Creamy Bloom

[Ziggy]

Too dark?

[Wavelength]

No; but a confusing array of petals

[Shadowman]

Not too, nicely captured.

[bnnrcn]

No, not dark, a beautiful rose

[DanK]

Jim,

very nice. I don't think it is dark, other than the bottom right, but I think it could use a bit more pop. Here's a quick edit to show what I mean. If you don't want edits, I apologize--tell me and I will take it down. Here's what I did:

-- first, I selected the flower to create a mask. In this image, PS quick select did it perfectly.
--I inverted the mask and used levels to darken the background.
--I dodged a bit of the bottom right of the flower to lighten it.
--using the original mask, I increased contrast a bit in the flower using a modest curve, set to luminosity blend so as not to change any of the colors
--Using the same mask, I sharpened the flower a bit, using smart sharpen set to 2.0 px and 66% (which is low for smart sharpen).

Do you think this helps?

Dan

[Ziggy]

Thanks all for the feedback.

Thanks Dan for taking time to edit the image and then explaining what you did. It does look better.

[IzzieK]

Ziggy...your original is OK with me but Dan's edit makes it better...

[Ziggy]

Ziggy...your original is OK with me but Dan's edit makes it better...

Thanks Izzie. I think PP is my Achilles heel.