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Sony Forums Challenges | all galleries >> Challenge 134: Beginnings & My Best of 2006 (hosted by MCsaba) >> Challenge 134: Exhibition - CLOSED > edit image
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24-AUG-2006 Helen Betts

Sunflower
by Helen Betts

Washington, D.C.

Trying out a new lens with some giant sunflowers.

Nikon D200 ,Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S VR Micro
1/40s f/22.0 at 105.0mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Denise11-Jan-2007 03:34
Excellent image, Helen!!!
Sony Forums Challenges07-Jan-2007 16:10
Helen, I love your close crop here...beautiful detail and color contrast. Well done! MFC
Sony Forums Challenges04-Jan-2007 12:34
Beautiful, sunflower from an unusual view. The layers of colors are very nice. MCsaba
Wojtas 02-Jan-2007 14:37
Great setup and processing. Love the composition. All in all - fantastic flower shot.
Guest 01-Jan-2007 02:24
Beautiful shot Helen. Nice composition and color and you did a great job on the background!
Helen Betts31-Dec-2006 14:48
Thank you for the comments, everyone. Gideon, the flower actually was shot against a very dark background (my neighbor's screened-in porch), but after post processing, a bit of light that I didn't like showed up, so I opted for a pure black background. I got this by: 1) Use Magic Wand tool in PS to select the most amount of background without eating into the main image -- you have to experiment with the various values (the higher the number, the more area you can select but the more risk of cutting into non-background elements); 2) Be sure to have the background color set to black in the Tool Palette; 3) When you're happy with the selected area, go to Select>Feather (value between 1-4; 4) Go to Select>Modify>Contract (value between 1-4; 5) Hit Delete 6) Your selected area will then be the background black. I'm a real amateur with PS, but thanks to Mike Fitzgerald long ago, this is one thing I have learned how to do:-). Helen
Guest 30-Dec-2006 21:20
Outstanding detail and colour, and beautiful composition. How'd you get the black background?

Gideon Gourell
Ann Chaikin30-Dec-2006 07:51
This is a lovely abstract Helen. Love the fur on the leaves and the great color with the light from behind. Ann.
Sony Forums Challenges30-Dec-2006 00:38
Beautifully done! John