Hey Ian,
I think you did very well with this one! Sharp on the hairs.....w/ falloff where it needs to be! I do think this would be a touch stronger if you had a bit more of the curve of the petal on the botton.....makes a strong leading line so just a sliver more for my tastes.....but overall.....very well done!
Hi Ian. Nice colors and I like the ROT comp. For my tastes, I'd like to see the yellow stamens sharp - but we all see the world differently :) (and that might bring the petals more in focus than you wanted). I like Roman's suggestion about the curved petal at the bottom.
Thanks, Roman and Steve. Steve, that's exactly why the yellow is not sharp. The DOF was such that doing that would have made the petals sharper as well and I didn't like that. I think the only way around that would be focus stacking -- a technique I have not yet learned.
I have to agree with Steve but I understand why it wasn't possible unless you focus stacked. There's so much red in this shot that IMO, the yellow needs to be sharp to balance it out.