Red Passion Flower

[DigitalScape]

Found this flower while walking in the Garden District of New Orleans

[bnnrcn]

Beautiful flower, I like the contrast between the sharp and clear center and the blurred petals I don't like the stem very much though, I would clone it if the image was mine .

[Tom Barry]

Beautifully exposed. I think I would have gone for a square composition, but that's just me.

[Dave A]

Nice color and detail in the center. The stem needs to go which shouldn't be too hard to do.

Dave

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John,

The red channel appears to be blown (viewing histogram), so you've lost some subtle detail in the petals, although as they're not within the DoF, I guess it matters slightly less. That might have happened when metering/shooting, or perhaps in PP, just something I suggest you keep an eye on when shooting bold coloured subjects like this (with histogram).

It looks like you placed the flower in the frame in order to fit your watermark in.
After a brief dalliance with them myself in 2008, I'm no longer a believer the benefit of them (not here anyway) - too easily removed by the 0.000001% intent on theft, but they spoil the image for 100% of the rest of us

I agree with your choice of focus point, having the nearest thing in focus was the correct decision.

HTH, Dave

[NorthernFocus]

Nice shot. The OOF petals work because they're all that way and focus attention on the details. I agree with others' comments re.the stem at upper right and with Dave's comments re.watermarks.

[Shadowman]

Very dramatic capture.

[DigitalScape]

Thank you for all the comments/feedback - I do appreciate it.

I'll look into the stem cloning (my cloning skills with the gradients will be tested). Tom, I did look into a square frame, but that would require that I crop off a portion of the right most petal - and I did not like that.

The red channel is indeed blown in the lower levels, which as Dave pointed out, is for the mainly for the lower petals that are OFF, so I do not think I lost any details. But it is a good point that I need to keep in mind.

I composed the flower to sit near the left most 1/3 mark; my watermark generally goes in the lower right corner. On the darker background I see that it pops out a bit, so I have lowered the opacity of that layer.

[Ziggy]

I like how you captured this.