Greater Stitchwort

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 50D Canon 180mm macro with polariser tripod ISO 100 1/200 sec f5.6.

Well this is me attempting a little artistic rendition! I used the brush to harmonise the background and I used little box blur on areas other than the flower head, bud and stem to the bud. What do you think - is it a bit of a pig's ear? I suspect it is a bit of a clumsy attempt really:). All comments welcome

[Julie Kenward]

I think you did a very nice job on it, Jon! I can't figure out why the bud and the flower are so in focus while the middle leafy part is not - is that the blur you talked about? If so, I'd back off on it - keep that area soft but not quite this soft. I think the BG rocks - one small bright spot right around your signature - might tone that down a tiny bit - really nice image overall.

One other thing - you might check your whites on the flower - two of the petals seem to be close to being "hot".

[Jonathan Ashton]

Glad you like it! The aperture was farily wide so DOF was quite small, but yes the box blur did make a slight difference to the leaves. What I have noticed is that if you view in a darkened room the background does appear a little patchy.:)