Theme: Honeysuckle is a many splendored thing

I really liked the graceful & intertwining curves of the anthers as they reach out from the flower petals. Up close like this they appear both separate and part of the whole.

Usual processing in PS, a layer of Topaz Simplify 4 colored pencil light @ 75% opacity and a reduced layer of my own preset of Fractalius glow. The 2 filters added definition & emphasis to the flower parts with subtle outlines.

A wonderful tangle of interesting forms!

I like the colors, the tonal range, and all the lines and shapes. You did a great job of aligning the focal plane to get so much of the photo in focus. My inclination would be to use Select>Focus Area to capture what's in the foreground and, then, select the inverse and blur the background parts of the image some more for more separation.

Nancy,

Greetings. Your image evokes the smell and taste from my longtime love of this flower. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

A great scent and lovely flower to see. Nice presentation of nature's own analogous color scheme (colors next to each other on the color wheel). I like your description of your thought process when making the image.

Nancy, I like the color palette and the Fractalius Glow works nicely.

Nancy: I really like the effect of the two filters you used in defining the parts of the flower. The flower stands out nicely from the bg. The limited colors--green, yellow, white--work nicely. I agree with Dennis' suggestion of blurring the back parts of the flower--it would simplify this image in which there is a bit too much going on.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Bishop

I like the colors, the tonal range, and all the lines and shapes. You did a great job of aligning the focal plane to get so much of the photo in focus. My inclination would be to use Select>Focus Area to capture what's in the foreground and, then, select the inverse and blur the background parts of the image some more for more separation.

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I didn't know about Photoshop's select focus area function. Almost makes me want to get Photoshop!

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Originally Posted by Anita Bower

I didn't know about Photoshop's select focus area function. Almost makes me want to get Photoshop!

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You might end up using that feature more than I do, Anita. It's not often that I take advantage of it, but it is handy when I need it. Flower closeups is a good application for it. Rather than just selecting in-focus over not, it has a slider that allows the user to select the focus threshold.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dennis Bishop

You might end up using that feature more than I do, Anita. It's not often that I take advantage of it, but it is handy when I need it. Flower closeups is a good application for it. Rather than just selecting in-focus over not, it has a slider that allows the user to select the focus threshold.

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It sounds great. I just am not quite ready to pay $120/year for the program when I have Elements that works well for most everything I do. But, I may learn of more features that cause me to change my mind. :-)

Thanks all! Dennis, I didn't know there was a slider with select focus. I just got Adobe CC and have not begun to explore what the new features are.