Orange lily

[Cheryl Flory]

Canon 40D
Tamron 17-50mm at 50mm
1/3.3 shutter
F2.8
ISO 100



OK. here's another try. This time I intended to overexposed it to start with, in the camera. But obviously, way over did it, LOL. So I experimented with what happened.

in ACR I actually lowered the exposure 1.0, raised blacks +54 and contrast +25 to bring back some details.
lowered the lights -28, darks -10, and shadows -23.

in Photoshop I desaturated any remaining color except for the red and a bit of the yellow on the center. Adjusted the gray in hue to add a bit of blue. And did less sharpening than before.

Well???? what do you think?

Thanks!

[Charissa]

Like it Cheryl, a lot. The middle stem where u desaturated the yellow, has a slight halo darkness around it, which i would try to fix if it where mine. Like the soft whites with just a hint of detail. Nice work.

[Ken Childs]

Hi Cheryl,

Those straight edges on the left side of the flower look a bid odd. Did you remove something from that area or is that really how the flower looked? There's a spot in the LRC that should be cloned out but overall I think you did a great job of salvaging this image. Oh, and where is the orange? :)

[Cheryl Flory]

Ken, thanks, I never saw that spot. the straight edge on the left side is where a petal bent downwards.
thanks.

[Desmond Chan]

Personally I may be tempted to do something to the top right hand corner. This stands out to me like a hole there and so I might see if I could "merge" the edge of the petal with the background better. Just my personal tastes mind you :)

Overall, Cheryl, this is very nice!!

[Julie Kenward]

I can't say I love the processing - the white feels a bit too harsh in some places and the grays with the blue tint feel murky to me. That said, I LOVE the pop of red and the selective focus and you did a bang up job on the composition.

[Cheryl Flory]

thank you, all, for your help. Your critiques are very helpful.
Julie, is there a way to "unmurk" the blue/grays?