I received several comments last week that Stoned Rose might have looked better without the leaves at the bottom. Ironically, I got an equal number of comments that said the leaves made the shot :) Here is a No Leaf version. The no leaf doesn't have the same resolution on the reflected rose and is clearly not as good, but my question is, just from a composition point of view, should I have left out the leaves?
Also, a couple of folks asked how I did it... The rose sat in a small vase on a marble cutting board... I took 2 500w utility lamps (thanks to hokie for suggesting these in his Poor Man's Studio post a couple of weeks ago. Best $40 I've spent on photography) and I angled the lamps so the light hit the flower without hitting the cutting board. This made for a very bright reflection.
I am one that didn't like the leaves that much, but after comparing it to the one without leaves, I agree that the leaves definitely add to the shot. However, the composition, in regards to the leaves, is still "off" for me - maybe having an odd number of leaves (3) would have balanced it a little more for me. An absolutely amazing shot though. Linda
I was one of the comments last week that said the leaves "Make" the photo. I still agree but think that a third small leaf might make it a bit better. It was one of my favorites last week. I really like the image and the title. Great job.
The composition has a very soft feel to it and, while I agree it needed another compositional element, I wondered how it would look with say 3 rose petals rather than the vibrant green jagged-edged leaves? Might that have maintained the overall texture and subtle feel? Just a thought,and I really liked the shot.
Note : 3 leaves and With Stem required spot edits to remove hot pixels so I doubt I could have used them, but I'm interested in which has the best comosition :)
Like Kavey, I prefer the 3 leaf, but with more stem - after playing with it in Photoshop, I finally figured out what bothered me about the composition - I would have preferred to see the stem coming into the frame from about the same place as the stem on the rose, (as if it was actually part of the same stem the rose is on), but reaching over into the space that the leaves are in now. (Hope I said that right, and you can visualize it!) Linda
