Delicate Mystery!

Beautiful shot Sally , love the low key lighting ! The bokeh is wonderful !

wonderful work, Sally...great bokeh, like a painting

Brigitte

Excellent capture of this magnolia blossom.Very interesting/painterly background.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! This is my first image post on NPN!! I look forward to learning and growing.. I ordered and should be getting my nikon 200mm macro tomorrow via ups............. can't wait .. as this will be my first micro/macro lense. ef

Very nice Sally. Have fun with the macro lens. And welcome to NPN. It's a great place to learn. We look forward to seeing more of your work. Good job.

Yes, this is an extremely interesting image, Sally, the bloom and the background, the whole image. Beautiful.

Really an interesting capture Sally, part of me wishes for a little more depth so the supporting buds are more in focus, but I really like the painterly feel of this also. Good work.
Bob

Good feedback Robert, so would increasing the aperature have helped create more depth in the petals??

Hi Sally Well composed with beautiful color and light......... Sometimes, there is a comprimise in photography, The BG came out beautifully at 2.8 But the bloom is a bit soft on the top, perhaps f4 would have been better..... try shotting at various settings, and your dreamshot will appear. :smile
Albert Darmo
Canada:

Well said Albert... makes perfect sense.... thanks for the help!

Lovely background effect, setting off the flower beautifully.

Sally:
Many photographers struggle with magnolia and here you have a nice composition with beautiful painterly bg. The highlights at the tip of the petals may be blown and you may want to try playing around with recovery slider. You will love you 200mm micro lenses for sure. Look forward to seeing more of your posts here.

Ian and Gary, thanks for your feedback.. I will look to see what I can do with the tip......

Sally: Welcome to the finest Flora gallery on the planet and thanks for a fine first post here. We have this exact magnolia in our garden but because of its location near to the house I rarely get a good shot at the flowers. I like your decisions here. More DOF would have provided more detail in the petals but also caused a more distracting BG. Good choice on the new lens. I've been shooting with a 200 for about 10 years now and it literally lives on my camera and tripod. Great to have you aboard and looking forward to more. >=))>

Bill and all, thank you for the warm welcome, and comments. Thanks for identifying the blossom. It is a form of magnolia after all! I received my 200 Micro lens yesterday, so will be out this weekend with it! I will also work wiht this image a bit more to see what I can do to bring down the tips.. and next time out may try different AP to see the effects and give me more to work with! Have a great Friday everyone!

Once again, thanks everyone for the warm welcome and comments.. the biggest thing I heard more than once was that the tips were a bit blown out.. so I have gone back and adjusted a bit..if you have time let me know what you think. Next time I will work with different AP to gain more depth.. thank you.. Sally

The re-post looks great Sally , I see I need to buy yet another lens !