Dark Beauty

[JBW]

ISO 100 ~ Shutter Speed 0.2s ~ F/16 ~ Natural Light ~ Sony Alpha a58 ~ Tamron 90mm 272E

[mugge]

Brian, you have embraced your dark roots yet again. I do think the petals need to be lightened a tad. That is only my opinion.
Cheers Ole

[James G]

Brian, a beautiful capture.The muted lighting works for me particularly since it brings out the contrasts between the petals and leaves so well.

I can see why Ole might prefer it a bit brighter, if so I would consider a tighter crop, an, given there are no obvious shadows from stamens etc, I would be fairly c onservative over brightening it.

[JBW]

Gentlemen, believe it or not I did brighten the purple petals. I tried a tad more but they quickly began to glare. A tighter crop could work but when I tried it I only managed to mess up the diagonal running bottom left to top right

[NorthernFocus]

What a lovely blossom. So delicate. And nicely captured. Brian, I think your macro work has improved your overall technical skills as well as eye for composition, watching your BG, etc. I do think you could crop a bit tighter and keep the diagonal that you desire. If you don't mind...

Cropped, selectively darkened BG, applied ON1 "sunshine" filter, and added vignette

Disclaimer: I did this on my laptop so can't really judge the color. The tweaks I made were all aimed at luminosity but saturation may have been affected as well.

[Geoff F]

Maybe somewhere half way between these two examples for me.

When attempting to brighten difficult subjects, Brian, do you ever try using the Luminosity Blend Mode? This will often add brightness but without increasing saturation. However, like you, I would always err on the side of caution.

[Shadowman]

Not dark at all, very light and lively.

[Cogito]

Brian, I'm sure you realise that it's fairly easy to add/reduce colour to the petals without adding any glare. Like Dan, I selectively darkened and enhanced the 'purple' a bit. Without cropping....

[JBW]

Brian, I'm sure you realise that it's fairly easy to add/reduce colour to the petals without adding any glare. Like Dan, I selectively darkened and enhanced the 'purple' a bit. Without cropping....

on my monitor most of the bg is now black and the leaves are seriously darkened. On the other hand there is no glare in the purple

[JBW]

Maybe somewhere half way between these two examples for me.

When attempting to brighten difficult subjects, Brian, do you ever try using the Luminosity Blend Mode? This will often add brightness but without increasing saturation. However, like you, I would always err on the side of caution.

I just checked (memory being what it is) and I did mask the blossom and use a luminosity adjustment to brighten it.

[JBW]

What a lovely blossom. So delicate. And nicely captured. Brian, I think your macro work has improved your overall technical skills as well as eye for composition, watching your BG, etc. I do think you could crop a bit tighter and keep the diagonal that you desire. If you don't mind...

Cropped, selectively darkened BG, applied ON1 "sunshine" filter, and added vignette

Disclaimer: I did this on my laptop so can't really judge the color. The tweaks I made were all aimed at luminosity but saturation may have been affected as well.

Don't mind at all. It is a little to saturated on my monitor but not by much. It's certainly a valid take on the shot. But I miss the leaves going to the bottom left. I seem to be in a 'I want context' mode of late.