Macro Flower

[alliec]

Taken with tamron 90mm macro. Critique appreciated.

[alliec]

That Bad?

[Bsmooth]

I actually think it looks fantastic.For some reason it reminds me of those old esther williams movies with the swimmers in the pool,except your is much more colourful. The second one has sort of a 3 dimensional look to it.Reminds me of some of the ones I tried to get with my Canon macro 100mm.
I could look at these all the time,its like delving into another completely different place. Great shots indeed!

[Radtech1]

Lets take the second one first.

I want to like it. I like the colors, and I like the pods (?) on the left of the frame and I like the little "jet" of 5 pods just right of center, but there is something about the whole thing I don't like. I am having a hard time articulating it, but I think that there is just too much of a yellow expanse where nothing is going on.

Because of the abstract nature of the shot, you can move elements to your heart's content, and they will "match" with wherever you put them. I can't offer you any suggestions, except to say I don't think that I would be satisfied with just a crop (if it were mine) because that would move the "jet" too close to the edge and pointing out. Maybe if you cropped the right 1/3 and flipped the "jet" so it is pointing into the shot. Who knows.

Now, onto the first shot. I really like it a lot!

I think that what works for me on it, is that it looks floral in general, but I cannot for the life of me place it. I have no idea what flower it is from, or what it's size, or anything. I find that for me, it works great as a semi-abstract - but it is still anchored in the familiar.

BUT what I would like to see is a greater color saturation, contrast and perhaps a bit more brightness. Since I am not currently at home, I can't do this myself, but I wonder how it would look if you duplicated the layer, set the blend mode to the second layer at "Soft Light". You may need to tinker with the opacity (might be too strong of an effect), but it could be worth a try.

So to recap:

First shot, I like a lot, but I would like to see a bump in contrast/saturation/brightness.

Second shot, I want to like, but don't know how.

Rad