Leaf shadows

I felt that this had a bit too much processing for the macro/floral forum, so I'll offer it here. This began life as an IR shot from a recent trip to Longwood Gardens. The area between the leaves was quite distracting, with highlights on other leaves. I darkened that area down and it still wasn't right. I added a gauzzian blur and that helped a lot. Lots of tweaks to curves and contrast on the main leaves, and a touch of Topaz adjust to bring out more detail. So has it all gone too far? I was shooting for a dramatic tone contrast in the leaves. I always appreciate the thoughts I receive here.

Edit: forgot to mention noise was adjusted through Topaz denoise

I love this one, Dave! I do think the top area loses some of the graphic interest, though with the BG diluting those strong diagonal lines. If this were mine, I'd crop right above the brightest leaf at the top area of the right leaf and let those diagonals carry the image.

Dave, I really like this too. The IR looks great. I am not a fan of mixed light and I think you did a great job toning it down. I like the way the palms get smaller at the top.

I like this just as presented, Dave. There's just enough contrast with the light and dark, and I like the subtle lines created from the shadows in contrast to the defined leaves.

I like its as presented too Dave. Great IR work. Just noticing some edges of the leaves look soft when they should be sharp? (DOF or when you darkened the BG???... not sure) Great image. Love the IR work.

Thanks to all for the thoughts. I'll take a look at a crop, but I kinda like the way the shot fades off into the dark with the shadow of another leaf in the urc. Worth a look though. Jackie, the softness may be coming from the background selection and applied blur. I'll take a closer look.

Dave, I really like it as presented. I like the lighting and the contrast between the curving lines on one side of each leaf and the straight lines on the other side. Very nicely done.:)

Nice use of IR - love the silvery look and feel to this.
The lighting and shadows really add interest.
Good show :)

Hi Dave, I think this is a strong image as presented. Your work on the bg looks fine to me. If you have those areas as separate layers you could try an all black bg as an experiment. Does have a nice graphic look!

Thanks again to all for the advice and encouragement. Yes Kerry, the background is on a seperate layer and I'll give it a look. It's been fun working with this image.