One of my ideas for this challenge was to take a photo of a flower on a mirror. I took this one while setting up the shot and decided I liked it better than the ones just with flowers. The slight blurriness of the reflection is due to the mirror, nothing that can be changed with focus or such.
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Everyone, thanks a lot for voting and the comments.
To answer some of the questions: I knew I was going to get comments both in favor and against the hand. While this was just a fun 'out-take' while shooting a lot of flower-ony photos, I finally decided that I actually liked this one best. Go figure!
I've posted another version for your comparison at //www.pbase.com/gr8photos/bandw.
The reason I took this in b&w is that (a) I wanted to try taking an image of something that is traditionally color in b&w but so that it still looks good. This shot in particular I like better in b&w than color. It looks more 'stylized' I guess. Feel free to check out the color version at the address above for comparison.
No, the bottom half of the shot is not OOF. The 'ghosting' of the mirror cannot really be avoided, other than by changing the camera angle and that wouldn't have worked for this shot.
Excellent light, focus, clarity, tones. Personally, I think the mirror image detracts. It's not as sharp as the top due to some doubling of the reflection, and the angle of the reflection makes the composition a bit messy. Still near the top of the heap.
Really nice, I like how you can see the texture of the flower and the hand. The reflection really adds to the picture, and though the hand doesn't bother me at all, it would be a nice picture without it as well.
This is an excellent photo... I am quite impressed :) I bet you are getting comments about the blur on the mirrored image.. the 'ghost' image... I ran into a similar problem when I was helping someone with a similar photo a few weeks ago... This 'ghost' is caused by the thickness of the mirror somehow and I don't think there is any way you can get rid of this... It can be minimized by elevating the angle of the camera with respect to the subject but that would definitely NOT work in this photo... All of the compositional elements of this photo are excellent... no complaints at all! Good job!
This is beautiful! I usually don't like flowers in b/w, but the detail on this one is wonderful. Love the refelection idea. And the hand is a good touch - I wasn't sure at first, but I think it does add something that would have been missing with just the flower. Nice!
This is one of only a few flower phtotographs that work well in black and white. Sorry I do not have any suggestions to make it better, you have done so well!
The movement on that bottom flower is pretty distracting, and it makes the photo look blurred/out of focus at the bottom. I love the top of the image, though, so I know if that bottom part hadn't been blurred, I'd really have liked this image. I think you might have gone for a little more symmetry, though, with how much hand is showing at the top/bottom.
I was trying to figure this out...whether it was two hands and two flowers, but I think that the hand/flower is on top of a mirror, which is why the bottom looks a little softer, and has a ghosting shadow. I like the composition a lot, and of course your B&W tones are right on.
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