Zinnia

[Anita Bower]

One of the many gorgeous Zinnias at Longwood Gardens, PA, USA. Taken Friday on an overcast afternoon. Outdoors, natural light.

Nikon D300, Sigma 105mm macro, f5.6, 1/250, ISO 200, pattern metering, manual exposure, manual focus using Live View (my salvation!), tripod. PP: RAW conversion in Elements 7, editing in PP7, slight crop bottom and left.

I'm unsure of the darker purplish spot above the Zinnia. I wish it were either pink or green. I tried cloning, but that made it look worse.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Hi Anita,
I like your precise DOF and the angle you have gotten here. The BG is very pretty too. I took the liberty of working on it. Did a tighter crop, and removed some of the brighter pink in the BG with the patch tool, and clone stamp in CS4. I hope you don't mind the re-work. The colours changed a bit in PP, yours are much better in the orig post.

[Julie Kenward]

I really like your subject matter but I'm unsure of how much I love the angle. Like Ed's sunflower the other day, it feels like it is tipping out of the frame, leaving the bottom feeling heavy to me. Would rather see it at the same angle but higher up in the frame - but that's probably just me!

[Mike Fuhr]

I like this one very much -- great colors. And I was wishing there was more pink in the background!

[Rene Quenneville]

Composition is fine for me. The shallow depth of field adds to the mood. The original version is my favorite. Well done.