Coneflowers taken in a local garden. I’d like your opinion as to whether I should clone out or crop out the top flowers that are only half showing. If I crop them then the one on the left gets chopped off.
Roberta, I really like what you have done here with the Lensbaby. I don’t think I would crop it. When shooting in a group of flowers like this, you can be sure some are going to be along the edge, and like you said, if you cropped it, some others would be at the edge. You might consider a small vignette to help keep the eye in the image and not going to the edge to view part of a flower. Just a thought. A nice image as presented.
This is a fun, dreamy image Roberta! I enjoy the grouping of three flowers in the foreground with the softer ones in the background. I only have some minor nits; first the highlights in the front flowers are a little bright, if you can I would tone those down as the eye is really drawn to these bright areas. Having played around with this lens a couple months back I can appreciate the desire to go as dreamy as possible, but personally I find the blur a bit too much here, I would like to see some sharpness in the flowers and probably would have stopped down to f/4, but that’s very much personal preference. Please keep sharing!
Roberta: I suspected this was a Lensbaby shot from the thumbnail. I like it. The only flower that bugs me is the partial in the ULC. I cropped some from the left and a little from the bottom to maintain a similar aspect ratio, did some content aware and painting over the offending bloom and added a vignette. My only other suggestion would be to paint in a tiny bit of color onto the brightest petals to decrease the eye draw that David mentioned. Great to have you aboard Flora and looking forward to more of you work and comments. >=))>
@David_Kingham @Bill_Fach @Shirley_Freeman Thank you all for your kind and constructive comments! I’ve reworked the photo and it is below.
@David_Kingham, I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on the highlights and getting the flowers more in focus. I usually take shots varying from f11 down to f2.8 or so with lensbaby so I can choose one with some in focus and some not, and I did that with this shot, but I didn’t like the ones that were in focus. I will work on the highlights and keep posting. Thanks again!
@Bill_Fach , I like the idea of painting over the offending flower and adding the vignette, and I like your rework. Thanks so much!
@Shirley_Freeman, thank you for the suggestion on the vignette - I will do that!
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Roberta,
I was immediately drawn to this lovely group of pink flowers. I love the softness of the flowers and the background. The more I look at the photo, my eye does search for an in-focus spot within the composition. What a beautiful spot to photograph! Thanks for sharing.
Ann Louise
@annlouiselyman Thank you Annlouise for your kind feedback on my photo. I wanted it to be dreamy, and I know exactly what you mean about looking for a point of focus. I’m still learning how to use the Lensbaby, so hopefully next one will be better.
I really like this photo. The velvet is a hard lens to master but you have done a great job.
Just a few suggestions. You might have wanted to also take another shot at a stopped down aperature and used a sharper spot to blend into this photo, for instance one of the flower cemters.
On that partial. You could just get rid of it as opposed to a different crop
These are very small suggestions, observances, and are an artistic decision.
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@Kathy_Snead Thank you for your great suggestion! I am learning how to blend in photoshop, so I will work on that. I did take shots from f11 down to f2.8, and I liked this one the best because of the dreaminess, but I do agree that it would look better if one flower or one part of a flower would be in focus. Thanks!
I love the soft, gentle feel to this image. My only hope would be for one flower to be in more focus to give the eye a place to land.