Cute little pine cone thingys

[budguinn]

Along the beach there are some really small pine/evergreen trees...about three feet tall. This is a shot of an end of a branch with the little pine cones forming...or something.



Again, I'm an ignorant slob that normally looks at the stars so I don't know what the trees are called.....but I just think they look cool.

comments are appreciated,

[Medic1210]

Very nice. The image just pops out at you. If you don't mind, what sort of post processing did you do to that image?

Mike

[budguinn]

Originally posted by Medic1210
Very nice. The image just pops out at you. If you don't mind, what sort of post processing did you do to that image?

Mike

Thanks Mike......my workflow usually always starts this way.....on this one the first thing I did was use some Neat Image to remove the noise.......then masked back the detail part of the photo. (Neat Image is a great noise removal program, but sometimes softens the detail to much.).
I then did a curves to darken the background just a tad.
I then increased the perception of DOF by blurring the background a bit........first with a slight motion blur and then gaussian blur.
The last thing was to selectively sharpen.....just a bit with USM...the detail part in the middle.
I didn't need to fool with saturation or color on this....it seemed to have nice color and sat already.

The reason I usually start with the Neat Image is so that the subsequent things won't enhance the noise......it really does depend on the shot, but I've been doing alot of macro stuff lately and almost always need to remove the background noise and then blur it a tad......just seems to make the subject "pop" a bit more.

thanks for looking,

bud

[padlex]

You've done a nice shot here. Also, I like the frame too.

[Medic1210]

Originally posted by budguinn

The reason I usually start with the Neat Image is so that the subsequent things won't enhance the noise......it really does depend on the shot, but I've been doing alot of macro stuff lately and almost always need to remove the background noise and then blur it a tad......just seems to make the subject "pop" a bit more.

thanks for looking,

bud

I'll try that sometime. I use PSP 9 so it has built in noise removal which works like a charm. Also, you should try a Nikon closeup lens like the 3T/4T or 5T/6T (depending on your thread size). I have both the 5T and 6T and love them. The 6T is really good at making little things big, but has very shallow DOF. That translates into very blurred backgrounds though. The 5T seems to give more DOF, but is still good at blurring the background. Check out my PBase gallery and look at the macro and the Various Flower galleries for my examples of the 5T and 6T capabilities. I've only had them for a week, so my collection of macros is still small, but growing rapidy. Here's my gallery... www.PBase.com/Mike_Curtis

Take Care,

Mike

[budguinn]

Mikel, I've never used PSP but heard good things about it. I took a look at your gallery and you've had some very nice pics....and the macros really are exceptional.

Of course the eye stands out from all of the others.....very nicely done.........and as a retired Snap-on guy I really enjoyed the picture of Dale at North Carolina.

thanks for the link.......enjoyed my time there,

bud