Poppy-Flowered Anemone

[Anita Bower]

I found this beauty at Longwood Gardens Conservatory a couple of weeks ago.
Nikon D300, 50mm f1.8 lens, f1.8, 1/640, ISO 200, handheld, natural light, indoors. PP: Elements 10 & PS7: Clone, color balance, Color Efex Pro >Tonal Contrast, Viveza 2, tiny bit of Fractilus on the center (this may disqualify image from this forum), vignette.
C & C welcome. Thank you!

[Ken Childs]

Anita, while not as extreme as the Blue Poppy, this flower is a beauty! The flower looks great as does the BG but together there's the problem of that bright swirling BG overpowering the flower. When I look at this, my eye goes right to the bright area and the dark swirl to the right of the flower. You might try brightening and increasing the contrast on the flower and then go from there. Maybe darkening or blurring the BG will take off some of the edge. It's a fantastic base image and I think a few tweaks will easily take this one over the top!

As to the use of filters, I don't encourage the use of extreme ones like Fractalius in this group but as long as the result still looks natural, I think it's OK. :S3:

[jack williamson]

The flower is very pretty and I like the BG although it may be a little bright, it looks like green swirling smoke.

Jack

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I like the blue on the green here and the great effect of the bg

[Julie Kenward]

What a beauty, Anita! I agree with both camps...I like the green/blue combo but it is pretty contrasty to the coolness of the blue. Maybe toning down the yellows a bit or pulling back the brightness and seeing if that would leave the two more cohesive to each other? In any case, the bokeh is beautiful and the flower looks totally natural even with the little bit of fract.

[Anita Bower]

Thank you all for your comments. I toned down the green/yellow bg. It now looks a bit dull to me.