soft focus dahlia

[Billy White]

my first post on this forum - Brandon Beach Oregon

Nikon D3 - 70-200mm f2.8 - 1/160 sec at 2.8 - SR Tony Sweet soft filter - Canon close up lens - I use this often when I do not wish to carry my 200mm macro

some slight adjustments in LR - slight crop in PS - otherwise as shoot

comments

thanks

Bill

[Julie Brown]

Hi Bill. Very nice effect here. The soft pink is set off by the OOF BG. How would it look with the BG brightened up a bit? Seems too dark in the corners.:)

[Ken Childs]

Hi Bill, I generally like soft focus type edits but this one seems a bit too soft. Maybe tone down the filter a bit or up the contrast.

BTW, this probably belongs in the OOTB forum.

[Nick Palmieri]

Hi Bill, I am wondering why you chose f/2.8? I think I would have chosen a smaller aperture (higher f #) in order to allow more DOF to keep more of the flower in focus. IMO seeing a little more of the front of the flower along with more DOF coupled with the nice soft colors and green BG would really make this image work.

[Julie Kenward]

Hello, Bill! I like the composition here with the stem coming into the frame at an angle and the flower petals slightly turned away. I also think the filter is a bit too heavy - would prefer to see perhaps the center more in focus with the filter getting heavier as it moves out into the image. The beautiful, soft color palette really adds to the mood of the piece.

As for being OOTB, it's okay to use a filter that slightly blurs an image (we do vignetting here all the time) but anything more "unconventional" and you do need to post in OOTB. Let me know if you have any questions and do check out that forum as there are some really inspirational floral images down there!

[Anita Bower]

The flower pops off the screen with its brilliant color against the darker BG. Lovely! The soft look does not bother me. The bright greens to lower right are a bit distracting. Hope to see more of your work here. :)