Tulip Leaves

[Anita Bower]

Taken yesterday morning in my garden. Shade on partly overcast day. I liked the shapes and colors.

Nikon D300, Sigma 105mm macro, f3.2 (Relative), 1/320 sec., ISO 400, manual focus (Live View), manual exposure. Tripod.

PP: levels, SH, saturation, contrast, slight cloning of bg, Denoise background, slight rotation and crop,

[Joe Senzatimore]

Very simple, wonderful image. Just love the curves. Would like to see the foreground leaf a bit sharper.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Anita, very well executed. I would like a little more room to the left. Composition wise, it seems that something is missing to draw my attention. I do like the curving leaf as well and keep wondering if you could have made a stronger composition by focussing more on that aspect.

[Anita Bower]

Thank you for the comments.

Getting the foreground sharper, or focusing on the edge of the leaf, would have required more dof, which ruined the image. I was focusing on the tip of the tallest leaf. Maybe I could try focusing on the edge of that leaf, still using shallow dof. Will try it.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Anita. An interesting mix of shapes and curves and I like the soft even light. As an alternative to getting the front leaf sharp, I'm wondering how this would look if you focused on the middle leaf instead - and let both front and back leaves go OOF.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Anita,
Great suggestions above on the focal points above......something I hope to be exploring shortly myself!

[Ken Childs]

Hi Anita, I'm thinking along the same lines as Steve although with a step to the left. The good news/bad news is that I assume that this plant has grown a bit in the days since you took this shot so there's no way to know if that option would have worked. My eye is drawn to the red tips so if you have another chance for a similar shot, try one with one of those tips looking sharp near a ROT position. :S3: