Lensbaby – Page 23 – Jeanne Hoadley Photography

Day 58 – Hydrangea

Hydrangea

So, one of my photography gurus pointed out that if you had the lensbaby creative bokah filters they fit perfectly in the Sol 45 to create some interesting background texture effects. So, of course, I had to get some. This morning I went out to my sweet hydrangea (which seems to be putting up more shoots for even more new blossoms!) and practiced. Probably not the best setting but you can see a little cross hatching in the background blur of the flower. Some filters were more subtle than others. They are really just little pieces of cardboard with shapes cut into them. I can’t wait to try them on Christmas lights!

In post I tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter and a vignette. I also adjusted the color a little because I thought the flower looked too pink when it is supposed to be purple.

Day 55 – Blanket Flowers with bee

Blanketswbee

I’m kind of excited about the idea of going back through the files and looking for ways to push the boundaries of creativity. Not that I won’t be going out to shoot, just not every day especially now that the flowers are kind of bedraggled from the heat and the smoke still has me hiding indoors with the ancestors. Anyway, I shot this one back in July at north Mountain Park with the sweet 50. That lens has a ball joint on it that allows you to point it in the direction where you want the focus to be and then blur out every thing else. So in this case I pointed at the bee and got maximum blur on the right. I then took it into Topaz impression and applied a Cezanne look and came back and masked it out over the flower with the bee and it’s neighbors. This one printed large on canvas would look great on my living room wall.

Day 54 – Rosebud

Rosebud

I was obviously going for an artsy look here. I started by converting to black and white and then overlaying a selection of just the reds in the bud. I then lowered the opacity on the black and white layer to let just a bit of green bleed through. Then I added a couple of texture layers to bring back just a hint of color and some texture into the background.

Day 53 – Sunflower

Sunflower

It is getting harder and harder to find something that doesn’t look like something I’ve already done. I got lots of great shots of sunflowers yesterday but many of them have a similar look to previously posted sunflowers. I don’t think I’ve done one in sideview yet though.

This one was shot with the Sol45 on the M3 again. I added a high pass filter which has become standard operating procedure for flowers. Then I added a texture and masked it out over the center. I may have to start playing with new techniques such as black and white or selective color or more digital artistry. We’ll see.

Day 52 – Soft focus Rose

Rose_soft

So, I skipped church in order to worship at the temple of photography this morning. I gave the security guards at Harry and David something to do again. They don’t seem to mind that I’m there taking pictures, they just see my car and have to come investigate. Anyway, I’m not really that fond of roses as a photographic subject but when I do shoot them this is what I’m going for. Unfortunately this rose had a few blemishes that I couldn’t seem to photoshop out so I’ll have to give this one an A- but it’s definitely headed in the right direction. I shot this with the Lensbaby Sol45 handheld on the Canon M3 with an extension tube. Post processing was about as usual. Tweaked the exposure, opened the shadows, burned in the upper right corner, added a high pass filter and cropped in just a little bit. I also ran this one through a denoise program to help emphasize the smoothness in the blurred areas.

Day 50 – Black Eyed Susan

BES

Well, look at that, half way done. I’m not sure whether to celebrate or shoot myself. This is another one from my tour around the yard yesterday. I tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter to sharpen the edges and threw on a couple of textures.

Day 49 – Hydrangea

Hydrangea

I was thrilled to see that my Hydrangea, which I thought was done for the year, sent up two new shoots and some fresh blossoms. I’m not sure I like the harshness of this treatment but it is the road I chose to go down so here we are. It has a high pass filter, a lightroom preset, and a texture. Just practicing some of my skills. Now back to the ancestors.

Day 47 – Shasta Daisy

ShastaDaisy

I kind of went on strike today. I had intended to go to growers market and look for flowers to photograph. But the smoke was so bad I decided to cocoon and immerse myself in the 17th and 18th century looking for my ancestors instead. So I decided I don’t think I have posted a daisy yet and I shot this one with the Sol45 the other day. One of it’s special features is it can create it’s own texture effect in the background blur. I added another texture just for good measure along with some brightening of the exposure and a high pass filter for sharpness where it is supposed to be sharp.

Day 46 – Sunflower

Sunflower

It seems as if the only flowers that are thriving right now are the sunflowers and the black-eyed-Susans. I took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday and captured this sunflower that is growing all by itself in the middle of a vacant lot. I assume it escaped from one of the neighbor’s yards. I added a texture to give the background a little more interest but masked it out over the flower. This one was also shot with the new Sol45 lensbaby.

Day 45 – Echinacea

Echinacea

The cone flowers are fading fast but every now and then you find one with a little spirit left in it. I liked the movement in the petals on this one and the colorful blur in the background. This was shot with my new Lensbaby lens, the sol45 and one extension tube. In post I adjusted the exposure and added a high pass filter.