[fgates]

I would welcome comments and criticism on this one that I took last summer.
Thanks,
Fred

[AQ]

I think that you would have been better with a very much closer shot of the flowers. The really good flower pictures here tend to be closeups. The bright light on the right is very distracting as is the out of focus white lupin in the front.

[Boofers]

There is a lot of out of focus area, and a little lens flare problem acting up to the lower left. At first I thought it was movement of the plants. This time of day I like to turn my compansation down a click to try and give a natural darkness effect.

Boofers
\

[fgates]

Thank you for the comments. I liked the light and the flowers and wanted to combine them. Must admit that I didn't notice the lens flare until you mentioned it. I thought it was sunlight reflected off the leaves.

[Rob Barron]

I wasn't share whether this was lens flare or that you took it through a window or something. Also, did you have a lens hood in place? The orange of the light is muting the beautiful colours of these lupins which is a bit of a shame as they look lovely. If you had a lenshood or even if you didn't, what I would have done here is to hold my other hand just out of the shot as a shield for the light to stop the direct light flaring.

I think you've done most stuff right here Fred and I felt there was still something in this worth focusing on. Hope you don't mind but I have had a little go at pimping this one. I cropped it to an area that has a good comosition but doesn't have the bright light and flare. I upped the contrast and used a multiply blending mode layer at 20% opacity to give it a bit of strength. I reduced the saturation of the yellows, trying to keep a bit as the warmth of the light is good but not muting the colours of the flowers.

Hope you like it, just did it really to show that even if there is an area that is virtually unrescuable (the flaring would be a nightmare to try and remove with cloning or whatever) there is often still a good picture that can be pulled from it. This is still your photo, just processed a little differently.

BTW, I also changed the colour profile as you had it set at Adobe RGB. Generally I would use Adobe RGB (1998) for printing but sRGB IEC61966 for the internet because the gamut available on line is lower so pictures tend to look darker than they did when you had them on your computer.

Cheers,
Rob

[fgates]

Thanks for the information on the colour spaces. They have always confused me. I like your crop.

Fred

[Soupdragon]

I love Lupins!

[JMitchell]

lol I was about to suggest a crop.....then rob just did it for me! That would have been what I'd have said. I like the sunset-type light though.