Bogside showy ladyslippers

[Steve Foss]

Hey all:

Some questions for you. I'm interested in whether this comp works for you. I was very limited as to BG. Any lower and the sky came in, which I didn't want. Any side-to-side changes and glaring white tree trunks entered the BG, which I also didn't want.

So this is what I've got.

Does the dead space above the RH blossom cluster bother anyone? Does the side-to-side centering of the blossom clusters work for you or would you prefer a looser, more off-center comp?

I composed this and ripped off a burst before getting out the tripod and getting down to some more "serious" close-up work, but I came away from my pp session at the computer liking this one best. Thanks in advance for looking and commenting. :)

Canon 30D, Canon 100 f2.8 macro, iso400, 1/640 at f5.6, handheld, plants sharpened individually, noise ninja and light gaussian blur run on BG.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Lovely balanced composition with excellent exposure and beautiful detail.. Awesome BG too !!! Really like your choice of Fstop Ken. Many thanks for sharing.

[Jonathan Michael Ashton]

Steve
you have no problem with this this, as soon as I looked at it I thought WOW! I like the composition and the colour rendition, as much as I like the flowers I really like the stems and leaves, they have a wonderful texture. I have to say it whenever I see something similar I take a few shots and almost always end up disappointed, but you have a cracker there, well done!

Jon

[Steve Foss]

Hey thanks for commenting, Judy and Jonathan!

[Julie Kenward]

I think your composition is lovely and your BG is very nice. I wonder if a slight curves adjustment might boost the whites a bit as they look a little bit "off" to me? Otherwise, lovely image, Steve!

[Ed Vatza]

Does the dead space above the RH blossom cluster bother anyone? Does the side-to-side centering of the blossom clusters work for you or would you prefer a looser, more off-center comp?

I composed this and ripped off a burst before getting out the tripod and getting down to some more "serious" close-up work, but I came away from my pp session at the computer liking this one best.

Its always fun when the spontaneous seems to win out over the "serious" work.

I think the image is excellent as presented. The dead space doesn't bother me at all. For me the upper area is covered by the LH blossom and that is sufficient. I also think the balanced comp works fine here. I do agree with Julie that the whites could be just a tad whiter. (Maybe a different detergent! :D)

Overall, an excellent image, Steve.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks again, everyone. I struggle with whites when presenting work online. On sites that require photos be posted to a Flickr-like online host, what shows up on the screen in the end is very different for me than sites like this that allow a direct upload from my computer.

In other words, if I tone a photo to upload to Flickr and use that one here, it doesn't look right, and I'm still working out the details of how to make it look really good on this site.

So in the end I have three images. The TIF I save for printing or electronic transfer to publications, a save-for-web jpeg in sRGB color space I upload to Flickr so I can share the image on one forum (this needs to look oversaturated and darkened on my screen in order to look right when posted online) and a second save-for-web jpeg that requires just a bit of saturating and darkening for direct upload to sites like this.

I'm using CS2. I'll keep trying to get it just right.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Syeve, I like the comp. Good details, colors and BG. Well done. This would also look good in a vert with more stems and leaves below.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Steve,
The space isn't a problem for me as the composition is actually a diagonal with the blooms. The BG looks VG also and you have explained the whites. I for one would be interested in seeing some of the serious ones as comparison!