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[Desmond Chan]

D700 105f2.8 VR hand-held. Manual exposure mode. ISO 1600 f8 1/800s.

Cropped and selectively applied dodge-&-burn.

Comments welcome and appreciated !

Thank you for looking !!

[Randy Stout]

Desmond;

Lovely colors. wish there was a bit more DOF so the entire flower would be in focus.

I might be tempted to try a version with the upper green leaves removed, those above the dark background band about 1/3 down from the top. I get the feel of the flower looking up towards the light. I might crop down a bit, but not much, as I like the looking up feeling.

Remember, this is coming from a avian guy, so just my .02:D

Cheers

Randy

[Julie Kenward]

Desmond, you've done a classical move here...we get so excited about the beautiful center of the image we forget to think about scale and position. For a vertical image to really work compositionally, it usually needs to have enough of the stem showing to "balance" the weight of the flower in the image. I try to remember to grab 3-4 times more length of stem than the height of the bloom in the frame and then can crop from there. This still works - but I think it would be much stronger as a horizontal image now with almost half of the area at the top taken off. That would put the bloom in the ROT's position and not leave so much open space floating around at the top.

I can see Randy's point about the entire flower being in focus but I also like it as presented - although the center is the focal point try to remember to capture at least some of the front of the flower in focus unless you are going to go for a very tight crop up front.

Beautiful subtle lighting in this and the dark, deep colors are a joy.

[Ken Childs]

Desmond, I agree with Randy about the colors and DOF and also that a different crop might work better. Those top leaves are separate from the main part of the image and don't seem to belong. A landscape or maybe even a square crop might work better with some off the top and bottom.

[Anita Bower]

i love what you did with the leaves--the green emerging fromthe black. they nicely frame the flower. i would crop the top third. lovely colors. :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Desmond,
Very good advice given above. I like the 1/3 off the top crop. I also like the way the BG fades nicely. I'm OK with the DOF as presented....hsarp enough where it needs to be.

[Ed Cordes]

I too like the composition with the colors against the dark BG telling the story. More DOF would be appreciated.

[Desmond Chan]

Thank you very much guys for dropping by and leaving your comments !

[Charissa]

Ditto the DOF, but i love the way the flower stand out from the BG, lovely colors, and a great shot.