Theme: WIldflowers

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Greetings. Some wildflowers from Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park from our road trip this summer.



Merge of two shots to add focus to the left bud. Bunch of processing. Edges from Topaz Simplify on Silver Efex toned base. Color blended back luminosity blend. Impressions pencil sketch and separate Edward Hopper blended in. Some Topaz adjust toning once or twice. Maybe this should be called freestyle filtering ;-)

Thanks for taking a look.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

You have taken a very simple composition and created a very painterly image. Wonderful texture in the bkgd. I would consider a more vertical crop and probably not include all the white on the left. I would also make that white area at the very bottom of the right stem less bright as it draws my eye away from the upward flow of the stems.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I really like the painterly look and the magenta and green together. What is the white in the bg? I agree about a bit of edge clean-up on the bottom. Well processed.

[gary ellwein]

I also like the effect you have created. The image says vertical to me. I also find the white bg elements distracting.

[Wendy Kates]

I really like the painterly look, as well as the textures of the flower buds. Would it be possible to bring down the white in the center of the bottom bud...it looks a tad over-exposed.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Nancy, Jackie, Gary, Wendy,

Thanks much for the comments. Yeah, the whites in the bg ... they're other flowers. Needs something.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Michael, I'm OK with the crop and the white patches don't bother me except for the one bright vertical on on the bottom stem. I'd remove the little black dot in the white patch to the right of the bright white one (on the bottom edge).

[Judy Howle]

I like the textured background and the flowers, which look like thistle buds to me, are beautiful. I would also like to see the whites toned down a bit, especially the one others referred to.

[Anita Bower]

Freestyle filtering is fun to do and worked really well here. The subtle colors are very pleasing. The purplish pink looks great against the green bg. Combining two images to get all the flowers in focus is a great idea, one I will try out myself.
These stems seem to be reaching upward, so a vertical crop would enhance that feeling. Cloning the whites is an easy fix. Here is one suggestion.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Michael, I like your approach to the image and I think the filter works well. The complementary colors are very nicely seen. I like the idea of cropping to a vertical and think Anita's re-do looks good. One thing I noticed was the incomplete stem on the flower on the right, and Anita fixed that up which helps the image.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Anita,

Somehow I missed this til now.... I like your repost. Perhaps a little tight on the sides for my taste. Thanks for taking the time to work the image.

Cheers,

-Michael-