Friday, December 02, 2011

Sunflowers in a Blue Vase


'Sunflowers in a BlueVase' (Digital Image) shirley shelton©copyright 2011
Hmm, continuing on with the theme of Sunflowers (there's a pattern developing here) I offer a very different treatment from my last entry. In this case a portrait and though in many ways it's more conventional than 'Sun Scorched' it's none the less highly stylized and owes it's entire look to digital enhancement.
I was initially drawn to the shape of the vase and it's exotic design. I also felt the blues complimented the colours in the flowers and both co-existed nicely with the door as background. I especially liked the scratched, weathered appearance of the door (which, incidentally is to my garden shed) Note that the door as background doesn't detract from the main subject. Rather it's gnarled, aged surface contrasts perfectly with both the elegance of the vase and the fresh, organic forms of the flowers.

Again I used my Sony A350 and again a 90mm lens. I shot it in RAW (my usual preference) and after playing with the basic look and levels in Adobe Camera Raw I opened the file in Photoshop. This allows me a myriad possibilities as well as complete freedom to 'work up' the image intuitively. In this case I duplicated the layer, converted the top layer to black and white and then played with the filters until the image had the required 'stylized look I was after. 

I think this image works well. It puts a different spin on what might have been a very conventional vase of flowers. It's balanced with being boring and has an interesting background that doesn't compromise the subject. Of cousre I'm biasd and proudly so! But as always, you guys do the judging.

Shirley
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1 comments:

Kathy Love said...

Absolutely wonderful.