Pink flower

[...]

Hi ladies and gents.
My first posts here.
Been taking photo's, just as a little hobby, for a month or so when my lovely uncle gave me his old Nikon coolpix e8800 (they don't make them anymore they are that old).
Anyways, I took this about a week ago in my backyard for practise using the 'macro' mode on the camera.
Also got hold of photoshop elements 7, so played around with this picture using that for 10 minutes this morning. Just cropped it and made the background nice and blurry.

Yes, i do know it is not quality. But that is why I joined a photography forum, for help. I here all these terms of composition, lighting etc..and say to myself ...WTF? So, that is my excuse anyways.

If anybody has anything to say, tips, suggestions, crit, or wants to play around with the image and re-post it here to help me and make it nicer that would be awesome.




thankyou

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[WinterSteele]

I dunno, I think it's pretty decent, good detail in the petals and all of the petals are in focus. Its harder to achieve that with an SLR, but an SLR will give you a more out of focus background. If you have the capability of shooing RAW with your camera, you'll be able to adjust things more. I'd give it a saturation/vibrance boost. Good first post

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This camera can not shoot RAW unfortunately. Not that I actually knew what RAW was until you mentioned it (thankyou google). Will soon have that capability though. I just got a D5000 (AUD $675) single lens kit ..gotta love ebay.

I have been looking, and commenting, on other peoples pic's and noticed they seem to be able to make the background darker (ie: this one http://www.photoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=55698 ). Is it possible to achieve this effect with Adobe photoshop elements 7??

I have another pic (this one has not been edited except for the cropping) that I would like to make the sides darker on, I think it would be more pretty if i could do that. .



edit: this one is also from the backyard

[WinterSteele]

There are a couple ways to make the background darker without affecting the flower. I have Photoshop CS3 and am not sure if these options are available in Elements, but we'll try. Maybe someone who has elements can tell you if these will work. As always with Photoshop, there are lots of ways to do the same things, these are just my ideas about it.

1. Select the flower using magnetic lasso (refine selection with regular lasso if need be). Press Apple+Shift+I (ctrl+shift+I for pc). Then you can go Image>adjust>Levels (or Curves)

Another way is to selectively burn the background darker.

2. Select the flower using magnetic lasso (refine selection with regular lasso if need be). Press Apple+Shift+I (ctrl+shift+I for pc). The selection will keep you from hitting the flower accidentally. Then select the burn tool and adjust your opacity in the toolbar at the top as desired and just "paint" until you get the look you want. Just some ideas.

Your original post said it was "just a little hobby." I remember when that's all it was for me, and then I got this kind of fever/obsession for it. Now it's all I ever think about. Hmm, maybe I'd better get some counseling. LOL

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Thankyou.

I had a play with that just now, here is the result. I had a lot of difficulty with the lasso. so i gave up on it and did the image without it (when i used it the only thing i could darken was the flower ). Only took a minute..hence why you can actually see the darkening rings from the tool, but hey, just a bit of experimental fun

New camera arrived today

I fear that i may soon be gripped by that very same fever..oh dear..

thanks again, hope you like it

[suesue]

Welcome to the forum! I think it's admirable that you are asking for help, receiving it, and following through by practicing the tips and comments made.

You already are achieving very nice color saturation and detail. Your artistic interpretation (controlling depth of field, composition, etc) will come with practice and through observing the work of others. I'll look forward to observing your journey. Congrats on the new camera.

[pbrown]

I believe the pink one is a geranium. Nice DOF. Very clear