Lotus Petals

[John Storjohann]

I'm having a love/hate affair with this particular image... 180mm, f/22 @ 1/15. American Lotus shot in deep shade..a VERY slight crop (just a sliver) off of the left side and the top to remove a deep shadow that distracted me when viewing the image. RAW image was processed in LR and then finished off in PS; not a lot of post-processing work done, other than using Topaz Adust to help bring out the details in the petals.

[Nick Palmieri]

I like the detail in the pedals. I think the exposure is good and it is sharp. I may play with some different crops. If it were mine I would lose the pedal on the bottom right, this would give the flower a nice diagonal across the frame. The only problem I see is the tightness of the pedal on the upper left, since that is where you cropped, possibly you could recover some of it. TFS.

[John Storjohann]

Nick, thank you for taking the time to offer your comments. I played with the crop a bit...and cloned out the tip of the petal on the left...the crop from the left was so tiny that it doesn't give the upper left petal much breathing room...I may try playing with it a bit more. I think it's getting closer! Thank you again.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey John,
Took this into PS because like you.....while I loved certain elements of it.....some just didn't fit. I origonally tried to rotate it and crop....didn't work. I then just started cropping off the bottom.....because that was the area IMO that competed with the wonderful leaf outline you captured.....and then it came to me! While the crop is a bit agressive.....I think it works and all I did after that was clean up the URC with the yellowish tone to finish it off! Let me know your thoughts!

[John Storjohann]

Roman, I really like what you did...I did a slightly different take on you adjustments and did the toning in the URC as you suggested...what do you think of this version? I light leaving the tip of the background petal on the left intact..but I'm not sure if it starts to compete with the rest of the image then? I have to admit, I'm sitting on the fence on this one...I appreciate your help!

[John Storjohann]

Roman, I really like what you did...I did a slightly different take on you adjustments and did the toning in the URC as you suggested...what do you think of this version? I light leaving the tip of the background petal on the left intact..but I'm not sure if it starts to compete with the rest of the image then? I have to admit, I'm sitting on the fence on this one...I appreciate your help!

[Roman Kurywczak]

You could straighten it out by toning in the curve downward.....or crop where it just goes brighter and turns down.....either would work for me as your feelings mimic mine....that little tip does seem to compete! Proof that sometimes even the smallest adjustment can make a big impact!

[John Storjohann]

Roman, again, thanks for the help. I think I'm about there!

[Bob Miller]

John...Your last repost looks good to me ! I think you may be there! :bg3:

[Nick Palmieri]

Looks good John. Nice job.

[Julie Kenward]

Roman had my thoughts exactly. And, although I do like the final repost quite a bit, my original thought was that it needed a different angle in the first place; maybe 1/3 more rotation to the right bringing that back yellow petal more towards the ULC and letting the other petals fall where they may. I don't know why but when I can get a predominant petal like that one to fit into the angle of the corner it just seems to flow better to me. Excellent lighting and details...you certainly got your money's worth out of the trip to the garden!

[John Platt]

This thread with all the reposts was very instructional, thanks for the examples.

Also, it is a very nice image!

[Steve Maxson]

Hi John. Beautiful soft colors, excellent details, and lots of cool lines and curves to work with here. The thing that caught my eye on the OP was the dark triangle in the LLC which didn't seem to fit well with the rest of the image. I like what Roman did to simplify the image to its strongest elements. Your subsequent reposts are variations on this theme and they all work well. Very nicely done.

[John Storjohann]

Thank you for the recent comments...I'm a little in awe of the ability of so many on the forum to look at someone's work and give such spot on recommendations. A little in awe..and very thankful!