Tulip #1

[Julie Kenward]

I've photographed this tulip for three days now - with the macro lens, with extension tubes, and with the Lensbaby. Whew! I'm tired! ;)

This is with the use of the extension tube(s) and is one of my favorites of the series. I'm a little unsure about the URC - should I fade it in with the tulip or leave the BG as is? Any other thoughts?

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 and Kenko Extension Tubes
f4/5 @ 1/8th, ISO 200
Manual mode, pattern metering, Daylight WB, handheld, natural light (from window)
Processed in ACR & CS4.

[Barbara Kile]

This is lovely, Jules. That URC is an area I frequently darken slightly with Viveza, although it's not terribly distracting - you have that same color at the base of the tulip. That's the personality of this particular flower! Also, if you felt you needed to darken, a highly feathered selection might blend some 'correction' into that corner too, using 'refine edge' option. I'm wondering about either including more of the green in the LRC or eliminating it for a really abstract flower image. So many options! You have a very pristine tulip here with lovely crisp lines and a wonderful composition!

[Julie Kenward]

Barbara, I do have a vertical version where there is no stem included and I like that one as well - I did wonder if maybe I needed just a little more stem but hated to cut off the other end of the frame because of the way the curve of the petals go at the ULC. I'll take another look though...

Good suggestions...thanks so much!

[Gail Spitler]

Jules - This is an image that feels very Georgia O'Keefe-like. Certainly holds the viewer. I wonder if the light area on the right side might tend to pull the viewer's eye to that side and then up to the URC? For me Barbara's idea of a slightly tighter crop, eliminating the stem and going completely abstract could be worth pursuing.
Lovely, lovely tone and feel to the image.
Cheers
Gail

[Ken Childs]

Jules, this is lovely as is but that green area and the light URC are a both bit distracting, at least to me. I just did a quick edit where I cropped a very small amount off the right, smudged the remaining green off the canvas and cloned some of the nearby pink over the URC and thought it looked pretty good.

[Julie Kenward]

Okay, here's the repost...you talked me out of the stem & the URC. ;)

[Ken Childs]

Wow! That look amazingly close to my play edit so I guess that means I like it. :D

[Christopher Miller]

Jules, Your repost was exactly what I was thinking when I first looked at the OP. Looks perfect to me! :) Love the peachy colors.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jules,
Re=post is the way to go for me....or adding a bit more stem....but as usual.....less is more!

[Desmond Chan]

Simply beautiful, Julie ! I would have suggested darkening the upper right hand corner and, obviously, you'd already done that to your repost :)

The other option may be to lighten and/or desaturate the lower left hand corner to match that in the upper right hand corner.

[Barbara Kile]

Lovely repost, Jules!

[Anita Bower]

I can see why you wanted to keep the green in. If it weren't for that URC, I would go with the first image. Did you try darkening that area a bit as suggested by Barbara? The repost is lovely also, beautiful abstract. Lovely light and composition.

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Nice composition, beautiful colors...and I like the repost more.

[Charles Wesley]

Jules,

I like them both alot. So simple in one way and very powerful in another. I need to get up closer to my flowers to try to produce this kind of most wonderful imagery...
__________________________
Charlie Wesley
St Augustine Beach, FL
http://naturesphotographs.com