Flower Hydrant

took this pic a while ago and just found it and edited it. ill post all three of the versions and ya'll tell me which one you like the best

color

and black and white

I really like the first one - The colours just make it IMO. how long did it take you to edit the image to make it like that and is there a special technique for achieving the extraction of the flowers aagainst the background when editing or is it just an extreem amount of careful editing ?

Great shot .

wow you did and incredible job on that first image. i have messed with this technique but this i am sure took a LONG time to complete.

I like the first one the best too. I have yet to try my hand at that.

i also like the first one. its really good

It's a simple procedure but takes some care and patience to do cleanly.

All you do is duplicate the base layer, desaturate the second layer, apply a mask to the second layer, then zoom down and paint the mask so that the colored flowerbuds and hydrant show through from the base layer.

By the way, great job, Ciggy!

. ya'll made it way more complicated than it is.
i use IrfanView and make a color copy and a black and white copy. then i open the two files in separate paint windows. yes, i use paint. haha! and it just takes a steady hand, my glasses, and some patience, and thats what i get.

when i took that picture thats how i envisioned it, so i finally got around to make it the way i envisioned. i really appreciate all the feedback. its greatly appreciated.

The procedure I described isn't that difficult. I can be ready to start painting the mask in 15 seconds. And painting the mask is extremely forgiving of mistakes; you're painting in solid black or solid white. Make a mistake? Just paint back in the other color. It's totally nondestructive of both the image and its desaturated copy.

I'd bet that this method is also a lot faster too.

I've started using it to blur backgrounds while leaving the subject in focus.

yours sounds alot easier. haha! what program do you use?

I just tried that original picture. Well under ten minutes from start to finish.

The beauty of this masking method is that the first painting-over of the flowers can be sloppy and fast. What spillover occurs shows as green, so just go back and repaint the spillover with the opposite color. Again, no precision, just make the green go away.

This is the method I learned from a NAPP seminar.

great job! your a great photographer i couldent pull off nothing like that

Ciggy said:

yours sounds alot easier. haha! what program do you use?

It's really easy, which is why lazy-butt me likes to use it!

I use Photoshop CS3, but the technique would be identical in the vastly cheaper Elements. I'd imagine that any program that allows layers would lend itself to this technique.

Thanks Photogirl. appreciate the compliment.


Orca, i was going to get photoshop the other day. haha! im going to get it soon and start playing with it.im sure ya'll will see some of the early trials with it. haha!