I love the new colours, they work far better. The black BG is as good as the white if not better but only with those bright colours which I am not keen on anyway. I don't think it works quite as well with the blue tones which are more muted.
I definitely like the crops and for one moment I couldn't understand why I preferred the one that was illogical in terms of photographic composition. The one with the main lift to the left and the droplet to the right should be best but it isn't. Then I realised why: in the one with more of the water on the left, there is more sharp detail which I think is important.
Having said that, I think Mark has used the 'find edges' filter on the latter which brings out the detail more. That filter works great providing you don't go up close. For a picture on the wall it is fabulous and just sharpens the image up beautifully.
Very nice image to start with and we are seeing the variations and possibilities available for 'playing' so this is great. I'll be checking this thread regularly and any others you put this type into just to see what you come up
Cheers,
Rob