Gaillardia

[Nancy Bell]

Afternoon light. In reality the yellows of these petals really glowed and the histogram seemed o.k. but once in the computer they came out overly saturated. I'm not sure how to convey that glowing look without over saturation.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 300 f4 L IS, tripod, 1/640, f5.6, exp.comp. -2/3, ISO 400

C & C most welcome.

[John Storjohann]

Nancy, I think you did a pretty good job with the yellows; they can be very tough to capture accurately. Are you using LR as part of your workflow? If you are, you can go to the develop panel and then, on the right hand side, go down to the HSL (Hue/Saturation/Luminance) sliders and tweak the yellows on the Saturation and Luminance tabs to tone it down a bit. I like the diagonal flow that the stem of the flower and the background elements lend to your composition; if it were mine, I'd crop a little from the bottom, a little from the top, and possible a sliver from the left to tighten it up a bit, but I tend toward tight crops...so I'm just thinking out loud! I really like the detail and sharpeness you've captured in the center of the bloom. Nice shot!

[kostas nianiopoulos]

the flower looks pretty good , but u could add some blur on BG i think , this is an easy fix :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Nancy,
Yellows are tough and can easily go over the top. I fel that comp wise because the flower is of to the left, I don't feel that you need as much room on the right....although it looks better if you rotate it 90 degrees CW! I would tone down the BG nearest the bloom.....all the brighter areas. Eliminating hte greenish stem above the flower would also help. Have you considered darkening the entire BG? I think this would make the whole flower pop a bit more without touching it! Just some things to consider when re-working this.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Nancy. Beautiful colors on your flower! It looks like you did a good job taming the yellows - as you are finding out they can blow out very easily. Good sharpness within your DOF - I'd like to see a little more depth on some of the petals that are angled toward us - but I'm afraid that would add too much detail to the background. There are already a number of good suggestions above for you to consider. For me, the light flowers directly behind the bloom and below it are really drawing my eye - toning down that brightness would take this image up a notch or two. :S3:

[Nancy Bell]

Since the yellows are under control, I'll work on the other suggestions. Thanks!!