I am still experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t in Color Efex. I have been working with “Recipes” putting different combinations of adjustments together.
This was the first recipe, I used a vintage film effect reducing the saturation and added a levels and curves with a vintage lens effect. I quite liked the different layered effects individually but as a whole it does a disservice to the image. The subject is a soft focused bud popping out of the image. The colours of the bud are really strong and this is what i want to try and keep.
For the second recipe I adjusted the vintage lens effect, reducing the intensity of the effect and also adding a colorized effect. I sampled the pink/purple in the bud to be used in the colorized effect.
The image is more delicate and I feel it is stronger than the previous edit. I do think the colorize effect has washed out some of the impact of the high key contrast.
I edited the image again, I wanted just to reduce the amount of the colorized effect and keep the impact of the colors. I think this time it worked well. The balance between the different effects is good with the tulip bud being the focus not the effects.
I think the final edit has worked well and I have learned at bit more about the balance of editing with Color Efex.
What do you think of the image and which one is your favorite? Or any other comments let me know using the comments box below.
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I like the very first one, the grey-mauve vignetteing works really well to make the colour of the bud pop.
Interesting, I see how the added shadows works to contrast against the saturation of the flower. Do you feel it is too dark or just enough?
My feeling was that it was too dark.