Spanish Bluebells

[edG]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2780/4538869378_3afcf02e39_b.jpg

Haven't posted here for a while so here goes, so I thought I would submit this.

[QuietOne]

Overall, a lovely flower. I like the quiet tones of the petals and the background. There are a couple of spots that seem just a touch too bright to me, but it might be because I want to see just a little more of the greens on the buds. Might also be because it seems like the dark lavender blues just tend to give you bright spots. My 2 cents, and hopefully bumping the thread will net you some more answers.

[Mad Aussie]

Yeh sorry Edg ... been a hell few days from me ... scanning a few threads and hitting spammers at best lately from me.

I like this a lot. The composition works for me except for maybe that big green stalk. But it's part of the garden I suppose.
The hotspots aren't too much for me. In fact on my screen they they look maybe borderline but I probably wouldn't describe them as being over-exposed at all.
I really like how I can see up inside the blooms. Good sharpness on the 2 main blooms.

Good shot!!

[Iguanasan]

Overall, to my eye, it looks pretty well done. I agree with MA that the exposure seems excellent. The "hot spots" being a focal point and not over-exposed at all. Focus looks good and you've picked a fairly interesting subject. If I was being nitpicky then I would complain about the stray blade of grass, bottom left, and the dark line in the cement wall going across the background as distractions from an otherwise great image.

[edG]

Thanks all for the input, much appreciated.

This was shot with the new nikkor 16-85mm (2 ED optics and 3 aspherics) in the shade, the stray blade of grass is in fact part of the actual plant and this plant does have a really big stalk for such delicate flowers. Haven't looked into this much as we did not plant it and have only just noticed it this spring.

I punched the image up slightly in Lr3 Beta2, if memory serves me I actually knocked the saturation down 3-5 points in the presence section and left all values at 0 in the colour section, in the tone section Black was enhanced (moderately) and the contrast brought up to clearly define the petals of the bloom/bell, a touch of clarity and vibrance. The tone curve is usually set to linear with shadows dropped a few points, dark about half of the shadow drop, light slightly bumped and highlights slightly dropped.

[Marko]

Very strong image :highfive: Exposure and composition all around is fine for me. My only niggle here is the blade of grass (despite the fact that it's part of the plant), it's a distraction.
I would have have moved it away at the time of the shot. (I'm not a purist in that way ;) )

[edG]

Appreciate the feedback and niggling Marko - sorry for the late reply, just got back from a job in Parry Sound. I'm not a purist in that way either, will keep it in mind in future shots.