More $5.00 Flowers

I've been scarfing up $5.00 worth of flowers at the market each week to keep me from going winter crazy and last week I bought a huge lily with three blossoms. I did very little post-processing on this image until I took it into Fractalius and came up with this creation. I wanted it to be soft but bright; detailed but impressionistic. Would love to hear what you think.

Originally photographed with Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
f6.3 @ 1.50th, ISO 800, handheld in natural light
ACR/CS4/Fractalius

Hey Jules, what is Fractalius? Is it a plug-in? Do you do all of your macro HH?

Uh-oh, another Fractalius addict coming along!

Jules, I like the soft, warm glow from the center of the flower and the subtle effect you used! I think the glow along the edges of the petals would stand out more if the BG were a little subdued. I see very slight haloes around the stamens. That new 100mm macro looks like a sweet lens, and with IS you can HH at 1/50! Nice!

Kerry, those halos are probably from where I erased most of the Fract from the stamen ends so the details would show through better...I'll go back and double check those...thanks!

Julie, Fractalius IS a plug-in for Photoshop (not sure if it works with Elements...you'll have to check that out.) Google Redfield Fractalius and you should go right to it.

And yes, I do handhold all my macro - in fact I handhold 99.9% of all my images as I find it too difficult to be creative when I am locked down in a tripod. There's just something about having that camera in my hands that makes all the difference to me. Do I recommend others work this way? Not really...but it seems to work for me. I employ every steadying trick there is and I practice, practice, practice!

Wow! You certainly accomplished what you set out to do with this image. Soft, but sharp! Beautiful.

Beautifully framed and you did achieve your goal of detail plus softness. Super lovely!

Real pleasing image Julie. I like the sort of "subdued" frac effect in this one a lot!

Thanks everyone! I am finally starting to feel like I'm getting a handle on the Fract program. Using it to create these floral images is just too much fun!

super image Julie .. well done

Love your comp and the light flower with the dark stamens (I hope that is what they are). If it were mine I wouldn't mind seeing just a bit more detail in them Jules. Just MHO.

It's nice to see that someone can use Fractalius without going over the top. I sure cant! :)

It's still a lot of fun to play with.

Beautiful! I like the glow, the composition, the colors. The neutral BG works well. Someone already mentioned the "halos" and wanting to see a bit more detail in the anther--and I agree.Lovely work!

Jules, I love the softer side of Fractalius and this Stargazer Lily really shows it off well. Great job w/ this one! Agree w/ the halos.

Beautiful image, Jules! :) Love the softness, colors, and comp.