Ranunculus

[Ed Vatza]

Our local photography club did a visit to a local wholesale greenhouse/nursery today. The place is closed on Saturdays so we had the whole place to ourselves. We just had to avoid the sprinklers, etc. :eek: It was a ball!

Made this image with my Canon 30D; Sigma 150mm Macro lens; Canon 430 EX Flash with LumiQuest Softbox; mounted on a Manfrotto tripod and ball head w/ Novoflex Macro Focusing Rail.

1/100 sec @ f/7.1; ISO 100; 0 EV; FEC -1

[Richard Lovison]

Wow, the background is as beautiful as the subject. I like where you chose to focus on the flower.

[denise ippolito]

Ed, It's beautiful! If it were mine I would probably tone-down the yellow spot on left(but not remove) And clone the top of the green leaf on right. But that is just being picky. I LOVE IT! Congrats on this one.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Ed, Good placement of subject within the image,nice lighting and soft complimentary backround. Agree with Denise's comments...

[Anita Bower]

Love this image! You did a fabulous job in getting the flower in focus and the BG out of focus! That is something I have yet to master. I love those BG colors! I wasn't bothered by the yellow in the BG, but, I see Denise's point. Also, the shine on the leaves to the right could be eliminated. Beautiful.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Ed,
This is a very fine capture, I like the well placed focus point and the angle of capture. My recommendation would be to tone down or eliminate the yellow oof blotch in the background, because it takes away th attention from your beautiful flower...good show...:cool:

[Julie Kenward]

I totally agree about the yellow blotch and would also suggest looking at the saturation of the pink right at the front/center of the flower. There are a few petals that look to be right there - might be a bit over - might be fine.

Beautiful image, Ed. What a fun way to spend some time!

[Ed Vatza]

Thanks folks. I appreciate all the comments. The yellow flower does not bother me as much as it seems to bother you all. So I don't really feel like it needs to be cloned out. Instead, I did go in and desaturate it somewhat. Jules, I had already desaturated the orange a bit and think it looks fine. I feel like it's right there. But what the heck, while I was desaturating the yellow, I also backed off the orange just a few more points.

[Anita Bower]

Ed: I think your second image is most successful. I'm glad you left in the yellow. Desaturating it solved any problems with it as a distraction. I look forward to more of your beautiful images. Anita

[Julie Kenward]

Beautiful either way but I think the second one is the strongest!