I had one stalk of this flowering something-or-other growing in my backyard so I plucked it out tonight and brought it up on the deck and made a few images of it with my 100mm macro lens.
The original was pretty dark and deep in color but the flowers were so soft that the deep tones just didn't seem to fit. What mother nature did...I undid! I did a levels and curves adjustment to pull the tones up and then I added a bit of gaussian blur (with the main bud masked) and finished it off with an ethereal glow action and some smudging and cloning until I felt I had it just right...although I'm still not sure about the green tones in the stem...too yellow? What do you think?
Jules, this is a beautiful painterly (water color) image and I love it! I like the mid-level green tones in the stem, and the pale yellow BG; also the magenta tones of the flower and stamen. Wow! What's not to like?
Jules, lovely comp and high key conversion. The purples appear right now, but for my own taste, I'd prefer the greens a bit greener, and less yellow, to complement the purple. But that's just me :)
Yeah, Bruce, I kept flipping back and forth on the color balance. Here's another version where the yellow is played down and the magenta is more on the purple side. No matter what I do I can't seem to get all the yellow tones out of the stem. I'd probably have to go back to the original and start all over in order to play those down any more than I have them here.
Jules,
The flower, BTW, is a false dragonhead, a native Missouri wildflower. If you look closely at one of the blooms from the side I think you get an idea of where the name came from (see my illustration below).
I've tried photographing this flower any number of times and have seldom been satisfied with my results. The flower is so deep it's just impossible to get very much of it within the DOF with an end-on view, with even a moderate close-up. I like what you've done here, using minimal DOF and further softening the BG. I'm with Fabs; I like the warmth of the original better.
Lens Baby...NOT!
