Quaker Lady or Bluete

[Anita Bower]

These little wildflowers grow alongside the trail at my local county park. The appear every spring.

Nikon D300, Sigma 105mm macro, f8, 1/160, ISO 250, tripod, Live View, manual exposure.
PP: PS7 and Elements 7--basic curves, levels, color balance, etc. Cloned and smoothed bg, Crop. Topaz Denoise.

[Nick Palmieri]

I like the soft composition and the colors. I am debating on cropping off the entire bottom third but nice as presented. Let's see what others have to say.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Anita,
I really like your forcus here! I do think a few tweaks will make this shine! First....I would add canvas back on the left....feels a bit tight and if it is as lovely and clean as the rest.......don't mind having that much BG in this type of image. I might even conside adding a touc back up top but I would judge that after I added the left. Final step......I would remove some then off the bottom....1/4 inch below the horizontal lighter green.......but only if step one and two didn't satisfy me comp wise. Just a recrop for you to explore. I do think you can tone down the left area of white on the bloom just a touch also.....but these are very minor adjustments to a very nicely done soft focus image!

[Anita Bower]

I have taken the advice of both Roman and Nick. Added back some canvas on left and top--trying to make the distance from flower to edge the same in each. Then, I cropped some from the bottom. Also cloned some light color over the bright white spot. What do you think? I consider it improved, and thank you for helping me with this image. :S3:

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Anita,
The recrop works for me!!! Glad you like it too!

[Mitch Haimov]

I like this image, Anita. OP and repost both work for me in terms of top and left but prefer the bottom crop of the repost. I am curious about the light area to either side of the stem--I find it mildly distracting as I keep trying to figure out what it is.

[Anita Bower]

I like this image, Anita. OP and repost both work for me in terms of top and left but prefer the bottom crop of the repost. I am curious about the light area to either side of the stem--I find it mildly distracting as I keep trying to figure out what it is.

Good point. I'm not sure what it is. I probably ought to go back and get rid of them. Thanks for mentioning them--I'd been ignoring the problem.

[bhavya joshi]

Nice simple image Anita.. I like Top bright area of flower. Nice BG and compose :S3:

[Brendan Dozier]

Very nice soft image & composition, Anita,. Great BG, and repost looks good, but not sure about bottom stem area either. Think Mitch makes a good suggestion. :S3:

[Anita Bower]

I eliminated the brighter green behind the stem. A definite improvement. Thanks!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Anita. A very nice soft-focus image - I like that the yellow center is sharp and that the sharpness shows up better on the repost. It gives my eye something to lock onto. I would agree with trying to remove the light area on either side of the stem. :S3:

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Anita, another lovely little wildflower! I like the elongated look of the original crop, but agree that a little room on the left is an improvement. I like all the "OOFness" (:c3:) going on, but I would have preferred that one or both of the OOF petals would have been in focus. Great job on removing the light area around the stem! Looks much better.

[Mitch Haimov]

Here's another vote for the re-repost!

[Anita Bower]

Hi Anita, another lovely little wildflower! I like the elongated look of the original crop, but agree that a little room on the left is an improvement. I like all the "OOFness" (:c3:) going on, but I would have preferred that one or both of the OOF petals would have been in focus. Great job on removing the light area around the stem! Looks much better.

Good point about focus of petals. Will work on it in future. Thanks for comments. :S3:

[Mike Fuhr]

I really like this one, especially the repost. Very nice Anita. DOn't mind the oof petals at all.:S3: