Flower 3

[Grahame Hamblin]

100mm macro manual f16 back lit with a little fill flash iso 200 stem looke awful so took it out Comments welcome
some sharpening in centre.

[Bob Miller]

Nicely backlit with sharp center ....Wish it were not just floating in space!

[Anita Bower]

Very nice job with the whites and back lighting. I like the black BG. It looks like you missed cloning out parts of the stem. I'm wondering if you could put the stem back in but tone it down or clone out the ugly parts so the flower has an anchor. Another suggestion is to brighten the center to bring out its beauty. Nice composition. and beautiful flower.

[Julie Kenward]

I also wish the stem were here. I think the "floating" flower works at certain angles (straight on is a good one) but this angle really makes me wish the stem were there. As far as the lighting goes, you did a beautiful job! I also think a bit more lightness in the center area would be nice but don't lose the tonality that you've managed to bring out between the lightest and darkest tones. Lovely work, Grahame!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Grahame,
Now you are getting there!!! Nice job with the backlighting and VG suggestions on lightening the center and bringing back the stem also. A few more tips for you to play with (please post a SS also so that I can get even more specific.....the more tech info you give....the more I can help!) Even though you can lighten the center in PP'ing.....if you had a long enough exposure, you could use a flashlight to add some more light to the center.....move it around though so you don't get too much of a pool of light! As for the stem......you don't mention a reflector.....so a bit of that on the stem may make it look better/more natural and help balance that nicely and give the flower a base!
Overall nicely done and you are definitely on the right track!