Waterlily #1

[Dave Woeller]

Another from my first visit to Longwood Gardens. I lowered the brightness on the lower lily pad and made brightness and and sharpness adjustment to the yellow center area. Boosted the blacks a bit to darken the water areas. I had to lay flat on my aging belly to get thissangle, and thankfully no one tripped over me :D I would have to ask if the pad in the lower portion is too distracting.
Canon 50D, 100-400mm @ 210 MM, 1/200 sec @ F/11, ISO 200

[Jonathan Ashton]

Nice shot, good exposure and detail. I know it is often best to get down really low but in this instance I think a slightly elevated shot would have provided a better view of the lily. There appears to be a colour cast on the petals, I suspect there will be a lot of reflected light but sometimes zoom lenses give rise to these artefacts.

[Don Hamilton Jr.]

I echo Jonathan as well, i think the angle might have made a difference.There does appear to be a slight color cast! Like the exp, and colors. Cool idea, and pic!
Thks for Sharing!
Don

[Julie Kenward]

Dave, I like that you got down low - I only wish there wasn't that lily pad in the FG. For me, seeing those petals break the tension of the water and maybe capturing the reflection down below would have made for a stronger image. I also think you could use a little CCW rotation so the horizon line in the BG were a bit more level.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Dave, I might have been standing next to you and didn't know it. In this case IMO a higher angle would probably have improved the image. More of the flowers center would have been visible and require a bit less DOF to handle the sharpness due to the angle.(if thats what you were after)
Unless you use high speed synched flash I recommend you use a tripod due to shooting at higher f stops with slow shutter speeds.
The pad to my eye is a bit distracting along with some of the whitish areas in the backround.

[Bob Miller]

HI dave....Yes, the fg is distracting to me as well as the lighter patches of the bg. Your colors look good and the exposure looks good as well.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Dave,
Can't add much to the suggestions above......I will offer this for the hard work......I think you can go into the BG and clean it up with some selective color layers and patching that leaf on the RH side.......make the flower stand out more. Worth the PP effort as a reward for your in the field work!

[Dave Woeller]

Thanks to everyone for the constructive advice. These are all tips that I can use to grow in this new area for me. Roman, I'll re-work this shot as best I can. Funny how over in birds I'm told get lower and here it's get higher :eek:. It's a diffrent world :D There's just so much more to learn.