New England Aster

[Anita Bower]

Taken indoors against white foamboard, natural light.

Nikon D300, 105mm macro, f16, 0.60 sec., ISO 160, spot metering, manual exposure, manual focus (live view), tripod. PP: in PS7 and Elements 7. Some cropping right and bottom.

I'm wondering about cropping more off the left side.

[Ken Childs]

Anita, IMO the colors and light look just right for this flower. It's gorgeous!
As it is now, I would crop some from the right. You say you took some off the bottom so it sounds like you have room to work with. This is one of those images that has lots of cropping possibilities. If it were mine, I'd probably crop off about ½ of the white on the right and would add a little back to the bottom so the center of the flower is about the same distance from the right and bottom edges.

Are you growing these or are they a wildflower? This species and 2 other purple varieties grow wild in my area.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Anita....I think I like it as presented....I personally would not crop. Nice work!:D

[Dave Mills]

Hi Anita, Agree with Ken on this. In this case I like the white backround along with a pretty specimen. I too would take some off the right and add more to the bottom. The lighting is well handled!

[Anita Bower]

Are you growing these or are they a wildflower? This species and 2 other purple varieties grow wild in my area.
Thank you! This image is a case in which I wish I'd also photographed the entire flower. Oh well, live and learn, hopefully.;)
I'm growing these in my garden. They are natives in PA. but I don't see any nearby.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Anita. Very nice colors, sharp focus, and I like the off-center middle of the flower. I could see cropping some from the right and Ken has some good comments above, regarding the comp, to tweak what is already a very attractive image. :)

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, this has a really nice feel in the processing. I would pobably crop some of the right also.

[Julie Kenward]

What lovely translucency to the leaves, Anita! I also would try Ken's recrop - I think the loss of white space would take it up a notch. I've been getting caught up on your blog - you're doing some beautiful work there!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Nice soft tones, and another vote on the crop. Did you consider f/22-32 for a bit more DOF? Love your work.

[Anita Bower]

Nice soft tones, and another vote on the crop. Did you consider f/22-32 for a bit more DOF? Love your work.
Thank you, Jay. I do have a version at f45 (relative or effective f stop). I don't know why I didn't choose that one as it is otherwise identical. I will work on it. Thanks for raising this issue. :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Anita,
Catching up from the Tetons.....finally have internet! I like the suggestions given above.....but will add one more. I like your idea of a left crop......then proportionally off top.....leaving the entire petal in the 1:30 position w/ a touch of room....that may also work and better balance the space IMO. Overall....very nicely done!