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Monday, September 7, 2009

Sun, Earth and Moon Composite

First I want to mention and support a fellow photographic blogger Damien Franco of ‘Your Photo Tips Blog with the launch recently of his endeavour to open a new sharing forum for photographers called Exposure . Not only is this a great place to learn and share from others but also there will be 8 prizes given away with this launch.

I have become a member and I encourage you to join so we can all learn and enjoy photography from each other.

My Giveaway of 2 Signed Prints

Well it’s now September and as I stated in a previous articles, I will be giving away 2 signed prints of your choice by random selection. All that you have to do is leave a comment in any article published in the month of September that lets me know you want a free print. You do need to mention the word ‘print’ so that I don’t confuse a comment with a spam comment. If you don’t feel comfortable with a public comment then please contact me via email.

I will be collecting the requests during the entire month and at the end of September I will, with the aid of a random number generator, select the 2 winners. These will be shipped for free to anywhere in the world (I hope you are not in an Antarctic station right now) in a tube container.

The images will be your choice and up to a size of approximately 13in x 19in on archival paper. The prints will be signed but un-numbered as they will not be from my limited edition series of which there are only a few now.

You can either view the images I have on various sites and select one or if you wish, I will ask if you have any preferences and select sample images for your review.

Back to Sun, Earth and Moon Composite



In the fields I saw these flowers in several stages of opening to the full flower and one particular set reminded me of the planets with the Sun Earth and its Moon. I decided to take an image of each flower against a black backdrop and combine them as a composite.

I tried to do a similar image with the original flowers in situ but because of their short stature (8 inches high) and their various lengths of growth I was not successful in sufficiently blurring the grass and having all flower tops crisp and in focus. The image below shows these plants as found.


With this tripod setup I did take an image with each flower in focus and then another set progressively blurring the grass below. I thought I might be able to create a semi-real image with sharp flowers and blurred grass but when working on the images I soon realized just how much work it would be to finalize an image. The main problem was trying to blend in the different stalk DOF blurs into a realistic image.

Even the black background version took 2 hours with a Photoshop file of 250Mb and containing 16 layers.

I have a drop cloth that I use while painting and I tried a few with this as the background instead of the black as shown below.


While there is interesting texture I don’t think it was going to work as well in a 3-image composite. As I am accumulating more and more paint on this drop cloth I realize that this will form a very interesting abstract background that I can use for photography.

If you know a professional painter, you may buy him or her a drop cloth to use and wait a few months to collect your new background photographic cloth.

Blog Subscriptions

If you are not already a Blog subscriber but like to know when a new post is available then please subscribe in one of the blog readers or with the convenient method of receiving these articles via email. Just click on one of the subscription modes in the top of the screen and it will take you through the process effortlessly.

Niels Henriksen

8 comments:

RebeAk said...

great Articles ..wonderful info ..I had come because of your offer of the print..But now I am just happy I came ..by the way I shared your blog on facebook and twitter,,,,in a word WOW!!!

Susanne said...

Wonderful work keep it up

Susanne

Unknown said...

Rebecca:

Thanks for your very kind words of support and good luck with the contest.

Niels

Anonymous said...

Thanks I would like a free print.

georgeinhell@hotmail.com

cco

Joanie said...

First, I love the explanation of the composite with the flowers. Second, the backdrop idea? Brilliant! I'm going to get my mom started on one for me right away. And third, I'd love a free print!

Goldorak said...

Your pics help me to relax during work so a big thanks to you ^^. I wish one day I can get close to your level of work.
I obviously cross fingers to win the free print :D.

Amaury

Adil said...

This is such an inventive one. I love what you have done with a "mundane" photo. Great job!

BTW, whether I get a free print or not, I have discovered a great site.

Unknown said...

Joanie:
Let me know how it works out.

Amuary and Adi:
Thanks for the kind words of support.

To all so far:
You are entered and I will let people know in October.

Thanks

Niels

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