magnolia

[Bambi]

[Iguanasan]

Absolutely lovely, Bambi. Nicely done.

[Mad Aussie]

Not too sure what to offer. The B&W conversion is very strong.
I am left feeling a little like the leaves to the right are simply clipped and not actually cropped though. I think they either needed to be included fully or cropped a lot more harshly.

[edG]

This is really a good study in B&W, very strong. I like the DoF used, back lighting and your comp, as to cropping I think it may improve it slightly- if you were to tighten up the right hand side of the frame with out losing the bottom two leaves.

[Iguanasan]

Oh, I didn't realize it was the critique forum. That's what I get for just clicking the "new" button. I still think it's lovely but to make it even nicer I would definitely crop in. Say about this much...

[thoughton]

Good BW conversion, but I have to say that I think this would be better in colour and with a shorter dof. I feel the background, especially on the left, is a bit overpowering. I also agree with Marko about the leaves to the right.

[Bambi]

thanks all. MA- you are right- it was clipped not cropped. I will redo.
Thoughton- I do have the colour version (same dof though) but I do believe the b&w is stronger:

[thoughton]

Ah I was actually hoping the background was mostly green, so it would help the flower stand out more. Unfortunately not the case I just feel the flower in BW or colour is a bit lost against the background. Shorter dof needed, or different angle (just my opinion, of course, often worth very little ). As a final resort I support you could chop down the bush in the background

[asnow]

I think I typically like flowers in colour better, however in this case I prefer the BW one. It makes the flower stand out against the background more.

[Marko]

I prefer the colour version as I find the clipped highlights more distracting in BW than colour.
I might selectively blur the bkgd a bit more and sharpen the main flower a bit more if it were mine.
I like the crop in post 7 though!