SUNFLOWER

[gary ellwein]

I have been following the scratch art theme with interest. I have no idea if my attempt qualifies. It came out looking something like some of the other offerings. I started with a black & white conversion in Silver Efex Pro 2 which was inverted. Fractalius, CEP4 Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast were applied with a USM finish. Something new every day.

[Cheryl Slechta]

It came out great, Gary!

[Don Nelson]

Very well done! Excellent use of B&W tonality

[Judy Howle]

I love it Gary! The patterns are fantastic, and it's a good representation of scratch art.

[Anita Bower]

I think you achieved a scratch image. It is very nice. I like the contrast between the detailed, light area and the dark, less detailed area. Nice balance to the composition. I like the angle of the flower. The only suggestion I would make is to crop just a tad of the bottom to get rid of those little white lines. Actually, I see them on the lower left border also. Maybe just clone them out. I find this an excellent image!

[gary ellwein]

Thanks to all for the kind comments. Anita, I applied a narrow black border which eliminated the small peripheral lines. IMHO it is an improvement. Thanks for the critique.

[Cindy Cone]

Beautiful work, the border worked well, I think. I also like the contrast of the details and "feathery elements".

[Diane Miller]

Very nice, but or me the interest is mostly in the bottom 2/3. The patterns in the center of the flower become repetitious without a center of focus there. What would you think about cropping about 1/3 from the top to give more weight to the interesting petals?

[Kerry Perkins]

Gary, you did a great job on the technique - it looks very good to me! The repost rocks with the cleaner border. Well done!

[Anita Bower]

Thanks to all for the kind comments. Anita, I applied a narrow black border which eliminated the small peripheral lines. IMHO it is an improvement. Thanks for the critique.

Creating a black border was a good solution. These is still a little bit of that white just left of center on bottom frame.

[gary ellwein]

Diane, this version incorporates your suggestion of reducing the busy part of the image. I like it. Some times less is better. Anita, the little white spot is gone. Thanks again.

[Diane Miller]

Both are excellent, but for me this one gives more prominence to the lovely petals. And the crop allows the diaphonous dark areas in the center to be more prominent. They provide some good interest.

Another idea, for either one, is to burn down a subtle gradient from the top right -- just to give a little variation to the center of the flower. It is amazingly interesting -- good work!

[Anita Bower]

I like both versions. Diane offers an interesting idea re. subtle gradient, but I like them both as they are.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Gary, I think I like the last repost the best. The crop and removing the Fract artifacts from the bottom were good suggestions.