Magenta Flowers

[Bill Holsten]

This is not a macro image, nor does it have bugs in it, but this forum seems to be a collecting place for all things flora. Please straighten me out if I have this wrong. The image was made on Doug Brown's Costa Rica Workshop last April (a great experience by the way).

EOS 7D, EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS + 2X, 1/125", f/11, ISO 400, flash, tripod

[Steve Maxson]

Yup, this is the right spot, Bill and welcome to Macro. Love the pastels, the comp with the flowers flowing into the frame, the sharpness, DOF, and background. The only thing that detracts from an otherwise excellent image is the URC with the small OOF leaf, the bright highlight behind it, and the small sliver of dark green on the frame edge. :) Well done.

[Bill Holsten]

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I was already aware of the OOF leaf and highlight, but was too lazy to deal with it. I didn't even notice the sliver of dark green. In any case, I am re-energized and like a challenge, so I have removed the offending features and offer this repost. I love the colors in this image.

[Desmond Chan]

Most of my posts are simply flower shots, too :p

As for this image, on my monitor it looks a bit bright and contrasty. I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the colors of the flowers and the green background themselves, with or without any further processing. Overall, I find the flowers positioned well in the photo.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely image the repost is definitely better. The colours are very interesting - I like them but I wonder if they are a bit bright? You don't have to pay too much attention to my comments because I sometimes lose sight of the fact that people sometimes quite deliberately alter the colours because they like to, in general my preference to is try to capture colours as closely as I can remember to the original.:)

[Ken Childs]

Hey Bill, the comp looks great with a nice flow from top to bottom. The repost definitely looks better. It is a bit bright for my tastes but others should like it this way.

[Anita Bower]

I'm one of those who like it bright! And, you are in the right forum as we are macro and flora. Welcome. Your repost is great--you nicely solved the problems in the URC. I like the BG color matching the color of the leaves, and setting off the purple. The composition is good with the diagonal flow of the stem. Nicely done. Posting to a forum like this will get one re-energized!

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Beautiful image with a very bright BG (very different and appealing). With the petals also bright and well detailed, the BG does not seem over powering.
Great cloning job in re-post ! Personally I would have given up on it. This is too good.

[Jerry van Dijk]

hi Bill, very nice! I love the colors, both of the subject and the BG. Did you have backlight on these flowers or are they just bright from the flash?

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Bill,
I'm with Jerry above....as the leaf on the LL seems a touch bright......and it may have been the flash adding?.......I still think this has a lovely flow to it.....but I would try toning that down at least.......that would keep the focus on the lovely flowers!

[Bill Holsten]

Thanks to all of you for your constructive comments and kind words. Answering Jerry's question, this image was shot in an opening in the rain forest on Costa Rica's Pacific slope at about 3 PM. It was somewhat overcast and I don't think there was much back light, thus the bright leaves are largely due to the flash. For this final post I have made the illumination of the URC leaf more uniform, decreased the brightness of the lower portion of the large leaf a bit and then added 10 points of black to both yellow and green in selective color. The difference is subtle, but noticeable.

[Vida van der Walt]

Repost works great Bill. Beautiful image and I adore the colours. I'm very impressed with your cloning work on that leaf URC!:)

[Julie Kenward]

Lovely second repost - just the right balance of color, contrast and brightness. Comp is very nice and the crop is also well done IMO. Welcome to the world of flowers!