Just another rose

[Douglas Bolt]

Canon 7D, Sigma 150, f10, 1/125, ISO 400, tripod, nearly FF.
PP: reduced some noise in background with Gaussian blur.

CC much appreciated.

[Ian Cassell]

Hi Douglas,

I like the composition. Focus is good and color is very nice. It might be strengthened a bit by cloning out that leaf on the right.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Douglas,
These are tough at the shallow DOF end when you have a bloom and a bud. I don't mind the fall off but all the other elements are causing this to be a bit busy. Is this your rose or Longwood or someplace similar. If it's your....some careful pruning will make this easier......if Longwood or similar....tough to find a clean angle w/o stuff in the way. Don't for get the clothespins or clamps.....to keep things out of the way. I'd go a bit stronger on smoothing that BG too.....just to take it up another notch. Light looks excellent.....some tweaks will just help.

[Douglas Bolt]

Thanks Denise and Roman. I had intended to do some OOTB work on the Rose image, but my Verizon router started acting up and I didn't get to the project. Fortunately, the new router seems to be working fine.

[Anita Bower]

Lovely bud! I see why you took a picture of it. I also notice that it was taken in an arboretum, which means it is difficult to eliminate distracting elements. The above comments provide some good advice.

I took the liberty of playing around with your image in PS. I rotated the image CW so the stem of the unopened bud is diagonal, not vertical, and filled in the new edges using the clone tool. I cropped all around too eliminate leaf at the bottom, which I didn't feel capable of cloning out, and to place the open bud in a more prominent position. I cloned out the leaf on the right and a stem coming up from center bottom. I used soft brush at about 20% opacity using a green from the image to even out the bg and the unopened bud, which, due to its size seems\ed a bit distracting. I also reduced red and magenta saturation just a bit. All this may not be to your liking, but it gives you some ideas.

[Douglas Bolt]

Thanks, Anita. I think you improved the image a lot. I appreciate you taking the time to be helpful. Something I really enjoy about BPN.

Now that I can view a cleaner image, I'm thinking that the light green blur behind the two buds is a bit too light - tends to draw my eye from the bud.

Yes, the image was captured at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC last Sat. Here's a link to some other pics from the day - http://dbolt.smugmug.com/Photography/NIH-Arboretum-Photo-Fieldtrip/13458103_a4uE6#979792260_SYRXV

[Anita Bower]

Thanks, Anita. I think you improved the image a lot. I appreciate you taking the time to be helpful. Something I really enjoy about BPN.

Now that I can view a cleaner image, I'm thinking that the light green blur behind the two buds is a bit too light - tends to draw my eye from the bud.

Yes, the image was captured at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC last Sat. Here's a link to some other pics from the day - http://dbolt.smugmug.com/Photography/NIH-Arboretum-Photo-Fieldtrip/13458103_a4uE6#979792260_SYRXV
Glad that I could help you think about your image in new ways. You will have fun playing with it.
I have not been to national arboretum. Thanks for sharing more images.