The Coming of the Lilacs

[Julie Kenward]

I played with this one far too long! I ended up desaturating it a bit, then adding a cooling filter to give it a more silvery tone. Finally added a soft Orton treatment to add a bit of glow. (I also cloned out a back bud that was in the way.)

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro
f3.5 @ 1/50th (handheld), ISO 400
Early dusk/just after a day-long rain

[Ed Cordes]

Really nice painterly feel to this image. It is a bit busy for my taste, but still a nice image.

[Anita Bower]

You are a champ at handholding! Lovely soft colors and focus. The bg nicely sets off the lilac colored flowers. (How did you get that marvelous even green bg?) For some reason, my eye is drawn to the back out-of-focus flowers (maybe because they are larger?) and to the bright white areas on the leaves.) Is there such a thing as spending too much time working on a photo? I hope not! Thanks for sharing.

[Julie Kenward]

How did you get that marvelous even green bg?

The lilac sits on the lower side of the yard. I simply have to shoot "upwind" and the grass rises to cover the BG. :w3

[Ken Childs]

Jules, while I like the general layout and the nice soft colors, this one isn't working for me. My eye goes first to the bright leaves in the FG and then to the OOF flowers in the BG. The leaf blocking the base of the flower clusters is another distraction. I'm sure the flowers are already open now so you can't shoot this again exactly as it is but if you shoot the open flowers, I'd remove that one leaf and do what you can to tone down the remaining leaves.