The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I still have some work to do on this photo, but I am at a stage where I need some critiques before completing the image. Dahlia Hill is a park in Midland, Michigan that features close to 350 varieties of dahlias. This one caught my eye due to its soft yellow center. I still have some dirt spots to clean up, and may also need to adjust the crop. The bright sun was shaded with my cap and I used a Nikon SB-5000 and two SB-R200 flashes to produce the soft, delicate shadows. I took care of the URHC and cleaned up some soot spots that I did not get to from the first round of edits. Thank you @Kris_Smith , @Dennis_Plank , @Bill_Fach , and @Diane_Miller for your suggested edits. …Jim
Specific Feedback
Would you go with a square crop while sacrificing some of the dew drops and eliminating the diagonal dark and light area in the upper RH corner?
Technical Details
Z9 105mm f2.8 Micro (1/500 sec at f16, ISO 320, 3 flashes at -2ev ) Levels, crop for comp, Topaz DeNoise, Brightness & Contrast.
Beautiful lighting, Jim. I could see coming down from the top and even in from the left a trifle. Personally I wouldn’t go with square for this. I think you can just carefully select that little slot in the upper right and slip in some nice soft cream from another petal with the right flow. Nice find and well photographed.
Gorgeous perfection!! I love the compositiion as it is, and would do a tiny clone patch on that area. The water droplets are wonderful! The whites look optimal too – no nits!!
Oh nice find with the color. The crop works for me and I love the scattered water drops - my eye went right to the top right corner where there is a sliver of what might be background. It’s very sharp and looks so different that I keep looking there. And also directly below in the left the darker bit of shadow does a similar thing. Lifting shadows there and a bit of the remove tool should take care of them. The crop works for me here, but the symmetry on display could support a square crop well.
Jim: Frame filling fantastic. Cleaning up the URC is about all I would recommend. Terrific lighting technique. Superbly crafted image of a beautiful subject. >=))>
