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Winter: Dead, Red Geranium In Blue Pot

I have been walking past a blue flower pot on our front porch and noticing the nice contrast of the dried-out, dead, red geraniums, casualties of winter, against the rich blue of the pot’s glaze. But, either the light was not right or I did not have a camera handy, or any number of other excuses, and that meant that I did not photograph the scene. This morning the light was right and the hard light on bright colours were just what I was waiting for. And a camera was handy. The result is a richly coloured, red-blue-brown minimalist image in the dead of winter with snow all around, except in this one spot. And, of course, Red Rule applies. - JW

 

Date Taken: 2022-01-25

 

(c) Copyright 2022 JW Vraets

 

Tech Details:

 

Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with a Tamron 90mm 1:2.8 Macro, ISO100, Spot metering off red flowers, Daylight WB, Aperture priority exposure, f/14.0, 100 sec with an EV-0.67 exposure bias to minimize the risk of blowing out the highlights. PP (identical for both frames) in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 8000px wide, crop to a square format, enable Tone Mapping at default levels, slightly boost Chromaticity and Contrast in L-A-B mode, boost Vibrance slightly, use the Graduated Neutral Density/GND tool to darken the bottom portion of the pot, slightly boost black level, sharpen (edges only), save, then repeat the process but make this version darker to bring out detail in the interior portions of the red pepper. PP in free Open Source GIMP: adjust the tonality to slightly darken the pot/blue areas, use an additional layer to duplicate the image and darken as well as remove a green cast from the top edge of the frame and then add a black layer mask to the top layer and then paint in white the corrected upper edge, use the same technique to brighten and increase the saturation of the small red petal to the right of the hanging flower cluster and thus help visually balance the frame, create new working layer from visible result, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 6000 px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black and white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3000px wide for posting online, sharpen slightly, save.

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Uploaded on January 25, 2022
Taken on January 25, 2022