This is a photo of one of my ficus bonsai trees- its about 7" tall. Shot handheld against a dark background. The leaves on my tree are actually green but I decided to change them in pp to red- thought it would be more dramatic against the black background and help it stand out from other entries in this challenge. I like the idea of combining photography with fantasy- and still have it looking "real". I am not aware of the existence of a red ficus (the only red bonsai I have seen are maple). So, a bit of fun to make the photograph more interesting.
pp:
Crop, rotate, levels, hue/sat, replace color, layer mask to preserve trunk/branches/and some green on leaves, and then on unmasked area: replace color, hue/sat, NI, then flatten, SUSM, minor cloning on various areas to remove minor distractions and stray pixels, then save for web.
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I've never seen a plant that color. Reading your comments solves the mystery. At first it looks like you took spray paint to it.
Focus and depth of field are very good.
There is a lot of negative space here. The dark background runs into the subject, and the soil around the tree becomes particles mixed in the the negative space.
I think part of the problem the viewers had, was the perspective of the piece. The leaves block out part of the curve of the trunk, and almost cut it in two. We see a couple of small leaves attached to a branch, but it takes a bit to notice. At first glance it leaves the viewer with the impression of a bunch of leaves perched at the top, not necessarily connected.
The branch that starts in almost the center of the picture runs right up and out of the picture, taking the eye with it.
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