Please disregard the white background and its all too obvious pasting in. Originally shot against a white core board but because of blemishes I found in the core board all too late, I did the substitution in PS and of course it is obvious. Look at the rose itself and see if I'm any nearer to getting it right. I was attracted to the comp with the petal about to fall off.
F25, manual setting, no flast, available light against a white core board, 1/3 sec. 400, 38mm.
Hazel, you're definitely getting there! I also like the petal that is hanging - it adds interest to the image. Try to think more in the ROT's (rule of thirds) and less centered. I'd add a little more room to the left side (since that is the direction the bottom leaves are facing) and take some off of the right. Like Stuart, I'd take maybe half the distance off the top so the bud is also more in the upper third area. On the bottom leaves, I think I'd have done a little "pruning" beforehand - taking off one leaf from both sets of two so they showed up better. Might also try a little bit more sharpening here as well.
Good exposure...good detail...you're definitely making progress! ;)
Hazel, when editing these solid color BG images, be sure to clean up the BG. There are hairs and spots on the BG in both images that are very distracting.
I like the light and crop of the second image better. The petal pointing down makes this a bit different and addds interest, as Julie wrote. I also like the simplicity of the image. For some reason, the BG in the second post has more grey than the first one, and is less attractive to me. Re. Ken's comment: I look at my images at 100% magnification and clone out any spots, hairs, etc. That results in a nice, clean image. Keep up the good work.