lily

[Cheryl Flory]

tried something else with this lily.
what do you think?
perhaps the background is too strong? especially the red?

Canon 40D
Tamron 17-50mm at 36mm
1/125"
f13
ISO 400
EC +1.0
partial metering

[Mike Moats]

Hey Cheryl, I really like the nice sharp details and like the colors, the red areas on the right doesn't work for me, but lets see some other opinions on that.

[Christopher Miller]

Superb details and colors in the lily, Cheryl. It's very lovely. :) I'm not too crazy about the red and blue areas on the right, I think a more even BG would be better. I would also crop some off the right side.

[Desmond Chan]

This looks wonderful, Chery l ! I'm kind of ok with the red but perhaps try de-saturate it a bit? I would crop out that little blue "hole" that is kissing the frame in the upper right quadrant. Details are really good. I do see some tiny white fringe along the petals...the side effect of sharpening? ;) Like the light, too. Flash ?

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Nice and sharp, interesting BG but I think the red is a bit too strong.
This is a good subject to discuss about BG that are not very smooth/even.

[Stuart Frohm]

The detail is beautiful. And although the background is interesting, I'm distracted by the red. If the red is absent, I might be distracted by the blue; but I find the blue more pleasant and compatible in the background than the red.

[Cheryl Flory]

Desmond, no flash. just window light. Stuart, I laughed at your comment since it was exactly the second thing I thought about the image too! lol
I like the colors in the background, but maybe if I gave more room on the left they wouldn't take up so much of the image. But I agree that the red should be toned down. Or perhaps use a red flower???? would that help?

[Ken Childs]

I agree pretty much with what Christopher said. The BG on the left sets the tone for the entire BG, IMO, so the rest of the BG should be relatively consistent. I think I'd prefer consistent toned down striping or maybe the entire BG should be the same as it is on the left.

[Anita Bower]

I admire how you keep trying new ways of photographing flowers. Most of the BG works for me, except for the right side, which is too bright. Maybe toning it down a bit? I like using interesting BGs. I would clean up the dark spots on the petal in the 10 o'clock position, and a couple of bright spots--near center of flower and on petals. The colors are OK. With the bg striped on the diagonal, I want to see the flower as perpendicular as possible.

[Julie Kenward]

I really do like how the flower is exposed and I like the left side of the BG (as others have noted.) The rest of the BG leaves me confused as to what I am seeing so I am spending all my time looking at the BG and not the flower.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Cheryl,
Flower lighting is beautiful!....BG isn't working at all for me.....not only because of the red.....but the harsher diagonal lines. I do think this is a neat idea so keep experimenting!