mar 2007 5:00pm

@badala: Thanks.

photowannabe from pacifica, United States

I like how the lily is hightlighted among the pads. Laurie, I never tire of flowers, so keep them coming.

20 Mar 2007 6:51pm

@photowannabe: Thanks.. I never tire of them either. But I am trying to find new and different ways to look at them.

Michael Zhang from New York City, United States

B/w and contrast really accents the lilies. Very nice. Sharp, and high quality too!

20 Mar 2007 8:14pm

@Michael Zhang: thank you.

adalove from Alcala de Guadaira, Spain

Very nice one! It´s a great b&w, the lilies are of course superb, but the details on the pads are also amazing.

21 Mar 2007 7:52am

@adalove: Thanks. I was a little surprised at the quality of the exposure since the lilies were so bright and the pads and water so dark.

Nick Passantino from Bronx, United States

This is a stunning image in black and white..

21 Mar 2007 2:52pm

@Nick Passantino: thank you

John from United States

Wonderful work; outstanding b&w technique.

21 Mar 2007 5:33pm

@John: Thank you. I love black and white, obviously. I think it hearkens back to when I was a kid and processed film and prints in my basement. All I did was black and white.