Mandara Flower

[Ramesh Adkoli]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2615/3742458938_6a675b5d70_o.jpg

A beautiful flower that is known for its delicate features. Grows mostly in the southern coastal areas of India. As for the image, i would have loved to avoid that bud behind the flower, but couldn't. The flower was fairly deep in the plant. In addition the cloudy weather led to very low lighting conditions. Appreciate your views and critique.

EXIF: Nikon D700, 105mm 2.8 VR, 1/90s, f/8, ISO 400, spot metering, hand held, no flash, cloudy morning
PS: opened exposure by 1 stop in ACR, levesl and curves for white point and contrast, and sharpening; burned the bud to lighten it.

Regards,
ramesh

[Julie Kenward]

Hey Ramesh, beautiful whites on the flower. Overall, I think this feels a little dark still (but that could be my monitor.) Composition wise, I'd crop a bit from the right side and get the main flower more off center. I would also really consider cloning out the bud in back if you aren't objective to that - it's really competing for the attention of your main subject. Possibly just toning it down might also help.

Nice clarity of the flower and I really like that you got the stamen showing separately. Nice work!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ramesh, the image does have a dark feel but I don't mind. I also don't mind the back bud, but I would clone out the light green stem on the left above the lower leaf. Agree with Jules on a slight crop on the right side.

[Anita Bower]

Very nice! A little more brightness might help, but it is OK as is. I agree with Mike--the bud does not bother me, but clone the green stem.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful flower. I like the composition and the darkness of this shot. I would try to remove the small bright green stem.

Markus

[Fabs Forns]

I lie the dark mood, the flower and the bud. Wish the leaf was not covering the bud. Agree on cropping off the right.

[Ramesh Adkoli]

Thank you all so much for reviewing this image. There are very valid and useful coments to improvement this image. I have cropped a bit from the right and cloned the tiny light green branch above LHS of the leaf. Julie, i left the bud in the BG as is but toned it out using lasso tool and curves. Here the reworked image.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3744951981_3776633075_o.jpg

Let me know how does this look.

regards,
ramesh