Nightshade

[Douglas Bolt]

Canon 7D, Sigma 150, f11, 1/125, ISO 400, tripod, reflector fill.
PP: Toned down some of the background, cropped, rotated, and sharpened getting ready for another Polar Coordinates filter experiment.

Even less background clutter would improve this image, but not
the PC filter image to come, IMO.

[Ken Childs]

Hey Doug, at this point for this forum, you might as well get rid of all the clutter in the BG because what's left is a bit distracting. I would crop some from the top and then paint away the clutter that's left. The light looks a bit harsh on the outer part of the flower so if you could slightly tone that down, it might help.

None of the above applies if you mainly took this shot as something to play around with and post in the OOTB forum. :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Douglas,
Excellent advice given by Ken above......even for this forum a bit of clean up will go a long way! Whites look like they have good detail through most of the image....just watch the edge from about 3 o'clock to 5. The center looks good too....not too dark. Did you use the reflector on it or the bottom stem? The minor tweaks will take this one up another notch and will look to the polar coordinates in the OOTB forum!

[Douglas Bolt]

Yes, very good advice. I took the photo with PC in mind and knew I wanted some splotches of color in the upper-center for the flower to wrap around. The original (not shown) out of the camera image had lots of strong browns and greens.

Here's the same image with a slightly cleaner look. More like an image to stand on its own.

I used the reflector to fill in the shadows inside the flower and to brighten up the stem. It worked for that, but I should have changed the cover from the gold to the silver surface, if I wanted to keep the flower color accurate, but I liked the slightly warmer tone.

[David Gancarz]

Beautiful, dramatic photo. The pistol and stamens are all there, and the wedding photo whites are spectacular. Good work with the reflector and your PP.