Magnolia Sieboldiana

[Dave Mills]

This was photographed at a county arborateum called Willowood in Chester NJ.
It blooms for about a month in late May and June. A different and showy magnolia specimen.
Nikon D300
200 Macro Lense
F22+ 2/3 comp

[Julie Kenward]

Dave, you gave me some good starting data but it's important to give us everything you have that might matter. For instance, was this taken indoors or out? What time of day/what kind of lighting? Did you use flash? What was your white balance set at? How did you process the image?

As for the image, it's lovely. You did a wonderful job of exposing the whites so they are creamy and natural looking (this is one of the reasons I'd love to know the lighting situation so others can learn from what you did right!) It's a nice composition with the flower in the upper 1/3 of the image and some nice leaf action all around.

One thought I had about this is that the center of the flower is centered in the image and might have been an even stronger composition if that had been more to one side. Maybe a few steps to your left pushing the bud more to the right would have worked even better?

Here's another crop where I went with a square frame - if you're going to go centered, go centered! I like your original with the long leaf at the bottom but if you want to really show off the focal point of this image this would be another way to go.

[Dave Mills]

OK ...white balance set on auto and it was an overcast day.I used fill flash set on -1.I do very little studio work and this was shot outdoors. I use a tripod for 95% of my shooting unless I'm somewhere that doesn't allow them.
I did clone out a few parts of leaves that were under the front leaf.

[denise ippolito]

Dave, I love this and I esp. like the lower leaf-I feel it has alot of depth to it and adds alot to the image

[Dave Mills]

Thanks Denise...I liked the leaf leading you into the flower

[Mike Moats]

Hey Dave, I like the overall image, good sharp details through out and agree with the bottom leaf draws you right into the flower. Lighting is great. Well done.

[Dave Mills]

Thanks Mike