Bearded Iris

[Ken Childs]

Canon EOS REBEL XT
Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS @ 160mm
Av mode
1/400"
F8
ISO: 200
CS3

Another shot next to my pool but from a different angle so this time the BG is a rose bush. There was a blank spot in the lower left corner so I cloned in a rose to balance it out.

[Richard Waas]

Ken, A really beautiful flower. Fabulous detail and the exposure is right on. I like the BG, but I'm thinking that desaturating and darkening the red roses would be less distracting. TFS, Congrats!!

[Julie Brown]

Good exposure and detail of the flower, Ken. I agree with Richard that the BG might be a bit strong.:)

[Allen Sparks]

I like the flower orientation and placement. I think the background is nice but toning it down some may be something to try as the others have mentioned. Nice image.

[Charissa]

Nice shot Ken. If it were mine, i would up the contrast a tad on the iris, and tone down the red roses just a small bit. The idea being, to pop the flower a bit more. Love the colors and detail on the flower, and the red dots makes this special, in my opinion.

[Nick Palmieri]

Agree with others regarding toning down the BG. I think some of the whites in the flower are blown a bit. The DOF, sharpness, and composition are very nice. The flower really pops.

[Julie Kenward]

Nick is right, if you look on the main lower petal there are a few areas where the detail is gone (evidenced by the right spike on the histogram) - you might try opening it back up in camera raw and seeing if you can recover those.

I do like the placement of the iris in the frame and love the idea of the rose garden BG but it does feel like it's overpowering the soft iris a bit. I tried lightening up the BG a bit with a levels adjustment but it is so dark it really doesn't want to cooperate (especially in the LLC area). You got some incredible sharpness throughout the flower, though - I'd work with it a bit and see if you can't fix the minor problems mentioned as it really has good potential!

[Markus Jais]

This is a great shot. Wonderful light and colors (I agree with JJules about the missing details in the lower petals).
Great composition. I like the flowers in the BG and think the BG is great here in this shot.

Markus

[Vida van der Walt]

Ken, this is a lovely image. I really like those oof flowers in the bg. A great comp, angle and beautiful colours. I wouldn't darken the bg as I love the colours of the flowers in the bg. I think what could work is if you can manage to add a gausian blur to the bg. I just don't know how to blur enough without disturbing the edges of the flower.:)