Apple Blossoms

[Christopher Miller]

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m244/CAMiller290/BPN/P5110133Resize.jpg

Been a while since I posted in the macro forum. Around our property there are several small apple trees that are currently blossoming. In this shot there were some other blossoms in between the camera and the blossoms I was photographing giving it a soft effect that I rather like. What do you think?

Any C&C are welcome!

Olympus SP-550 UZ
f4.5 @ 1/100, ISO 100, +0.3 EV
Aperture priority mode, pattern metering
Daylight fluorescent WB, focal length 504mm (35mm equivalent)
Processed in PS CS2: cropped, curves adjustment, saturation increase, and noise reduction

[Rene Quenneville]

Nice image Christopher.
I am not a big fan of soft images. This being said you have been able to capture an interresting mood. Your composition is good but I feel that the lower left corner is too bright.

[Dave Mills]

Christopher, I like the mood generated here and the only suggestion I have is to take a bit off the left. It will make the image stronger IMO.

[denise ippolito]

Christopher, This has a very soft Victorian feel to me and I like it alot! Agree w/ some off the left.

[Christopher Miller]

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m244/CAMiller290/BPN/P5110133ResizeWeb2.jpg

Thanks for the comments! Here is a repost with some taken off the left as suggested.

[Julie Kenward]

For me, it's too much softness. I like what you were going for but would have preferred to have been able to see the flowers a bit more with the softness more diffused and less of a "blanket." Also, it really looks like the flowers are not all that sharp under the diffusion...if they were I think I might really have taken to this. It's a neat idea and I would encourage you to try it again making sure the focal point had the right sharpness and the diffusion was just a tad lighter.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Christopher you are trying new things and we all have are own opinions about things and personally I like it very much. I like your new crop and might even darken the green in the upper left corner to give more dynamic range to the whole image. Just a thought.

[Ed Cordes]

I like the concept, but to my eye, it is a bit over done. Just a bit less intrusion of soft OOF stuff and a bit more sharpness would make it pop more.

[Christopher Miller]

Thanks everyone for your comments. I'll try experimenting some more with this technique.

[Gordon Craig]

I like the second posting of this picture. I'm not sure this is something one would hang in their home but I can think of a number of commercial settings where this would work nice.