Past Its Prime

I recently mentioned that this title could easily refer to me also (recently celebrated another birthday). At any rate it's a fairly simple composition. A subject captured on a walk through Cape May Point State Park. The texture is "Brushstrokes" from Shadowhouse. After combining the two I used Nik color efex darken/lighten center to get the vignette effect. I also used structure in detail extractor, but only painted it onto the flower sections using the nik brush feature. I used the Lightroom brush feature to warm the highlighted portion of the flower. Maybe I could have used a smaller center on the darken lighten center? Thoughts?

Dave, real nice warm light. The texture compliments the detail of the flower. Nicely framed, and I really like the arched features of the flower. Well presented, simple and clean. Great work.

I like what you've done with this. The background and subject work really well together. I like the primary diagonal, and the curves are marvelous in focusing attention on the rest of the seed head. My take on the size of the Darken/Lighten Center shape is that I wouldn't want it any smaller. It looks good the way it is -- a nice vignette and a well-grounded base. I wondered about slightly blurring the background and quickly tried it. The seed head stands out a bit more, but I'm not sure that's better in this case.

I can empathize with title on this one. :bg3:
I really like how you presented this subject, Dave. The size of the Center shape works to help bring it forward from the BG texture.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm getting a bit more comfortable with the center size. I appreciate the time and effort to comment.:S3:

Dave, I like it just the way it is. The texture you used is very complimentary and I think the lighten/darken center is just right. I, too, can empathize with the title:eek3:

I also like it as presented. I love the background and it goes perfectly with the subject.

I too like it as presented. Nice texture (one of my faves) and the lighting offers a nice mood.

Beautiful work! I like the dark, interesting texture, and the light on the center of the flower. I think the lightened center is just right. Excellent work. I love Queen Anne's Lace past its prime. Most people are great past their prime also. :-)

Dave, do you have a link to this texture?

Thank you once again to everyone. I now must apologize for a mix-up in crediting the texture. When Anita asked for a link, I went looking in my files and noticed that this particular texture came from Deviant art. I found a link to the download site so I'll post it here. http://firesign24-7.deviantart.com/a...ture-123965652 I hope the link works for you. Further proof that I'm past my prime.:w3

Thank you for the link, Dave. It worked fine! Wonderful texture.