Shadows

[Kris V]

I wasn't really sure about this one - but after I looked a bit longer, I was intrigued by the way the shadow was falling on the tree trunk.
Very heavily cropped.

[IzzieK]

Nicely caught Krissie...Love the contrast and the overall composition too. This will be something that will catch my eyes too if I am there in your shoes.

[bnnrcn]

Nice composition KrisSome of the blurred BG is on the knot of the tree,I don't know how it happened but I think it needs cloning out.I also like the texture on the tree trunk,it works very well with the shadows.

[deetheturk]

Nice image Kris,like the shadow too

[Kris V]

Nice composition KrisSome of the blurred BG is on the knot of the tree,I don't know how it happaned but I think it needs cloning out.

A second pair of eyes never hurts....Thanks for pointing that out - I may work on that later.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[Downrigger]

Nicely seen and captured. I like the bark detail barely seen within the shadows.

[Mike Buckley]

Great concept! Great eye!

I wonder if I can convince you to try cropping so the bottom is at the bottom of the branch and so the width is divided into thirds by the branch and shadow. Doing so makes the shadow more obviously the subject for me.

[FootLoose]

Great shot, Kris, and I absolutely agree with Mike on this one. Crop the left hand side to remove the shadowy part of the trunk and then the frame should divide into 3rds.

[FrankMi]

Great concept! Great eye!

I wonder if I can convince you to try cropping so the bottom is at the bottom of the branch and so the width is divided into thirds by the branch and shadow. Doing so makes the shadow more obviously the subject for me.

...and by eliminating the lower shadow, it will also minimize the impact of the out-of-focus lower branch as well.

Nice vision in seeing this one Kris!

[Kris V]

I did a complete rework - I never saved the jpg after I posted it, so I had to restart from the raw file, which was still on my card, trying to follow the suggestions from Mike, Greg and Frank.
Here is a remake - and a B/W (Just to see if it would work.....)

[Mike Buckley]

I think you would be better off downloading the image from this thread and cropping it. You lost a lot of detail in the shadow tones and you changed the color balance of the revised version. As a result, neither the revised color version nor the monochrome version work nearly as will for me.

You might want to give some thought to developing a consistent workflow, such as saving an edited RAW file before creating any JPEG versions.

[Kris V]

I think you would be better off downloading the image from this thread and cropping it. You lost a lot of detail in the shadow tones and you changed the color balance of the revised version. As a result, neither the revised color version nor the monochrome version work nearly as will for me.

You might want to give some thought to developing a consistent workflow, such as saving an edited RAW file before creating any JPEG versions.

Thanks for the advise, Mike.
I usually do my edits in LR after import, but I just copied this one from the card to my desktop, edited in ACR and saved as a jpg. And since I usually don't save jpgs after posting....... I didn't save the xmp file either ....., since the whole card is going to be imported in LR anyway.
Lesson learned.
I'll download my original and repost later.

[FootLoose]

I much prefer this crop, Kris, but as Mike has noted the lighting is better in the original. If your skills are up to it, you might try a small selective Gaussian blur on the twigs / branches in the background just to lift the flower a bit more.