I am told by my neighbor, these flowers used to be planted around outhouses, back in the day, no joke! Anyhoo, I don't have a macro lens yet so these are just a real close-up shot. Pretty much out of the camera, crop, sharpen once, resize and save for web.
Thanks for all the constructive comments on my first challenge entry. I was afraid to tweek it too much in PS Elements so live and learn.
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First of all, let me say welcome to the fray (as this is your first challenge entry)! I think you met the Macro V Challenge well with this shot. And as you indicated, it may not be taken with a macro lens, but it is a close-up.
I think your composition is pretty good. The color saturation could be bumped up a bit and you might consider cropping a little more off of the left (or selectively coloring the main flower and having the rest in B/W as someone else mentioned - I think that could really give this image some 'pop'). The DOF on the main flower is okay and the fading DOF toward the background works well. But IMHO, the area that could use the most improvement is the lighting.
The lighting here is a bit harsh - washing out the flowers' natural purple colors. And the fact that your "main" flower is partially shaded works against you with strong light. You may be able to adjust some of the exposure levels and make the shadow compliment the photo instead of detract. By bringing down some of the back lighting and adjusting contrast levels (and color sat), I think you can really bring out more vibrant colors to compliment the nice composition.
All in all, I think it's a strong shot and with a little more processing I think you might be able to really make a significant difference in it's overall appeal.
Pretty purple veins on these flowers. It is hard to tell what is the central point of interest in this - there is no place that is entirely sharp, or highlighted by light. I'd suggest picking one flower and make that a central point of interest by usual a narrow depth of focus or the difference between sunlight and shadow.
i have these same flowers(and have photographed them many times). the light(IMHO) is making the deep purple flowers washed out looking. try photographing these when there is shade on them ,then give a contrast boost and a saturation boost to bring out that deep purple they have.. i think your comp is good
6 - Very nice colors. For me, much better with one flower key focused and keeping that good depth you have there already. Maybe just a different cropping, not sure.
This would be a perfect time to use single color saturation on one of the flowers. As it is now, it seems a bit busy to me. Maybe crop out some of the foliage and zoom in on the center blossom. You could up the contrast a little as well. Hope this helps.
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