[Na Horuk]

I used the 100mm macro for this. Its actually a tiny flower with a good amount of magnification. The photo was taken hand-held and with a relatively wide aperture, but I like that the important bits are sharp, while everything else melts away. The colours are very saturated, but not because of photoshop trickery - the flowers are very vibrant to begin with, and this lens renders colours very powerfully. Instead of neutralizing the white balance and oversaturation, instead of sharpening the blur I decided to take it into the other extreme - make it work as a stylized icon. I only used Lightroom for this, no specific editing or presets or filters, just regular sliders. I hope you take a moment to understand my vision, and maybe help me with a critique to achieve it. I am thinking of making a poster print out of this.

Photo also posted on 500px.

Camera
PENTAX K-01

Focal Length
100mm

Aperture
f/3.5

Exposure
1/160s

ISO
125

[Julie]

I admire the artistic attempt and going outside the lines with this photo... while not bad, I feel that the over-saturation blew out the whites too much and made them too harsh. And one more observation, I don't know if you've cropped the photo or not, but I find it a little bit distracting that the bottom blurred background flower is cut-off... If you have another version or an uncropped version of the photo, I'd maybe consider leaving that part in, if possible.

Other than that, if your vision was to make it something artsy and cool, you've got it looking fine. (and if you plan on printing it, some shiny or luster paper may work well with this!)

[Na Horuk]

Thanks for the reply! I don't think it is cropped, but I was thinking of making it a tight square crop.

[severalsnakes]

I'm no pro, by any means, but here's my opinion, if it were my photo:

The color doesn't seem "right", and by "right" I don't mean "correct", but, rather, "appropriate". I would toggle around with the hue and find something a little less brassy. I like the blown, white highlights, but I feel like the contrast between that screaming magenta and the delicate white petals of the flower don't work. You mention that you wanted the punchy saturation and I respect that, but I wonder if a tendency towards a cooler color temp would make the image a little more pleasing. (I could also have a poorly calibrated monitor).

I think your idea of a tighter crop is a good one. Personally, I find the twin buds jutting in from the left to be highly distracting. If not a crop, I would at least clone one of them out, if not both.

I agree with you about the focus; I like it a lot.

The petals/flowers at the bottom don't bother me much, but it might be more pleasing if those elements were more distinguishable from the main flower cluster. Can they be darkened? Or maybe have their color altered so that they don't pull the eye, swimming through the crispy whites of the flower cluster above, off the bottom of the image.

For an image to be captivating, the elements must keep the viewer's eye. When focal elements leave the frame, the eye tends to leave the frame as well. You want to keep the eye for as long as you can!

[Na Horuk]

Thanks! Well in that photo I only added +8 saturation in Lightroom. And none of the highlights are actually clipped, according to the histogram - the flower jsut happens to be white. I think I see the problem, though- Too much contrast. This causes the purple saturation to break instead of increase gradually, and it makes the whites appear to glow too much in contrast to the darks. I'll take this into consideration, but after quickly lowering the contrast (thus making the purple more gradual and the whites less harsh) completely changed the mood of the photo and made it much less punchy, which is not what I wanted

[rh8liuqy]

Nice Shot! But I think it is overexposure. Change your setting. Have another try!

[alwaysjerricky]

It's possible to print the photo out but it needs to be a bit sharper IMO. Maybe stop down 2 stops and let the front be sharper a bit while the background and the rest fades away. It's quite difficult to tell that it's a flower at first look but I like the dream effect.

[alwaysjerricky]

And also maybe you can put some lights or other beautiful colours at the back to accompany the nice flowers with beautiful bokeh. It will then be a nice macro pic!

[Na Horuk]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will keep them in mind. Recently we had a snow storm over here, so those particular flowers are now gone. I will try again when the season comes, though