I find at times it is very easy to make high contrast images with highly saturated colours that punch your eyes into the back of your face and make people stop for a moment. I like these images and they have there place in the world, but I feel that sometimes a subject needs a little bit more of a delicate hand to suit the beauty of the subject.
When I took this image I knew then I would want to process it as a black and white photo but I did not know it would take the road it did. I actually processed this image as a single HDR image. Why? you may ask. The flower is full of highlights while the back ground is full of shadows. The image needed a slight HDR process to bring out some of those details and to add a bit more detail into the midtones and low highlights. This can be seen in particular in the flower itself. If it was totally white there would be no depth to the flower but by having some light midtones there it adds to its shape. I used topaz denoise for the noise reduction and Silver Efex for black and white processing.
Let me know what you think.
Aperture64 
It has worked beautifully. The tonal balance is excellent and the clarity shines out. Very nice.
Thanks Andrew, I think the clarity was found in those pesky midtones and pulling them out.
“I find at times it is very easy to make high contrast images with highly saturated colours that punch your eyes into the back of your face and make people stop for a moment.”
Haha! I agree-I think that your tonal balance is really crisp.
Thanks for stopping by Jack, I am guessing you also agree with my statement about high contrast images. Do you find yourself taking that route often when editing?
Well, having been out and about without a tripod in some instances where one would have been a great help, I do the opposite of what people call “cheating the system.” So instead of under exposing the shot, I over expose. And I feel like in some of the shots I do that with, I can get away with losing some detail in the highlights. But if I lose too much, I will convert to B+W and really go all out with the contrast. Too much contrast, I believe, in color, can sometimes ruin the image…that’s just me though. But I do like to push the boundaries when it comes to that.
Your shots look like they were taken that way, not edited so much to have that effect…
I do think the grays within the flower could be a touch darker – to allow the delicacy of the stigma and pistils to stand out – but I like how you did this, very much…
I suppose your right I could have gone a little bit darker, though I was worried that it doing that bit further it may unbalance the tone of the flower. I will have to go back and have a look at the image again and give it a go.
Just a thought… since you were tinkering… 😉 All the best, Ben.
I accept all thoughts and musings with the right to use them as my own. 😉
Dobrze! (is that how you spell it?)
yes that’s how you spell it.
Merci.