Rose in B&W C&C Welcomed

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[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, very dramatic.

[IzzieK]

Jack...very nice. Just enough light and darkness. I like it.

[DanK]

nice, but I would crop it. For my taste, too much negative space around the flower, and too centered.

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Thank you John!

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Thank you Izzie, glad you like it.

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Thanks Dan. I tried a variety of crops and for me, this one seemed to work/look the best as the leaves behind the rose are intact.

[Geoff F]

The leaves are there but rather difficult to see amongst the shadows. Do you need so much stem? Reducing that a little might help to change the centering of the rose?

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Geoff, I've played with various crops and I still lean towards this one. To me the additional stem on the RHS kind of 'grounds' the rose, plus the leaves and the raised grain of the weathered board in the BG connects the flower to the environment. Obviously my first thought was the Rules Of Thirds, but it neither seemed to work, nor matter much in this shot. In fact, the more I look at it, the more it grows on me

[IzzieK]

What about something like this crop, Jack...
http://www.dia.org/exhibitions/AnselAdams/preview4.asp

[GBO25]

I quite like it as it is Jack. Nice exposure and looks great in B&W. I know how hard it can be to get the rose just right and not too grey looking. Nicely done.

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Izzie, talk about coincidence! There's a post by Haseeb asking what would people say if Ansel Adams posted here in CiC anonymously, asking for comments. Which got me thinking, and looking through some of his online images I came across the rose that you linked. In fact, seeing it reminded me of one of mine so I searched for it and was surprised to see that it shared some resemblance to Adams' rose photo (I am NOT comparing myself to Adams, more like, a room full of monkeys with typewriters producing Shakespear).
The above having been said, I did indeed try a square crop but to me it just didn't work, just a rose floating around on a black BG. Adams at least had the idea to put the rose on an interesting piece of driftwood.

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Thanks Graham, much appreciated. And correct indeed, it was a pain trying to get the rose petals to look right without loosing detail in the petals, or (over) darkening the BG, or hotspots, or....

[bnnrcn]

Hi Jack, I like the image as it is, very nice shadows and highlights to make the rose stand out

[mknittle]

I like it.

[Manfred M]

Jack - I'm of the same view as Dan; the background seems to be more prominant than the rose. If it were my image, I would probably do a very severe crop, but then that is my style, not yours.

[Downrigger]

Powerful... as is. On my screen the rose leaps forward from the plane of the glass. A penny for some comments on your processing of this accomplishment, Jack.

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Thank you very much Binnur!

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Thank you Mark!

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Manfred, thank you for viewing and commenting. Are you referring to the board with the raised wood grain as the prominent BG? If so I do find it connects the rose to its environment, gives it context. In a couple of edits, both in cropping more tightly and in reducing the background I just wasn't happy with the outcome. Bear in mind that I use Gimp, don't do layers and so am likely limited in what could be done in P.S. et al. But again, the rose looks odd close cropped and/or floating on a black background.