Flower Rainbow

[Anita Bower]

Monarda or Bee Balm bud. I was amazed to see these colors when I saw the image on my monitor. I took the picture in the evening, with soft backlighting from a western sky.

Nikon D300, Sigma 105mm macro, f11 (relative) 1/20 sec., ISO 500, manual focus and exposure, tripod. PP: PS7--basic adjustments (no saturation increase), soft light adj., Topaz Denoise, used clone tool to even out bg colors.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Love the overall colours in the image. The back-lighting has brought out some wonderful textures in the leaf.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Anita, I just love everything about this shot! Great color combinations, wonderful shape of the flower and well composed. The evening light is great. Slightly more DOF to have those two front leaves completely in focus would have been nice.

[Julie Kenward]

When I first opened this I wasn't too sure I loved the tight comp but almost immediately it grew on me! The slight tilt of the flower in the frame is so well placed. You did an outstanding job of cloning the BG - everything works and flows so nicely here. Excellent image, Anita. Thank you so much for sharing it!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very pretty colours and I love the BG Anita. If it were mine I might give it more room all around.

[Anita Bower]

Thank you all. I have another image that may have more in focus. This one required no cropping. The other one does.

[Allen Sparks]

Love the colors and background. I would also think about giving more room on the sides and top. Wonderful image.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, you have been doing some really nice consistent work. I like the positioning of the flower, good details, colors and BG. Well done again.;)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Anita,
Color and light are outstanding.....and while I gnereally like tight crops.....the one you need to crop may have more apparent DOF and satisfy the DOF requests....me included! I really want to see that other version!

[sandy richards]

Anita, very striking colors here - I've never seen this flower before.
I'd also like a bit more room..

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

The thumb nail catch my attention as soon as I saw it! beautiful flower and lovely lighting. Good job on BG.

[Anita Bower]

Hey Anita,
Color and light are outstanding.....and while I gnereally like tight crops.....the one you need to crop may have more apparent DOF and satisfy the DOF requests....me included! I really want to see that other version!

I'm catching up after a rather busy spell, hence the long delay in responding. Here is the other image. This one was taken from a bit further away, same f11, and cropped down. I had to blur the BG. Not sure if it is an improvement or not. I notice that I cropped this one rather tightly also--seems to be my inclination.