Red Poppy (+revised)

Image Critiques
1

Revised Version

Revision 1 (latest)

Revised version
Revised version2048×1365 794 KB

What changed: Added some more glow to the center of the poppy and raised the overall brightness of the image, which was starting to feel a little dark to me. I think this changes the mood considerably.

Added after receiving feedback from the community.

Original Version

Red Poppy
Red Poppy2048×1365 765 KB

Critique Style: Standard

The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.

Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive

About This Image

I noticed this single red poppy in a bed of almost pure Oregon Sunshine this morning and thought I should photograph it, but had other things to do at the time. This afternoon when the wind was blowing rather vigorously, I ventured out with a polarizer on my lens to see what I could do.

Feedback Requested

I had to clone some of the right hand background into the left as I ran out of yellow there-do you see any obvious issues with the cloning?
Is the presentation appealing? Any suggestions for changes would be welcome.

Technical Details

Camera: SONY ILCE-7RM5
Lens: FE 70-200mm F4 Macro G OSS II
Focal length: 156mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000s
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 400
The wind was blowing strongly enough that I had to hold the stem to have any chance of keeping the blossom in the frame.
Cropped to 8234x5489 before resizing for the export. There was also a bit of a purple fringe at the top of two petals that I cloned over.

2

Dennis: Really intriguing comp and in your face color contrast. The polarizer is a vastly underutilized tool in Flora photography IMO (and I’m guilty of my own crime) but here I think it helped to saturate the already intense color and take off any possible sheen on the flower. You also handled the wind exceptionally well. Most excellent. >=))>

3

Dennis, the cloning looks fine and that red flower sure stands out against the field of yellow. It’s an unusual color combination that attracts attention. As I explore the flower, I wonder about some dodging of the stamen and pistils. There’s a bit of glow in there and I wonder if bringing that out a bit would add interest. The shape (and maybe I should say windblown shape) adds it’s own drama.

4

The original poster added a revised version of their image.

1 Like
5

The revised version looks better with the dodging of the internal structures of the flower. Polarizing filter worked well and I like the saturated colors of the comp…Jim