Hi Stuart. A beautiful flower and the petals are nice and sharp. Also, nice comp and the flower stands out well from the OOF background. IMO, the image would be much stronger if the pistol and stamens were also sharp. My eye goes right to the bright orange petals, but then quickly drifts down to the pistol and stamens - and I'm a little disappointed to find them soft. You might try some additional selective sharpening there to see if it helps. You might also consider adding some yellow to the color balance to warm things up a little overall to see if you like that better - as presented, the image has a bit of a cool blueish cast. Overall, this is nicely done and a few tweaks will make it even better.
I too was drawn by the beautiful flower so sharp but the stamens are out of focus. I suspect you chose f8 to keep the background out of the way. I think perhaps a manual focus somewhere between the rim of the flower and the stamens and at a smaller aperture may have proven optimal.
turkish lily cap
You might try some additional selective sharpening there to see if it helps. You might also consider adding some yellow to the color balance to warm things up a little overall to see if you like that better - as presented, the image has a bit of a cool blueish cast. Overall, this is nicely done and a few tweaks will make it even better.
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