FCAS Submission

[Squirm]

My First try. Used a halogen lamp pointed at the ceiling with a silver reflector for fill. Used color range to select parts of the flower and saved each part as a channel. I then Shift clicked all the saved channels to load them as one selection. I used quickmask to clean it up then inverted. Used levels to darken. Used 2 seperate layes to dodge and burn a bit, and a curves layer.Risize, sharpen, frame.....submit

Thanks!

Here's the setup.



Here's the original
http://photobucket.com/albums/v206/mssoll/Test/

Here's the Full size edit.

 

[Jim Strathearn]

Oh boy! Just one day as the newest FCAS member and I get to critique a submission!

Overall, a great job. My initial feeling was that the frame competed for attention just a tad too much with the subject, but the more I look at it, the less I feel that way. I could not get the link to the full size edit to work BTW. But the background in the submission pic seems to be saturated well, and the lighting of the subject is striking.

Like I said, this is my first critique of another's submission so take it with a grain of salt. FWIW, I think it is a fine submission. It fits well with the theme of FCAS. Good luck with the committe.

--
Jim
D70, Kit Lens, 50mm 1.8, 70-300mm ED D, SB-800
Proud FCAS Member #121, Dslr Divison
http://red71shark.smugmug.com/
http://www.pbase.com/red71shark

 

[Squirm]

Thanks !. I uploaded the file to a different location. The Full size does not have a frame. The Full size edit one is named annualhigh. The Full size original is annaul big.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v206/mssoll/Test/

Oh boy! Just one day as the newest FCAS member and I get to
critique a submission!

Overall, a great job. My initial feeling was that the frame
competed for attention just a tad too much with the subject, but
the more I look at it, the less I feel that way. I could not get
the link to the full size edit to work BTW. But the background in
the submission pic seems to be saturated well, and the lighting of
the subject is striking.

Like I said, this is my first critique of another's submission so
take it with a grain of salt. FWIW, I think it is a fine
submission. It fits well with the theme of FCAS. Good luck with the
committe.

--
Jim
D70, Kit Lens, 50mm 1.8, 70-300mm ED D, SB-800
Proud FCAS Member #121, Dslr Divison
http://red71shark.smugmug.com/
http://www.pbase.com/red71shark

 

[eManu]

Hi Squirm,

Very nice subject! I like it a lot, especially the flower petals that are wonderful: They look like a painting. I guess your lighting technic helped create this spectacular effect.

I also like very much your composition with the slight angle and the group of leaves. And your signature is well done: I really like the fact that you sign on top of the leaves. Nice touch. The frame is also very nice.

Now, I am going to play the "nitpicker": I noticed (while looking at your original) that the edge of some leaves were not properly selected (I suppose), therefore the background arround them is not black (see sample below):



I used the Level tool to highlight the selection problem.

And when looking closer I noticed that the overall selection wasn't smooth but "stairway" kind of shape (see sample below):



You don't say what software you used to post-process your pic. If you use Photoshop, you could use the "Selection Brush Tool" to smooth the selection, then may be Contract the selection and Feather it. By the way, why not use the Magic Wand tool for the selection process? (unless your software doens't provide such tool)

Of course the selection problem is barely (if not) visible for the naked eyes (especially with a black background) but if you ever want to set a light colored background it is going to be a problem.

Despite the selection problem, I still like very much what you have created and wish you good luck with the Committee.

--
Manu
FCAS Member #118 (DSLR division)

My First try. Used a halogen lamp pointed at the ceiling with a
silver reflector for fill. Used color range to select parts of the
flower and saved each part as a channel. I then Shift clicked all
the saved channels to load them as one selection. I used quickmask
to clean it up then inverted. Used levels to darken. Used 2
seperate layes to dodge and burn a bit, and a curves layer.Risize,
sharpen, frame.....submit

Thanks!

Here's the setup.



Here's the original
http://photobucket.com/albums/v206/mssoll/Test/

Here's the Full size edit.

 

[AJohn]

I think what your seeing in that second picture of yours is common and most all of the images in the member's gallery have this effect. I think that just comes from downsizing and JPEG compression. My guess is, if the background is selected and treated on the full sized image and then downsized, this will be the result. If the image is downsized first and then given the background treatment, the edges are clean. I'll have to try this to make sure though.

--
Andy (Critiques Always Welcome)
FCAS Member #120
C750
http://imageevent.com/ajrphotos

 

[Squirm]

Thanks Emanu. I appreciate the feedback. To answer a couple of questions. I used PSCS for the editing. I did not use the majic wand tool because I don't like the transitions it makes. Sure it works for alot of things but I wanted to keep all of outer edges as simular to the inside edges as possible.

It seems that at 100% the JPG is a little jaggy. The full size psd or tiff is silky smooth around the edges and the transitions look great. The problem is my account is won't let me post a file over 1 meg. I would be more than happy to email it to someone for review.

I could have(and still can) made all the black areas at 0 without too much trouble, but as you mentioned It cannot seen. If were going to extract to a diiferent backround i would get much tighter but for this composition I felt it worked well.

Thanks!

Hi Squirm,

Very nice subject! I like it a lot, especially the flower petals
that are wonderful: They look like a painting. I guess your
lighting technic helped create this spectacular effect.
I also like very much your composition with the slight angle and
the group of leaves. And your signature is well done: I really like
the fact that you sign on top of the leaves. Nice touch. The frame
is also very nice.
Now, I am going to play the "nitpicker": I noticed (while looking
at your original) that the edge of some leaves were not properly
selected (I suppose), therefore the background arround them is not
black (see sample below):



I used the Level tool to highlight the selection problem.

And when looking closer I noticed that the overall selection wasn't
smooth but "stairway" kind of shape (see sample below):



You don't say what software you used to post-process your pic. If
you use Photoshop, you could use the "Selection Brush Tool" to
smooth the selection, then may be Contract the selection and
Feather it. By the way, why not use the Magic Wand tool for the
selection process? (unless your software doens't provide such tool)
Of course the selection problem is barely (if not) visible for the
naked eyes (especially with a black background) but if you ever
want to set a light colored background it is going to be a problem.

Despite the selection problem, I still like very much what you have
created and wish you good luck with the Committee.

--
Manu
FCAS Member #118 (DSLR division)

 

[eManu]

Andy,

You are right, I performed some test and that effect seem to come from the JPEG compression. Before commenting Squirm submission I did check that effect on some of my pics but it was the PSD files! What a dummy check performed by a JPEG challenged person! I want to run and hide!
Anyway, thank you teaching me a good lesson.

I think what your seeing in that second picture of yours is common
and most all of the images in the member's gallery have this
effect. I think that just comes from downsizing and JPEG
compression. My guess is, if the background is selected and treated
on the full sized image and then downsized, this will be the
result. If the image is downsized first and then given the
background treatment, the edges are clean. I'll have to try this to
make sure though.

--
Andy (Critiques Always Welcome)
FCAS Member #120
C750
http://imageevent.com/ajrphotos

--
Manu
FCAS Member #118 (DSLR division)

 

[eManu]

My second remark about your selection was wrong because of my lack of knowlegde about JPEG compression. As I said to Andy, before commenting your submission I did check that effect on some of my pics but it was the PSD files! What a dummy check performed by a JPEG challenged person!
I sincerely apologize for my mistake.
Anyway, like I said, whatever the selection, your pic is wonderful.
Best Regards,

I could have(and still can) made all the black areas at 0 without
too much trouble, but as you mentioned It cannot seen. If were
going to extract to a diiferent backround i would get much tighter
but for this composition I felt it worked well.

Thanks!

Hi Squirm,

Very nice subject! I like it a lot, especially the flower petals
that are wonderful: They look like a painting. I guess your
lighting technic helped create this spectacular effect.
I also like very much your composition with the slight angle and
the group of leaves. And your signature is well done: I really like
the fact that you sign on top of the leaves. Nice touch. The frame
is also very nice.
Now, I am going to play the "nitpicker": I noticed (while looking
at your original) that the edge of some leaves were not properly
selected (I suppose), therefore the background arround them is not
black (see sample below):



I used the Level tool to highlight the selection problem.

And when looking closer I noticed that the overall selection wasn't
smooth but "stairway" kind of shape (see sample below):



You don't say what software you used to post-process your pic. If
you use Photoshop, you could use the "Selection Brush Tool" to
smooth the selection, then may be Contract the selection and
Feather it. By the way, why not use the Magic Wand tool for the
selection process? (unless your software doens't provide such tool)
Of course the selection problem is barely (if not) visible for the
naked eyes (especially with a black background) but if you ever
want to set a light colored background it is going to be a problem.

Despite the selection problem, I still like very much what you have
created and wish you good luck with the Committee.

--
Manu
FCAS Member #118 (DSLR division)

--

--
Manu
FCAS Member #118 (DSLR division)

 

[jjholmes]

Love the subject and lighting. Although the frame is complex and very nice to me it does overpower a bit and takes away a little from the beautiful flower. I too pulled down the shot and ran it through levels finding several spots that did not come out true black (something that I dropped the ball on in my first submission). I agree with the others in using the magic wand for selection, if you set the tolerance correctly there is very little that can go wrong. All in all this is an awesome first run, wish you luck with the committee.

--
Jeff
FCAS Member #117
Oly C8080
Oly C5060/Hoya 40.5 UV (for now)
http://www.pbase.com/elgoobero
http://manny.org/FCAS/

 

[AJohn]

True, as Manu and JJ have pointed out, there are a couple of spots that seem as though the background wasn't totally selected but I would just like to say this is a beautiful image. The lighting and color are great and the composition is perfect. I agree with Manu on your sig, very nice. I don't know, I really do like that matte. Maybe it wouldn't compete if it wasn't as wide but I do like it.
--
Andy (Critiques Always Welcome)
FCAS Member #120
C750
http://imageevent.com/ajrphotos

 

[MiriamJ]

Hi Squirm,

Glad to see you came over from the D70 board to try out FCAS. I did miss seeing the EXIF on this. I'm guessing D70, because, from your previous posts, that was what you were using. You do beautiful work, by the way. I liked both the eagle and the owl.

Regarding the submission: I felt you picked a worthy subject, and did it justice. It's a nicely composed photo. The leaves seem to add to the composition rather than detract.

It took me a minute, but I really like your choice of green matting. Also, I checked in photoshop, and the background is nice and black.

My nitpick is with the outer black frame. It looks like you put on a frame, didn't like it, and then edited it. If you take your submission into photoshop, then open levels, and slide your right hand slider over to the left, your editing becomes obvious.

But, nitpicking aside, it's a beautiful submission!

My First try. Used a halogen lamp pointed at the ceiling with a
silver reflector for fill. Used color range to select parts of the
flower and saved each part as a channel. I then Shift clicked all
the saved channels to load them as one selection. I used quickmask
to clean it up then inverted. Used levels to darken. Used 2
seperate layes to dodge and burn a bit, and a curves layer.Risize,
sharpen, frame.....submit

Thanks!

Here's the setup.



Here's the original
http://photobucket.com/albums/v206/mssoll/Test/

Here's the Full size edit.



--

--
Warm Regards,
Miriam
Proud FCAS Member
CATS Member #3 > ^..^
http://www.pbase.com/miriamj/my_favorites

'Oh that a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven for?' -Robert Browning

4 5 0 0

 

[Squirm]

Thanks for the compliments Miriam. Yes it was a D70 with a 50 1.8. I guess i need to try and research how to copy the exif data. I figured since every takes the image into PS they could read it.

I have to confess.....The frame was an afterthought to display the work without much effort or planning but for the color. If I knew it was as important as the composition I would have not used one! Do they ever realy look as good as the image?

Thanks Again!

Glad to see you came over from the D70 board to try out FCAS. I did
miss seeing the EXIF on this. I'm guessing D70, because, from your
previous posts, that was what you were using. You do beautiful
work, by the way. I liked both the eagle and the owl.

Regarding the submission: I felt you picked a worthy subject, and
did it justice. It's a nicely composed photo. The leaves seem to
add to the composition rather than detract.

It took me a minute, but I really like your choice of green
matting. Also, I checked in photoshop, and the background is nice
and black.

My nitpick is with the outer black frame. It looks like you put on
a frame, didn't like it, and then edited it. If you take your
submission into photoshop, then open levels, and slide your right
hand slider over to the left, your editing becomes obvious.

But, nitpicking aside, it's a beautiful submission!

My First try. Used a halogen lamp pointed at the ceiling with a
silver reflector for fill. Used color range to select parts of the
flower and saved each part as a channel. I then Shift clicked all
the saved channels to load them as one selection. I used quickmask
to clean it up then inverted. Used levels to darken. Used 2
seperate layes to dodge and burn a bit, and a curves layer.Risize,
sharpen, frame.....submit

Thanks!

Here's the setup.



Here's the original
http://photobucket.com/albums/v206/mssoll/Test/

Here's the Full size edit.



--

--
Warm Regards,
Miriam
Proud FCAS Member
CATS Member #3 > ^..^
http://www.pbase.com/miriamj/my_favorites

'Oh that a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a Heaven
for?' -Robert Browning

4 5 0 0

 

[thruthelens]

Hello Squirm. Excellent capture of this beautiful dahlia! Your post processing techniques, while certainly a departure from traditional methods, have yielded good results. However, the Committee feels you may be denying yourself the benefits of using a solid color FCB in the first place, which easily lends itself to a simple selection process using the magic wand.

While the image of your dahlia is quite captivating, the Committee felt that the framing treatment calls too much attention to itself, causing the subject to play a secondary role in this image. In addition, as Miriam pointed out, the frame is flawed on its top edge, further detracting attention away from the overall statement of your subject.

Having had a chance to browse your gallery during the review of your application, the Committee is confident that you’re up to the FCAS challenge. We look forward to your next application. (BTW, please remember to include the EXIF with your next image.)

--
Dawn
FCAS Member #89

With camera in hand, I see what I might otherwise overlook

C P 5 7 0 0; SB-50DX; WC-E80; TC-E15ED
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/dlane/

 

[Uncle Frank]

I see the Applications Committee turned you down, Squirm. I was rooting for you, because I thought your entry had an abundance of WOW-factor, but the frame you slapped on it did you in. No problem... this will just give you another chance to refine the process... and me a chance to enjoy another of your pictures .

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank
FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter, Egret Stalker
Dilettante Appassionato
Gallery at http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/nikon

 

[Squirm]

Thanks Frank and the committee. I will take the feedback received and use it for the next worthy subject. I found that the "pose", composition and lighting were the most challenging part. No frame next time!

I see the Applications Committee turned you down, Squirm. I was
rooting for you, because I thought your entry had an abundance of
WOW-factor, but the frame you slapped on it did you in. No
problem... this will just give you another chance to refine the
process... and me a chance to enjoy another of your pictures .

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank
FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter, Egret Stalker
Dilettante Appassionato
Gallery at http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/nikon

 

[thruthelens]

... I will take the feedback received
and use it for the next worthy subject. I found that the "pose",
composition and lighting were the most challenging part. No frame
next time!

No need to eschew frames altogether just because this one did not complement your image, Squirm. While an errantly designed frame can doom an otherwise acceptable image, a carefully selected simple and elegant frame can lend a professional finished quality to images presented on the web. As you know, frames are not a required element of FCAS submissions, so we'll leave it up to you whether or not your next image will be surrounded by a frame.

--
Dawn
FCAS Member #89

With camera in hand, I see what I might otherwise overlook

C P 5 7 0 0; SB-50DX; WC-E80; TC-E15ED
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/dlane/

 

[Jim Strathearn]

I did a search for frames and borders and found some useful tips on creating them. Don't give up on them!

Thanks Frank and the committee. I will take the feedback received
and use it for the next worthy subject. I found that the "pose",
composition and lighting were the most challenging part. No frame
next time!

--
Jim
D70, Kit Lens, 50mm 1.8, 70-300mm ED D, SB-800
Proud FCAS Member #121, Dslr Divison
http://red71shark.smugmug.com/
http://www.pbase.com/red71shark

 

[shudderbug2]

Uncle Frank,

I'm with you. It seems of late as the FCAS committee has a "bee in the bonnett" and therefore has lost the intention of the original FCAS: The ability to create stunning macros with very inexpensive materials.

Please tell me if I"m missing the point. FCAS was started to ENCOURAGE photographers with less then DSLR equipment to isolate backgrounds and focus on subjects for little cost and outstanding results for not only the education of the photographer, but enjoyment of others and also the education of photographer and viewers.

FCAS used to be FUN. As the head of the FCAS (Foam Core Addicts Wannabnee Society). I've noticed as of late the FCAS is getting almost militant in it's critiuque. I hope this changes.

Best Regards,

David Anderson

I see the Applications Committee turned you down, Squirm. I was
rooting for you, because I thought your entry had an abundance of
WOW-factor, but the frame you slapped on it did you in. No
problem... this will just give you another chance to refine the
process... and me a chance to enjoy another of your pictures .

--
Warm regards, Uncle Frank
FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter, Egret Stalker
Dilettante Appassionato
Gallery at http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/nikon

 

[R Parenteau]

The frame itself does not have to be a big done up job. Here is an example from a pic that I played with the highlights by diffusing them and then added nothing more than a line. The point is that the frame brings out the picture.



Keep up the good work, you are nearly there.
--
'No matter where you go, there you are.'
FCAS Charter Member, pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/sssnakesss
D70, CP 57 00, N70, SB 800, PSCS, Epson 22 00, Feisol/Kirk, Man frotto

 

[Squirm]

Thanks.

I appreciate the encouragement. I did not know such emphasis would be placed on the frame. After all one needs no skill to put one on ...just a plug in or action....that, as in real life the work is judged on it's own merit not it's the wall it hangs on. Anyway I was left with an outstanding image that has rendered a fantastic matte print on the ole 2200. I must now continue my search for the next perfect little model!

The frame itself does not have to be a big done up job. Here is an
example from a pic that I played with the highlights by diffusing
them and then added nothing more than a line. The point is that the
frame brings out the picture.



Keep up the good work, you are nearly there.
--
'No matter where you go, there you are.'
FCAS Charter Member, pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/sssnakesss
D70, CP 57 00, N70, SB 800, PSCS, Epson 22 00, Feisol/Kirk, Man
frotto