Canon 50D Canon 180mm macro with polariser tripod ISO 100 1/200 sec f5.6.
Well this is me attempting a little artistic rendition! I used the brush to harmonise the background and I used little box blur on areas other than the flower head, bud and stem to the bud. What do you think - is it a bit of a pig's ear? I suspect it is a bit of a clumsy attempt really:). All comments welcome
I think you did a very nice job on it, Jon! I can't figure out why the bud and the flower are so in focus while the middle leafy part is not - is that the blur you talked about? If so, I'd back off on it - keep that area soft but not quite this soft. I think the BG rocks - one small bright spot right around your signature - might tone that down a tiny bit - really nice image overall.
One other thing - you might check your whites on the flower - two of the petals seem to be close to being "hot".
Glad you like it! The aperture was farily wide so DOF was quite small, but yes the box blur did make a slight difference to the leaves. What I have noticed is that if you view in a darkened room the background does appear a little patchy.:)