Calla Lily Macro

[Anita Bower]

This is an older photo of mine that I'm reworking.

Konica-Minolta 5D, Minolta 100mm macro lens, 1/20 sec., f22, ISO 100, tripod, A priority. Taken inside Longwood Conservatory using natural light. Big crop. Basic pp, including noise reduction.

I would appreciate comments and critiques.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Anita,

I like the clean whites and the flow of the image, leading my eye right where you intended it, then I jump to the dark area.

Comp wise, the single dark space makes the image feel a bit unbalanced. .....I tried cropping it out, but didn't like that it left out too many details......maybe try lightening the green area and fill with more green......I gave it a try...and liked that there appeared to be a leaf under the lilly .............this is always personal taste......

BTW, you have some slightly overexposed whites according to my histogram...............Cheers

[Valerio Tarone]

Anita Hi
troubling! Do you know the diego Valera pictures? joking... I'll read the further comments, but my idea was just to question to crop or not....

[Ken Childs]

Hi Anita, I also really like the center swirl but Like Jay, the dark area is giving me problems. I tried lightening it and I tried making it black but neither version looked quite right. What did look good, IMHO, was cropping away about ½ of the dark area, a small slice from the top and then converting the image to a contrasty B&W. Give it a try and let me know what you think. :)

[Anita Bower]

Thank you Ken, Valerio and Jay. I appreciate your feedback. I think this is one image that just doesn't work. I will have to try to take a similar one. :(

Ken: I tried your suggestion, but I still find that dark area bottom right troubling.

Valerio: Who is Diego Valera?

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Anita. I like the swirl, the white-on-white, and the detail. Like the others, I'm thinking that the dark area is a problem. I've thought of a number of potential crops to reduce or eliminate the dark area, but they all end up destroying the flow of the swirl which is really the heart of the image. I like what you were trying to do here, but maybe a fresh start is a good idea. :)

[Valerio Tarone]

Anita recently I confuse words, specially when it's not my first spoken language, (hope not Alzheimer!). I mean Diego Rivera who painted many calla. the best, the solution, also to my thoughts, is in the steve' writing.

[Julie Kenward]

I sure wish you could get this to work because I love it. I think Ken's idea of converting it to black and white might pull it off. The spiral is well done and the texture you've captured is stunning.

[Anita Bower]

Anita recently I confuse words, specially when it's not my first spoken language, (hope not Alzheimer!). I mean Diego Rivera who painted many calla. the best, the solution, also to my thoughts, is in the steve' writing.

Thanks for the clarification. I know Diego Rivera's work. Yes. he painted gorgeous calla lilies.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Anita,
just returned from Bryce and Zion.....so I get the benefit of looking at all the comments and seeing what I could do!:D Like the others I felt the darker area and some of the whites were competing. You know I am fond of the crop tool and after reading Ken's and other comments....decided to try a few. The more I explored the more I felt a rotation and crop off the bottom worked best. I then did a bunch of selective layers.....from selective color to levels as well as brightness contrast....always tweaking giving the whites some more depth. I also cloned in some color into the blown area(could have been from compression) at low opacity and then also patching in my sloppiniess! Regretfully:(.....I did not write down the numbers.....but if you want, I can try to recreate my steps and then get them to you! At least you know it is possible and this does work for me!!!....no need to go back to scratch IMO!

[Nick Palmieri]

Romans re-post really works...Addresses all the concerns and strengthens what in my opinion was a strong image to begin with.

[Anita Bower]

Hi Anita,
just returned from Bryce and Zion.....so I get the benefit of looking at all the comments and seeing what I could do!
Wow! You did an amazing job! I will work on it following your description. Rotating the image made a huge difference. Many, many thanks!:D

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, really like the subject, and do like a tighter crop, less of the white on top.

[Norm Dulak]

Anita:

You've made a substantial contribution to this forum. It's very interesting ! :)

So too has Roman, with his alternative rendition of your image.

If Roman continues to work his magic on our images and with his OP's, he may have to change his avatar to a champagne glass! :cheers:

Norm

[Anita Bower]

Thank you all for giving me feedback and ideas for this image. Now, I have to get to work on it. :-)