Water lily at sunrise

[Jay Sheinfield]

Nikon D3s
140mm
ISO 800
1/30 sec @ f/22
Hand Held
Polarizer filter

Comments welcome................

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jay,
Comp wise this is very good.....the tough light was working against you and I believe in this case.....polariser and slow SS hurt you. Doesn't look as crisp as I would expect from f22....and 1/30 sec SS....HH.....is definitely pushing the limits even with the use of a flash! That may have opened up the center a bit more......but could have hurt other areas too. No complaints comp wise from me...but hsarpness and a few dark area seem a bit off to me. Let's see what others chime in!

[Desmond Chan]

Pretty much what Roman said about the light. I do like the composition very much. The color of the flower goes really well with the green leaves.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Neatly composed frame - loved the way you've framed the flower with the leaves around it.
Well, for my tastes, I actually liked the light here - especially on the green leaves around the flowers. The lighting on flower could've been better (as of now, the petals are throwing shadows on flower). May be using a reflector to bounce back the light onto the shadows in the flower could've help ...??!
Well again, in nature photography we take what nature gives us :)

[Mike Moats]

Hey Jay, I like the strong contrast of the flower against the dark BG. I also like the dark feel in the Bg but still enough light to make out details. As mentioned nice composition.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hey Folks,

Thanks for the feedback. This image was all about light to me. I have several similar images, when the sun was veiled by the clouds, where the colors and the mood simply was not the same.

I am re-posting the original frame, without the crop. I did a slight reverse curve to take off a bit of harshness, but hopefully preserve the mood. There is still clean up to do. Still not sure which I like better.

I agree about the light on the flower, but I was hoping the overall strength of the image would, in balance, still work.

Roman, I agree that SS was not on my side. I couldn't get my tripod to this view, so I rapid fired multiple frames. Usually one comes out ok. I should have pumped up ISO, though. There was a hint of softness in some of the stamen, but selective sharpening seem to help.

Here you go................... I only cropped it on the OP because my wife liked it better...........;)

[OvidiuCavasdan]

Strong colors, well composed, beautiful flower and also very nice leaves. I do not mind the dark area.