Lily Pond

Posted by Laurie (New Jersey, United States) on 20 March 2007 in Plants & 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.

Please visit my other photoblog Capturethisphotography.com

This photo of the Bucknell Quad is a 2 page feature photo in the Summer 2008 issue of Bucknell Magazine.

Your comments are very much appreciated. I know the time and effort it takes to visit and leave comments and although I don't get to reply to them nearly as often as I like, please know that I do really appreciate them. You are what keeps me going. I make every effort to reply to questions but I may miss one or two and I apologize for that. If you really need me to get an answer to you quickly, the best way is to use the contact form on Am3.

As of July 2008 I have decided to post the same photos here as on Capturethisphotography.com but check the archives for photos not posted here.

VFXY Photos

Comments (18)

Arjun Kachru from Pune, India

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

20 Mar 2007 12:23am

@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 1:45am

@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 4:10am

@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 4:49am

@Alborz: Thanks.

KM Faisal from Kerala,Kalpakanchery, India

you have nice work.

20 Mar 2007 5:14am

@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 5:52am

@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 6:34am

@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 8:19am

@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 10:59am

@Craiger: Thanks you.

badala from Leiria, Portugal

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

20 Mar 2007 12:00pm

@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 1:51pm

@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 3:14pm

@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 2:52am

@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 9:52am

@Nick Passantino: thank you

John from United States

Wonderful work; outstanding b&w technique.

21 Mar 2007 12:33pm

@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.