Rained some more today (been raining on and off the past week)

When it stopped i thought i go out and capture some droplets (Yes this is dedicated to Irma)


After the Rain series:

***Disclaimer*** No artificial droplets where used in capturing these photos***End of Disclaimer***


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And for the final a photoshop frenzy..


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Comments and critique most welcome.

Kindest Regards

/P.L

Wow! Beauty - impossible to pick a favorite - although the last two are definately amazing.

Well done!!

What a great series of shots Paul. As always the colour, tones and everything are beautiful. I do have to wonder if the spider that made the web was drunk however.

Thanx Rob and Colin. Iv been really frustrated this past week since i have worked alot, and its been raining so iv havent really been able to go out until today.



Rob u really like the last one ?
or are you refering to the last two before the photoshop frenzy ? lol. I thought i went a little overboard with the last shot.


As for the spider Colin.. i think your right, look at the first web picture.. notice the yellowish fluid? i tell youn one thing it aint water..

Thanx for looking guys.

/P.L

The color and tonality are fantastic! Definitely hard to pick a favourite.

I really don't think you went overboard on that last one at all. I would like to know the processing involved with a display of the original.

Also, I just thought the spider's web made somewhat erratically. No real pattern to it.

Thanx Jerry.

Colin here is a "before and after"







/P.L

Yes - I like the last one. It is much better with the post processing in my opinion.

Mate, great shots - you've definitely got some pearlers there. I love the first two, and the first spider web one. The droplets are fantastic, and your usual colour treatment is awesome.

I love the concept of the series too - exploring droplets - they're almost like little gems aren't they? Thanks for sharing - you're most creative indeed!

I'd have to agree with Toad. Care to reveal the process?

Wow, these are fantastic. The clarity is just so perfect, almost too good to be true! Very artistic and a pleasure to look at

Thnx Julian for your kind words.

Thnx for Looking Michelle you are to kind.


As for my pp on the last image.

I'll just share my workflow.


First off.

I always shoot raw, and my cameras color mode is set to Adobe RGB (to get the widest gamut)

All other settings are set to 0/normal. I prefer a very flat and neutral and kind of unsharpened image out of the camera. This way i get to alter the image just they way i want it. I see photshop as my digital darkroom.

Now to the workflow:

*open the raw image in Nikon capture 4.

*Adjust the curver to my likings (tone curve that is)

*Adjust wb if needed (rarely)

*save as tiff 16-bit

*Open the image in photoshop.

*first i resize the image

*levels

*curves

*Then i apply smart sharpen, Settings: 100%, Radius:0,1 pixels, Lensblur, And checked the box "more accurate" Offcourse these settings varies.

*run my frame script

*convert to web

*save to jpeg.


Here ends my "normal" pp.

Specific for this image was that i used a filter from Nik Color Efex pro 2.0
http://www.nikmultimedia.com/colorefexpro/en/entry.php?

*I applied the Monday Morning
Green filter.

*duplicated the background layer

*applied curves on the new layer (clipping all the highlight to the middle (get a very dark image)

*applied softfocus (i use nik color efex here aswell) even though its quite easy to do it on your own in photoshop) the filter just make it faster and easier.

*Used Polygonal lasso tool to make the streaks

*Apllied feather on my selection (here i used aroun 15 px)

*inverted the streaks

*applied a layer mask so that the streaks where letting the background thru the top layer.

*adjusted the opacity of the top layer to get the right balance between the two layers.

*flatten and save.



There are 3 filter sets i use quite often, and that i recommend.


Nik Color efex Pro 2.0
http://www.nikmultimedia.com/colorefexpr...eteedition

B+W Software filters
http://www.schneideroptics.com/software/...e_filters/

Picture code Noise ninja
http://www.picturecode.com/


Hope this wasnt to tiresome, and that i made my self understandable lol.

/P.L

Wow!! Thanks Paul

All your pictures are beautiful I like very much the one with one blue berry. In this picture you have a beautiful background and the mood and color around the berry are fantastic. The blue flowers are great! The color of the flowers and the backgroud is great!! The daisy flower is beautiful as well.

I love also the pictures with raindrops on the leaves... the droplets are so perfect... very round and full of light.... The landscape is just dreamy... I admire the background in all your pictures. Lovely colors in all of them...

Great series, Paul!

wow Paul...........blown away, great series..........too many good ones to choose........but I will pick a couple anyway........the first grass under the bee and of course photoshop frenzy..............

Thanx Irma and Russt.

Glad you liked them.

/P.L

Thanks Paul. That wasn't tiresome at all. I thought it interresting how you created the streaks. Good work Paul.

Thnx Colin. Layer mask is useful for many things :-)

/P.L