Bellwort

[Ed Vatza]

At least I think that's what it is. Trying to identify wildflowers makes birds seem easy! :)

I spotted these while out birding Monday evening. So I returned with my macro bag last evening. Image made using my Canon Rebel XT, Sigma 70mm Macro lens, Canon 430 EX Flash with LumiQuest Soft Box - all handheld.

1/30 sec at f/11; ISO 400; EC = 0; FEC = -2

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Ed,
Trout Lilly?......B4 it opens??? I think........brain dead right now! Nice BG and comp. Tight at top.........maybe, but not for my tastes. Only nit is the petel that gets clipped by the stem. Nicely handled,
Roman

[Robert O'Toole]

I like the shapes and the comp, agree with Roman again about the room at the top and the stem clip.

Also the WB looks strange was this AWB? Canon AWB usually look green to me, thats prob why I havent used AWB once in 7 years. The BG esp looks greenish.

Robert

[Ed Vatza]

OK, I goofed but I also have a problem that I must resolve.

First the goof. While post-processing the image last night, I tried to enhance the colors in Lightroom. I ended up warming the WB some and then played around with Hue and Saturation in an attempt to bring up the color in the green stem. Ergo green..

Now for the problem. The image looked fine on my laptop where I did the PP. Then I went into the office today and pulled up this post and immediately saw that the image took on a greenish tint. When I got home and looked again, the colors look fine. Obviously I need some color correction on the laptop. Any recommendations?

Anyway, I went back to the original image and pulled back on the WB and eliminated the hue and saturation adjustment. Now the background looks more gray on my laptop than tan/beige. By the way, the background looked terrible from any angle so I looked at my Domke bag and figured what the heck! So the BG is courtesy of Domke.

Here is the image sans WB adjustment, hue and saturation. Any better? Any worse? The same?

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice image,
love the soft colors and the details of the subject.. Would like just a little more room on the top of the frame...:(

[Ed Cordes]

Another vote for more room at the top. I like the soft colors.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Better.......and it's not a trout lilly..........but brain is still dead and crazy. Hope I remember by tomorrow. It's like the song that keeps playing in the head......but I can't remember the title! Roman

[Ed Vatza]

Robert, Gus, Ed, Roman,

I thank you all for the critiques/feedback/comments. They are always very helpful. Regarding the space at the top... I made many images of this particular flower from several different perspectives. Some were landscape and many portrait. And among the portrait, I made images where the bend occurred everywhere from about half way in the frame to out of the upper bounds of the frame (ah the joys of handheld :)). I picked this one because I liked the way the image "filled" the frame, I liked the flowing arch of the stem and I liked where the actual flower placement was in the frame.

I am not trying to be defensive here. Goodness knows I made enough errors on this one. But just trying to explain my rationale. I will take a look at my other images from this perspective and work with one with just slightly more room at the top.

Again, thanks!

[Arthur Morris]

I like the COMP but also wish for a bit more room at the top. I am puzzled as to why the BKGR looks like a piece of textured leather and surprised that nobody has mentioned this...