I love the faded flowers here, but I’m a bit distracted by the OOF plant on the left. I wonder about blurring it more or cropping in from the left about 1/3 of the way into the frame?
Beautiful Ben! The lighting is gorgeous, most especially the backlighting on the blossom. I especially like the shadows projected - almost looks like you caught an insect or two behind the flower.
The bokeh of the highlights throughout are wonderful too - but almost taking away from the main blossom.
The only suggestion I have would be some sort of crop. There’s a very bright area along the top, left edge. Not sure if that is what Diane was referring to. The good news is that you have plenty of real estate and there would be little impact loss if you cropped a little; maybe left and top?
Otherwise, I love the colors; the saturation level seems just right. Beautifully processed.
I love seeing these bolder, more diverse images from you! Kudos! You can take your skills to any location!
Ben, I love the backlighting you achieved on that flower and the background leaves and stems. The bokeh is just terrific. This certainly tells a story about the life cycle that plants go through to survive and the fresh green leaves and stems in the OOF background just glow with life while the main subject, the flower, shows that it’s time has come to and end.
I am distracted by the branch in the ULC, the one with three smaller branches coming out of it and how that pulls my eye as well as the very bright white just at the top of the frame above that same branch. I think there are all kinds of crops that be done to this but I took this into LR for a quick edit. I hope you don’t mind. I dodged the flower to make it stand out even more, burned the light yellow leaf on the right edge, added a very small vignette, reduced the yellow in the leaf in the LLC, added negative 25 dehaze to soften and add a little bit of glow and cropped on all four sides. The flower is almost dead center now which may not be ideal.
Hi Ben,
The backlight is simply gorgeous and is perfect for showcasing all those intimate details in the fading flower. I too think the bokeh is wonderful and as usual I love your accompanying haiku is perfect. I do like the rework from @David_Haynes as it took care of those highlights on the left side. Beautiful image.
@Diane_Miller , @Lon_Overacker , @David_Haynes , @Ed_Lowe . Encounter between the old and the new could have been the title. The old is in its last days, while in the background the new is presenting itself. The whole background is essential in my experience The highlights and the branches in the background represent the new season.
Thank you all so much again for taking the time to give your opinion. Ben
