Apple blossoms - natural look

Usually I hate those Instagram-like photos with 100% contrast and 100% saturation, because I want my photos to be close to reality. I mean: Everybody will be disappointed if the sky is not perfect blue and the grass is not perfect green in reality after looking at those “photos”…

OK, I know: Reality is just a disappointment for an artist, but anyway:

I’d be interested how you could improve this shot taken at close distance “free hand” (exported from Adobe Lightroom 5):

The lens being used is not a macro lens, but I like it…

Here’s the DNG (including all the processing steps I did in metadata with original RAW embedded):
Apfelblüte.dng (21.6 MB)
Hope that’s OK…

1 Like

Please assign an explicit license to the file, we prefer creative commons.

I’d also suggest you post the actual raw file and not one touched by Adobe products.

Sorry, I’m new:
On license: The file has CC-BY-SA inside. Is that enough?
On Original RAW: exiftool says “[DNG] Original Raw Image : (Binary data 13506299 bytes, use -b option to extract)”. Doesn’t that work for you?

I suppose that works; I generally don’t even download the file until I read the license, so a bit of a catch 22 for me personally.

Have a look here for the licenses that were referenced above:

@Ulrich_Windl already provided the licence inside.

That said, consider editing your opening post to include the licence in the text. Having the licence in the post gives us the confidence to download the file.

Image is well exposed and sharp, not much to improve here for me


Apfelblüte.dng.xmp (26.0 KB, dt3.1)

It depends on the motive. And how close to reality the editing is depends on how you perceived reality. The styles presented in the Instagram quickly become clichéd when they are used without care for each subject.

In this case, I think the apple blossoms that are illuminated radiate a little diffuse light and therefore look more pleasant if they don’t have too much contrast:

Apfelblüte.dng.pp3 (13.3 KB)

Photoflow:


Apfelblüte.pfi (36.6 KB)

I love this pcture, my try with DT 3.0.1Apfelblüte_01.dng.xmp (9.5 KB)

Tried to keep it “natural” with limited enhancement of sharpness and color saturation. Aimed for a “sunny” look.


Apfelblüte.dng.xmp (10.0 KB)

P.S. Please consider to use the “Processing” category with the “play_ray” tag instead of “Showcase”.

Rt. 5.8

Apfelblüte.jpg.out.pp3 (11.7 KB)

2 Likes


Apfelblüte.dng.xmp (10.2 KB)

RT 5.8


Apfelblüte.jpg.out.pp3 (12,2 KB)

1 Like

RawTherapee 5.8.
Apfelblüte.jpg.out.pp3 (12.6 KB)

Sorry, it seems I cannot edit the original post, so all the images presented there are CC-BY_SA.

Changed only a few settings from my standard profile


Apfelblüte_RT-1.jpg.out.pp3 (12.8 KB)

darktable 3.0.2
Apfelblüte.dng.xmp (31,9 Ko)