I’m just mad about Saffron
Saffron’s mad about me
I’m just mad about Saffron
And she’s just mad about me
They call me mellow yellow (quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow (quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
Donovan Phillips Leitch
For many of us of a certain age, it’s impossible to hear the word ‘mellow’ without immediately thinking ‘yellow’. And that thought will undoubtedly be followed by a persistent earworm. Yes, it’s stuck in my head now too!
Yellow can, as Sofia points out in this week’s Lens Artists challenge, be rather harsh. But at the paler, creamier end of the spectrum it can be beautifully mellow. As I love a colour challenge, that’s the route I’ve chosen to go down this week. I have ‘done’ yellow in the past, but with a mixed gallery, whereas today I decided to focus only on flowers.
My intention was to ‘cheat’ a little to soften the shades and bring them into line with the theme! I planned to use Nik Color Efex Pro filters, in particular ‘Classical soft focus’ and ‘Sunlight’, to create a more mellow tone. While the first of these is grouped under Nik’s portrait set of filters, I find it can be very effective in producing a more dreamy effect for flower shots. My feature image, of a rose in Ealing, was edited in this manner.
The best laid plans …
However, at that point things started to go wrong! My Color Efex software decided to malfunction and while I could use the other Nik Collection filters, none were suitable for the effects I wanted to create. So I decided to go down a different route, and experimented with a few double exposures, layering two yellow flower images to produce that dreamier effect in a different way. I hope you like them!
I haven’t captioned these shots; they are too far removed from the originals for any caption to make much sense. But they all started as images of pretty yellow flowers I have seen on my travels and closer to home. We’ll start with a variation on the feature image.
xx
54 Comments
Leya
Oh Sarah, now you made me sing along again…a brilliant take on!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Ann-Christine 🙂
grandmisadventures
I did immediately start singing that song when I saw the title! A happy collection of a happy color 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, I think for many of us that song was pretty much an inevitable reaction! Thank you Meg 🙂
Annie Berger
Yellow has always been a favorite color. Thanks for sharing so many tints of it, Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks Annie 🙂
JohnRH
Stunning. Buttery. Yellow. Swellow. 👏
Sarah Wilkie
‘Swellow’ – I like it 😄😄
Amy
Beautiful mellow yellow! Love this take on.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Amy 🙂
Wandering Dawgs
Sarah, ever since I saw the challenge Mellow I haven’t been able to get that song out of my head! I love the results of your experiments.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you 🙂 I’m glad I’m not the only one to have thought of that song! I had such fun with these experiments that I have a follow-up post planned, so watch this space! I gather you’re going to be joining the LAC team – I’m looking forward to seeing what challenges you have in store for us 🙂
SoyBend
It looks like you had fun with that challenge, Sarah! I liked the first image the best.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Siobhan 🙂 Yes, I did have fun – so much so that I plan to do something on similar lines again soon. Watch this space!
equinoxio21
Shades of Donovan… I had to look him up. (I thought he’d passed, but no… Long life to Donovan…)
Sarah Wilkie
Indeed!
wetanddustyroads
It feels like the sun just rose while I was looking at your photos – lovely yellows! And I’m joining the club with the tune of Mellow Yellow in my head!
Sarah Wilkie
I’m happy to have brought some sunshine for you, thank you 😊
Klausbernd
Dear Sarah
We like these rather abstract pictures, a beautiful meditation on yellow.
Thanks for sharing
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you, I’m glad they appealed to you, and I love your phrase, a ‘meditation on yellow’ 😊
Sofia Alves
Brilliant, Sarah. I’m glad your original plan didn’t work (sorry) for I think these are fantastic!
And yes, I have that song in my head now too 😀
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Sofia ☺️ I was quite glad in a way as I enjoyed experimenting with these and learned some new tricks! But I need it fixed in the longer term.
Leanne Cole
Fun post Sarah, very mellow yellow. I’m going to have that song in my head now.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Leanne 😀
Anna
I know this song! But the caramelo koala versión! We have a chocolate called “caramello koala” here and his theme song was that. Instead of mellow yellow he sings “they call me caramello”. lol. Blast from the past!
Sarah Wilkie
Haha, I never heard of that chocolate but I can see the song would work well 🐨
norasphotos4u
Creative and beautiful!! And you’re right about the topic – the first thing I thought of was that song!!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Nora 🙂 Glad you agree about that song!
Teresa
Happy to see your experiments on the colour yellow.
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you like them, thanks Teresa 🙂
bushboy
Good fun experiments Sarah. You look like you worked off frustrations
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Brian – yes, it was good to find something interesting to do in between emails to and from the Nik ‘happiness’ engineers!
thehungrytravellers.blog
That song makes me think of my childhood in Derby, my older brother and sister working their way through the 45s collection on a Sunday morning. I’m glad you chose that song rather than the dreadful Coldplay dirge which makes me want to eat my own arm. 😂. As for your gallery…well….it’s very yellow….
Sarah Wilkie
Glad to have taken you back to those old 45s days Phil 😀 I’m with you on Coldplay!
Joanne
Fantastic, Sarah! Your multiple exposures are pure art. I can’t pick a favorite. They’re all great (and very “mellow yellow”). Thanks for the earworm!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Joanne, I’m really glad you like them 😊
Anne Sandler
Beautiful yellows Sarah! Yes, I remember the song and yellow, when muted is mellow. I also liked your editing on these images. Very creative!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Anne, I’m so pleased you like them 😊
Egídio
Sarah, the double-exposure effects were very clever and effective. Great results.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Egidio, I’m glad you like them 🙂
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
Interesting effects and, yes, I too now have the ear worm!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Anabel, and sorry about that ear worm 😉
photobyjohnbo
Beautiful versions of “mellow,” Sarah! I used to experiment more with NIK Effects, but am stuck at Version 3 of Silver Efex as I only use it for black-and-white conversions. Your experiments make me want to reconsider. I do remember having a lot of fun playing with those local adjustment controls in the different apps.
And, Donovan’s Mellow Yellow is stuck in my head now… Gee, Thanks! >grin<
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you John:) I used to have the old free version of Nik but when I got my new laptop I couldn’t transfer it so I invested in version 7 and have been very happy with it until now. Hopefully they can get to the bottom of the problem, but their initial suggested fixes didn’t help!
margaret21
Yes, I DO like them. In fact this militant anti-mucker-about-er would rather like to find out how to do these effects.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Margaret 😊 If you want to experiment without any outlay on fancy software, there’s a free (if you can tolerate a few adverts) app I use on my tablet to get similar results, Toolwhizz. You could play around with that to see if it’s something you enjoy?
margaret21
Thanks Sarah. I’ll give that a whirl (when life calms down a bit ….)
Vicki
I’ve definitely heard of Mellow Yellow in Australia.
Love your images and what you’ve done with them. Definitely ‘mellow’.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you very much Vicki 🙂
Tina Schell
Very clever Sarah – I too was overcome with an earworm for the Mellow Yellow song. Sadly I’m sure many of our visitors have never heard it LOL. Loved your experiment – wonder why the Nik tool quit working??? I’m trialing the new release but not finding much difference to spur me on. Thanks as always for joining us.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Tina 🙂 I’m not sure what the issue is with the Nik program but I have their happiness engineers looking into it. I discovered that it is still working as a standalone app but not as a plugin, so at least I have a work-around in the meantime.
Sue
An interesting bit of experimenting, Sarah – but I’m now keen to see the originals!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Sue 🙂 I’m pretty sure you’ll have seen the majority of the originals in the past!
Sue
Fair enough!