[Irma]

When I saw this ice formations in the lake I thought about cubist paintings. I thought the kind of post processing I wanted to do with them, and telling the truth it didn't work as I expected, but I like them. #1 and #2 have in my opinion good contrast and detail, not the same in #3. I didn't want to increase contrast because I would lose detail in the blue and bright areas.. I don't know what to think about the lack of contrast and vivid colors in this one.


#1



#2



#3




Thanks for your help...

[nia]

Dear Irma, technically I can't talk but they stand so impressive. Now, I know your photography, your camera or your eye of camera is like a brush of a painter. So, there is always an artistic touches in your works. I loved them all but the first one has the power of the colours much more than the others. It means the first one's visual touches is great. You captured very well.

Thank you,
with my love,
nia

[Pavel]

Ahh, great minds think alike Irma. In desperation, I too took a number of ice photos and posted some. I am sure that by the time spring comes, I will be really tired of snow and ice photos. Then I will do flowers in the nearby park, because it is there, not because i have any sense that I can bring revolution to flower photography (if it was not for flowers, babies, pets, birds and sunsets, there would be no Flickr)

[EnglishBob]

Did you use a polarizer? I find they work well on ice if it s in sunlight or has a bright reflected light source nearby.

Love the patterns and designs in these.

[Irma]

Thank you all...

nia, The traces in the first one are closer, maybe that is why you liked it more. I didn't do the other ones so close as I wanted to show a bit more of the environment (leaves and sand). The thing that caught my eye in the third one was a kind of bird you see at the right of the frame...

Pavel, I will go and have a look at the pictures. Indeed, we are all tired about the snow here. It has been a very cold winter and the snow doesn*t go away. Let't hope soon will have the first traces of spring...

Craig, I didn't use any polarizer, but I remember it was very cloudy, just few blue spots in the sky. Next time I will try the filter. Thanks for the tip...

[Toad]

As always, your photos are a breath of fresh air.#1 and #2 are sublime - I really have nothing to add to what you have done.

I see what you are saying about #3 - my suggestion would be to zoom in - lose the top and the bottom of the photo and *maybe* a touch of the right side. I think that your contrast issues will go away with a more restricted crop.

Lovely work!

[Wedding Shooter]

Number 1 and 2 are beautiful Irma. Agree with Toad on 3.

[Irma]

Thanks Toad, Chris for your comments...

Toad, you are right with the crop in #3 I was working on that picture when I had my accident with the computer...
Great thing that I didn't lose these pictures. I was sure I had lost them.

[Zig]

Really nice Irma.
I know we've all got our own ways of often going about the same thing. Here's some possibles I'd have done if they were my shots, or combinations of them even:
1. Duplicate as another layer, set 2nd layer to Overlay or Multiply, see where you are;
2. Either with or without the above, selective dodge and burn using big soft brushes(my answer to everything I know): dodge highlights at 3%, burn shadows at 3%.
3. Extend Number 1 above into full contrast mask as follows:
a) Duplicate as a layer; desaturate the layer totally;
b) Now Invert the layer totally;
c) Now add Gaussian blur at 250 to the layer;
d) Now set the layer to Overlay(or Soft Light if you want a more subtle effect), mess about with the opacity slider.
e) either be clever with masks(which I'm rubbish at) or use the eraser tool on the layer set at about 20% on a soft large brush, so as to reduce ant blocking of darks or blowing out of highlights.
4. I'd have maybe gone for the simple approach first: duplicate as a layer, then on the layer whack up the contrast and saturation until your eyes bleed, then use the eraser(as number 5) to reduce where necessary.
To be honest, in this instance I'd not use a polariser at all: if you do, you'll already start to block out shadows. I'd go without polariser, shooting in raw, then do the initial conversion at low-contrast to save the highlights and shadows..you can always go nuts later. Get maximum detail at the "front end"...it gives you more room to move later on.
Hope this helps: I find that getting the "contrast-masking" habit really helps, but that's just my "workflow" I suppose. Best of...these are really nice!!

I've just had another thought, seeing as you were thinking of a "Cubist" look:
Convert to jpeg once you're happy...then mess about with Smart Blur: this would be fascinating.
A secondary possible step now would be to take the Smart Blurred image, go into Filter Gallery, and use Posterise Edges. Suggested settings would be perhaps width at 1, intensity at 1, and Posterise at 8(or max, I forget), trying out posterise settings down to about 4 depending on the size of your image.

I had time on my hands, as you can tell!

[Toad]

Zig: nobody can say that your comments are without content...

[Zig]

...ou sans malcontent!

[Irma]

Thanks so much Zig. You are very kind. It is like a tutorial!!

I promise I will do it step by step as you describe, and I will post the results..

I am very happy to have your comment and advice in this picture...