Lotus Painting III

[John Storjohann]

This bloom was a little hidden in the shadows...not sure if the stem had been damaged at some point or if it was just a twist of nature (pun intended ). 100-400mm lens @ 275mm, f/8@1/50, ISO 400. RAW image processed in LR; once in PS, evicted a leaf in the LRC, even the tones out in the BG using Viveza, and used NIK Detail Extractor and NIK Pro Contrast on low opacity layers. Duplicated the layer, used Topaz->Simplify->BuzzSim and the PS Oil Paint filter, lowered the opacity slightly and merged.

[Dave Mills]

Hi John, Love the sharpness ,detail and lighting. The large leaf acts as a pleasing backround. Compositionally I would prefer more room in the front of the flower than the back . I also would have preferred seeing the whole flower rather than seeing the top clipped.

[denise ippolito]

John, I am really liking your creative vision for these flowers. As presented I might take a slice off the top- just down to eliminate the black are above the top right petal.

[Bob Miller]

John...beautiful textures and colors here. I agree with denise about a crop from the top

[Maureen Allen]

Beautiful work, John. I think I might take the crop a little further down than Denise and crop just a bit from the right. These lotus images are gorgeous!

[Cheryl Slechta]

John, another gorgeous image. I also agree with the crop from the top. (I love your new avatar)

[John Storjohann]

Took a sliver off the top and a bit from the RHS per suggestions...Denise is this what you had in mind, RE the top? Thanks for the suggestions!

[denise ippolito]

John, I was actually thinking a little more to clean up the top edge.

[John Storjohann]

You're killing me, Denise (love that movie...Sandlot if you missed the reference...lol). Another shot at it...

[denise ippolito]

I love it!!

[Anita Bower]

Your processing continues to be excellent, drawing out the best in these lovely flowers. I also like how you work a subject. Love the texture on the petals. I prefer the final version, with the crops. Interestingly enough, the crop off the top gives me the sense that you intended not to include the entire flower, a sense I didn't get in the original post. Though I'm the only one to mention it, I'd like to see the flower brightened up some, at least most of it. Here is a quick idea of what I had in mind. I went easy on the brightening as I though you were overall going for a darker image.