Iris

[Stuart Frohm]

This is the first of two photos I plan to post from a short session in our side yard before this afternoon's rain. The second, probably to be posted Sunday, will be a windblown poppy.
Pentax K100D, Pentax 100mm macro, f/32, -1, center-weighted average, ISO400, tripod, iPhoto

[Julie Kenward]

Stuart, this image is really dark on my monitor and is showing quite a bit of noise in the BG. I'd suggest opening it back up and taking a look at how much of your histogram data is on the left side. I think you could boost the mid and upper tones quite a bit and that would probably help get rid of that noise, along with a good pass of noise reduction.

Compositionally, I think this would also be stronger as a vertical with a bit more of the stem in the image.

[Fabs Forns]

I agree with Jules that it looks dark. I may also crop some off the left to decenter it. Will be looking forward to the next one :)

[Stuart Frohm]

Thanks for the very helpful suggestions.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Stuart,
I definitely think you can pull it up some and very good advice given above. These are tough because of their depth.....so work those angles as much as you can....because even at f32......that is one tough flower to get totally in. Remember.....just by using my 180mm macro....I get a bit more DOF.