Another poppy

[Grahame Hamblin]

did a select and paste on this one stem a bit out must buy a pen and pad (thoughts) To much white frame
Grahame

[Jay Sheinfield]

Great color and detail in the flower. I might have preferred a lighter/less saturated background, but that's just my taste. The stem needs some smoothing, hopefully someone with more PS experience can give you some tips on doing that. I've tried but never warmed up to the pen and pad. I'm not a frame person, but the amount of white seems OK to me.

[Dennis Bishop]

I like the color combination, and I think I prefer the darker background you used, but -- while I was at it -- I lightened it with a Curves layer to see how it looked. The stem selection really doesn't bother me, at all. It could be fixed with a Select>Refine Mask>Shift Edge, but the flower, itself, is so well selected, I think I'd do the Shift Edge on a duplicate layer and mask off the flower.

I'd suggest a change in composition for two reasons. The opposing petals of the flower effectively make two diagonals, and the stem lines up with one of them. Rotating the flower pretty much aligns the diagonals with the corners of the image. Also, I thought it'd be better to have more room on the right and at the top. All that left the center of the flower almost in the center of the image. In many situations, I'd try to avoid that, but it seemed the best way to go in this case -- especially with the center of the flower not being centered in the petals as photographed.

I don't think the white border is too wide, but I might've gone with a somewhat narrower one. That's a very subjective call.

Stylus and tablet . . . I wouldn't be without that capability, but my setup is a bit different. Before I retired, I found that it was much better for me to use dual monitors even for engineering applications. Eventually, I went that way at home. Most of my Photoshop palettes are on one monitor and the image is on the other, so the work area isn't cluttered with things that get in the way of what I'm doing. The working monitor is a Wacom Cintiq. It acts as a tablet, and it can be calibrated the same as the other monitor.

[denise ippolito]

Grahame, I like the rich contrasting colors and the border you chose. I think you captured beautiful details in the center of your Poppy. I like Dennis' thoughts regarding the comp. In the future you might try to select the stem separately w/ the mask tool instead of the quick selection tool or lasso tool. Just paint on the mask, when you get to the edge click with your mouse, hold down the shift key then click the mouse again at the end of your stem, the shift key to help you create a straight line.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Grahame, I love the color combination between the flower and the background and actually prefer the darker background. I like the white border and the framing but I think I'd prefer a slight crop from the bottom.:S3:

[Grahame Hamblin]

Thank you for all your help hard to critique your own I have learnt so much from this site
Grahame