Another white on white

[Jill]

Chauncey, you have nailed it. That is great, simple, well exposed.
I think I must have missed the first part of the discussing last time.

This is just my opinion but the only thing I would do with this is give more room on the right or crop a little on the left.
Also play with the - exposure, white or contrast. This may not work and it is debatable as it is great as is. It would be just to see if you could get a fraction more detail in the white parts of the petals. This may depend on the monitor I am looking at.

[IzzieK]

I like this one better William, the petals are more pronounced and has more pop to it.

[chauncey]

T'would appear that I should stick with the black background...can't argue with that.

How might I arrange the pieces for a more pleasing appearance?

[Jill]

Chauncey,
Only you can decide that. The last picture you put online was good.
It was simple, as nature designed.
Reading tutorial on composition may help.

[Mike Buckley]

About your black background: I would bet that it's black cloth and that it's hanging. That's because I see a very gentle draping of the cloth in the lower right area that is more brightly lit than other areas of the cloth. There are also other areas of the background in the bottom and left sides that are more brightly lit. It seems that you were trying to make a uniformly dark background, so this is easy to fix during post-processing.

To ensure that your background is pure black throughout, view your monitor from directly above. You'll easily see any tonal variation if it exists.

[TonyW]

I am late coming to this thread. My first thought with the original image was that the background was too bright, as others have said, but then I turned down the brightness of my screen, which was way up. It is now very good, and preferable to grey or black.

[chauncey]

but then I turned down the brightness of my screen,

The numbers are 245/245/245

I would bet that it's black cloth and that it's hanging

That would be correct...hanging from a PVC frame leaning against the wall.
That image was stacked and merged...nothing else.

[Mike Buckley]

That image was stacked and merged...nothing else.

Why nothing else, Chauncey? It would be understandable if you did not notice the tonal variation. On the other hand, perhaps you noticed the tonal variation, liked it and decided to leave it as is.

[chauncey]

Why nothing else

It was one of eight stacked and merged images that was destined to be used in a larger image...
selections were made from those and combined into a larger image. That last image was raw material.

[Mike Buckley]

Ahhhhhh. That makes sense.

[bnnrcn]

I just want to say that, the şmage with the black BG looks much better. Wihite on Black works very well.