Theme: Abstract - Day Lily 2

This is the same day lily photo as my last post but converted to B&W and color toned. I found it gave the image a totally different feel. Any C&C are welcome!

Christopher, this one just isn't working for me. The longer I look at it, the dirtier it looks to me and I can't shake that that feeling. I like the comp. I like the detail and sharpness. It just the tone that is getting to me.

Christopher, I agree w/ Ed about the "dirty" look here. I think a high-key look might be an option. Maybe removing the darker areas and have very subtle tonal changes in the whites. I do like the comp. and the framing.

PS-Christopher can you share with us how you did the frame? I think it's awesome.

Thanks Ed and Denise. I see what you mean about the tone. I'll experiment with it some more and hopefully post a repost later.

Here are the steps I used to create the frame:
1) Selected the border area, I did this by placing guides then selecting the inside area and inverting it
2) Duplicated the image layer and set the selection as the layer mask for the top layer
3) Blurred the top image layer(the one with the layer mask)
4) Created a white fill layer at 24% opacity and created clipping mask to lighten the border
5) Scaled down the bottom image layer so that it fits inside the frame
6) Added an inner glow layer style to both the frame and image
7) At this point, I felt the frame edge was still a bit too sharply defined, so I copy and pasted the image inside the frame and added an outer glow layer style to it.

Christopher, It's just lovely, thankyou for the workflow-

Okay, here's a repost with the image lightened to give it more of a high-key look. I also upped the saturation a bit so that hopefully the color doesn't look so "dirty." Let me know what you think.

Christopher, It does look better to me.

Christopher, When I first saw this I thought the same thing as the others-BUT this repost is fantastic!