Cherry Blossom

[denise ippolito]

Canon5D
24-105mm
ISO 320
1/1250 SEC. AT F/8
HH
Natural light

Was looking for a softer focus,so I didn't sharpen very much.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Lady Denise,
I like the composition. I would only suggest on taking the bottom flowers out the rest looks good...:cool:

[Julie Kenward]

Denise I like your idea of including the OOF flowers around the edges but I think you need a bit more of them. As is, they feel disjointed and only partially included. If you could get half of each flower in the frame then I think you'd have a stronger composition around your main focus branch.

Also, if you put this in to Photoshop and hit "auto" on levels I think you'll be surprised how much lighter and brighter this is. I know you're going for the soft effect but the image is just a tad underexposed.

[denise ippolito]

Here is a repost with your suggestions,Jules the histogram is not showing under exposed it is toward the right but I added some more exposure.
Should I clone or crop the top flowers also?

[Julie Kenward]

I definitely like that better...might still take out the stick from behind the main focal point.

Here's what I got when I hit the "auto" button and increased the blues and magentas just a bit. It's very close to what you have now.

[denise ippolito]

Jules, I'm not too fond of that bright blue but I see your point .Thankyou for your help.

[Anita Bower]

Denise:

We all have different opinions, don't we?! I would only take out the flower at lower left corner, leave others in.

I, too, am learning about brightening up an image and not having it underexposed. I was working on that this morning, in fact. Instead of using Auto in Levels, I've been experimenting with using the White Point eyedropper. Select it and click on a white or light area in the image. You get different results depending on where you click. In my work this morning, I found I liked that better than auto, in that it produced a bright image without being so sharply and contrasty bright as with auto. (Although, Jules' version came out nicely, but then she is a pro at PP.)

I like overlapping petals and their beautiful shades of pink!