Calla Lilies

I recently photographed some calla lilies, and the colors and textures of the lilies begged for a treatment of the oil painting filter in Adobe Photoshop CS6.  These lilies were photographed under a bank of fluorescent lights, and the colors were enhanced by post processing in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.1RC2.  The image was captured using my Nikon D300 with the 105mm f/2.8 MicroNikkor lens, ISO 400, 0.5 sec at f/16, -1/3 EV exposure compensation.  The camera was mounted on a tripod for these exposures, and I used a remote trigger for the shutter, first locking the mirror up and then firing the shutter a few seconds later to minimize vibrations.

I first processed the image in Lightroom, enhancing the color and exposure and then taking the background to black by adjusting the Blacks slider.  I chose to adjust the image to a slightly warmer color temperature than the fluorescent lighting would have rendered, and then I sent the image to be edited in the external editor (CS6).  I invoked the Oil Painting filter and experimented with the settings to get an effect I liked, and this is the result.  There are lots of resources for learning how to use the Oil Painting filter in CS6, and I’m having a great time exploring the features of the filter.  It’s pretty neat that the filter is included in CS6 and does not require a plugin to accomplish the effect.  Let me know what you think of it!

About Tom

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Appalachian State University.
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4 Responses to Calla Lilies

  1. lucy says:

    how lovely!! i prefer the bright ones, but they’re both beautiful xx

  2. billie rhyne says:

    I too like the bright ones…but there is a certain calmness in the second one…

  3. Wonderful picture. I really love the unpainted one. I too have been working with the Painting filter of CS6. You can get some intesting looks but I have found that it is not for all pictures. Nice work, Tom.

  4. Jim Greene says:

    Tom,
    May be one of your best photos. Unless it has a bug crawling on it, I would not try to take a plant photo, so I have zero experience taking photos that look this good. Jim

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