Things I've been working on.......opinions, suggestions welcome.....these came from the digital...taken this month...

and the second........

I'm scanning some grass shots now also, but have so far not been real happy with my results; guess we're copying each other's thoughts. Somewhat different though. I like the glowing colors in the second. I'm a little confused by the deep black areas on the right of the first.

Well I'm pretty sure the black is because it's a backlit subject....some blending layers and a bit of saturation adjustments may have something to do with being so strong? Simple enough for me to re-work it a bit....but not tonight. :~)

Not sure it needs rework. Just a little confused as it seems sort of abrupt compared with the hazier green towards the center. Not sure what would cause this. It doesn't look bad...

I like the colors in these...the dreamy quality. Don't know about the intense bright upper left corner of the 1st photo. This could make a really great series. -=>Donald

Love that second one! :-)>

I really like the first. It feels very fresh and new, a good start to a new day

Thanks to all.... @ Don Well that bright light is the sun...as if you didn't know that ;~)...and I purposely included it in the pic....I think I got the effect I wanted but now I'm obsessing about the abrupt darkness Misha pointed out...

I hope it's not insulting, but both remind me of greeting cards that should have romantic words on them.

'Chelle, on my moniter the black that Misha sees looks dark green and blends nicely. So don't obsess too much...

Thanks for letting me know Cal....I know that Misha and I have our monitors calibrated pretty closely the same so I can see it too.... @Chuck.....why would I ever be insulted by that! Thank you!!

Michelle, I guess some artists might object to that sort of thing. I believe some consider it "production" work (so to speak) instead of "original art". I dunno. Personally, I'd be happy at any suggestion anything I had look similar to something that sells somewhere, somehow. But I'm not sure others like the comparison.

I can't help feeling 'Chelle had something else on her mind when titling these.......... (",)

Hey! I'm innocent I tell ya!......

Sorry Michelle, But I must agree with Don, The first image is really suffering in my opinion with the inclusion of the bright burnt out sun, it just holds your eye and you dont see the fantastic tracery of the back lit grasses which in themselves shout sun. I appreciate this is the way you wanted to present your work but I would ask you to consider this. If you were to print this in B&W would you print back to the paper base? As for the black area I would personally make a tighter crop removing it and the bright highlights. I hope you dont feel I am being critical I am only trying to be constructive. Great titles not sure where Jordy is coming from ;0)

It depends so much on what the photographer's feeling is about the image. How many blades of grass are in the world? And how many different ways to photograph them? It seems to me that this is quite a bit more than just a photo of some grass; it really is an impression of the whole sunrise situation. We can all make suggestions on how we would do this differently, but they would be OUR suggestions, not Michelle's. Personally, I like the sun included here. I felt really bad after questioning the abrupt blackness, and causing Michelle worry. It was definitely not meant as a criticism of the result. Look how many people have taken the effort to study this wonderful image; the result must be pretty special. I was confused about how she achieved the result. I do not have a good feel for how the new digital tools respond to being blasted by direct sunlight. I see in the image some things in common with analog cameras; the bright flare at the top, the bright ghost reflection of the lens diaphram at lower middle, the hazed contrast in lower right opposite from the sun flare. I see other things in the image which I do not understand; the green halo which seems to follow many of the stalks, and which seems to abruptly end in blackness at the right. Is this something unique to digital imaging? Almost looks like some sort of true solarization effect (as opposed to pseudo-solarization). These elements introduced by the tools, and the strengths and limitations of the tools, all contribute to the final result. The lens flare and the haloes contribute as much to the final result as the grass. The photographer must know how the tools will respond when creating the image. We can learn quite a lot by studying the images here in the Forum, [that's why I sometimes ask folks to post both the "before" and "after" versions...]

Well here is a before and after like Misha suggested....everyone here is allowed to their opinion, FWIW my husband also thought that the sun was too much, BTW I don't listen to my husband either (heh!).... The whole point of the image was the rising sun....to do without it would be totally defeating the whole purpose of the image...without the sun it becomes just another picture of grass.... I value everyone's opinion and suggestions are always welcome so I'm ok with your suggestions mysnapz....I still stand by the image as is and maybe it won't win any contests, but I still like it as is...maybe the original will appeal to some more, since the sun isn't quite so over-whelming?

But, as I said earlier, THIS is what I saw (please forgive my writing ability). I know there has been a lot of good discussion about this particular photo and I certainly bow to the expertise in this forum. But when I saw this photo, I saw a romantic card. (sigh)

While waiting for the pic to load on my really fast dial-up (insert sarcasm here), I thought it was something inorganic, like fireworks. Then reading through the comments, I gather blades of grass. WTF??? It looked like fireworks 30 seconds ago. Heheheh... Awesome treatment of the subject, Mich. Ya fooled me there. (*

I think that the bright sun spot makes the perfect back ground for Chuck's little ditty. The black border between image and frame breaks up the whiteness and give the whole image a more complete feeling. Just my 2 cents

slides in, still breathing hard ok, i'm late, as usual, you know the holidays kinda threw me off... ooooohhh...so this is the grass pic of Michelle's that was made reference too- dons sunglasses & stares hypnotically into the sun I like it, I really do! & it does go nicely with chuck's verse too, even ties in that bit of black on the side (familiar with that hubby-nod-thanx-&-continue-to-do-as-I- see-fit) :~* ...oh & men, really, your opinion IS important to us :)