Minuet
by banmorn

Comment by 1olddawg:
An excellent photo Sharp, clean, good contrast, and lighting. Would have gone to a 10 if this was one bud instead of three. Its on the verge of almost becoming cluttered. "8"

Homeland Security
by banmorn

Comment by TG73:
Nice shot

Minuet
by banmorn

Comment by tuffy:
The lighting & placement of the calla's is perfect! Excellent submission & great example of R-O-T's.

Homeland Security
by banmorn

Comment by muckpond:
this doesn't say conspiracy to me.

Somewhere Abstracting the Familiar
by banmorn

Comment by jtf6agent:
A little outside the box...very nice.

Minuet
by banmorn

Comment by kloughe:
Very nice.

Minuet
by banmorn

Comment by xylke:
This is a great shot with color and framing but there is competing intersections that seem to cause a sort of tension of where my focus should be.

Minuet
by banmorn

Comment by giniro:
elegant and colorful. nice.

Somewhere Abstracting the Familiar
by banmorn

Comment by OdysseyF22:
Really neat picture. Deserves contemplation... Very unique. Okay, you get the first 10 of this challenge from me!

Nakia II
by banmorn

Comment by dahkota:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

Thank you so much for detailed information on your image. It helps greatly!

You got many comments on this image during the challenge and they all have different ideas for what they would like in the image. All are as valid as any I can give.

Reading through your comments, I note that you state you don't have much experience in portrait processing. Believe it or not I think you have the hardest part down - taking a great image. There are many ways to process a portrait and none of them are right or wrong - it all just depends on your taste. I prefer the look you used - the natural approach.

Two things to maybe work on with a close portrait like this where the background is irrelevent: the eyes and the background. With the eyes, typically you want them to be sharp - not overly so they look out of place, but just so viewer's eyes are drawn to them. Another thing to check with the eyes is the whites. People prefer them white. This also makes them stand out.
The background in this particular image works for me. However, it does distract from the face a little, so you may want to lighten, darken, blur or anything really. This again would put more emphasis on the face.

Honestly, you started with a great image. Technically well done. I did a quick edit to show what might result from some of the suggestions I and other commenters made but really, its all a matter of taste.