Distinctly Iris
by glad2badad

Comment by glad2badad:
Thanks Matthew/legalbeagle for taking the time for such an in-depth comment on this photo. VERY much appreciated!

I failed to mention I did use a ND grad (grey) filter to add some contrast to the sky...

Message edited by author 2005-05-23 10:45:17.

Distinctly Iris
by glad2badad

Comment by Matthew:
I like this photo, but it is competing in a particularly strong field, and does not have the necessarty "wow" factor to avoid the middle ground. The middle ground for this challenge was a bit lower than usual, I think, because there are quite a lot of "wow" shots.

I would criticise the photo as follows. the gradation of colour in the background travels from yellow to blue, but the blue is not a strong blue: there is still a strong yellow cast. I might strengthen the blues in the top half of the image using colour balance controls, and possibly curves in certain channels.

The clouds are very subtle. I might have experimented with a polarising filter to punch out the whites in the cloud from the blue. As it is, the clouds are sufferring from the same yellow haze/colour cast.

Uniformity of the flowers is impressive - they are well matched and cast an interesting silhouette (if not immediately obvious as flowers). Drama might have been added if you could have caught a hihglight line tracing around the flowers to emphasise their shape and nature: possibly hard or impossible with this type of flower, but easier with flowers that have fluff on their leaves or petals (ie change of fauna being photographed - impractical to find different flowers on this timescale etc. I am sure, but availability/choice of subject will affect scoring dramatically).

Solar Reflections
by glad2badad

Comment by SJCarter:
Simply beautiful... (9)

sniff . . . . . S N I F F
by glad2badad

Comment by tjarko:
nice composition but watch the red colors in the hand they don't look natural

Solar Reflections
by glad2badad

Comment by vtruan:
a bit too much water to me

Distinctly Iris
by glad2badad

Comment by glad2badad:
Thanks David.

Originally posted by Pug-H: Well, I'm surprised that it didn't score higher. It's a silhouette for sure, with interesting negative space and nice gradation of colour in the sky. I gave it 7.

Distinctly Iris
by glad2badad

Comment by Pug-H:
Well, I'm surprised that it didn't score higher. It's a silhouette for sure, with interesting negative space and nice gradation of colour in the sky. I gave it 7.

Solar Reflections
by glad2badad

Comment by msdoubletrouble:
lovely...seems like A LOT of water droplets...nice macro 8

Solar Reflections
by glad2badad

Comment by Shannon:
This is quite nice, though in my opinion there is a bit too much water on the rose, still very lovely.

sniff . . . . . S N I F F
by glad2badad

Comment by Xilebo:
I can almost smell it as well, great shot!