Spring Is Here! plus re-post

This is a very nice image, Lucy. Love the position of the gorgeous iris and how it shows against the nice, contrasting green bg. I do wish the darker oof bud in the bg was not there as I find it distracting. Not sure why; I just do. Maybe you could try to lighten it? Don't get me wrong, however; this is very nice as is and I'd be happy to have it in my portfolio as is.

Scott, I could just go with a square crop and cut off most of the top. Then, I would put it on a bit larger canvas and clone or smudge more green at the top. Or, I could , as you said, blur and lighten the bud. What would you do?

Finally? We're still a month or more away Beautiful bloom, Lucy. I like the lighting on the subject, but find the bright bg just a bit distracting.

Lucy, I was going to suggest a crop from the top, but if you crop to the bottom of the bud, I don't think you leave yourself enough space. You could crop about 1/2 the bud to reduce its impact, but then the bud is cut off. That's why I suggested lightening the bud. Personally, I actually prefer this with the top cropped about to eliminate most (about 3/4) of the dark part of the bud, but see what others think. It's all subjective, of course. For example, contrary to Dennis, I have no problem with the bright bg.

Lucy: One of my absolute favorite flowers. For some reason we have never grown these successfully so kudos to you for the garden and a wonderful image.>=))>

Bill, I'm surprised, that you are having trouble growing irises in Houston......I'm just a little SW of you.
maybe it's my lack of fertilization...Are they supposed to thrive on neglect? Because I do nothing except add mulch. Maybe they don't like your fertilizer....seriously.....

I only fertilized once in 10 years and that was with manure from my horses. I sure hope you figure it out, because it's one of my very favorite flowers, too!

Lucy, I'm going to start trying something I saw on a Tony Sweet video.Take some completely out of focus shots of something that you can get some nice soft oof swatches of color and print a couple up and mount to some foamcore for some portable backgrounds.

Michael, that sounds like a cool idea. In the past, I've just moved my image to some OOF BGs. Your idea sounds like it would look much more "lifelike"

This is a fine look at this iris. I like the oof blooms in the background and how the background gets brighter higher in the frame. The backlit glow around the leaf on the right is both interesting and distracting. While I like this a lot a presented, I do wonder how it would have looked if you had gently bent that leaf out of the frame.

Vivid capture of an exuberant flower, Lucy - very nice angle on the subject, with the bud in the background promising more to come !

Here's another take on this photo addressing some of your points....How do you like this? Better? or worse? or just different?
Thanks for the input. Should I take a little off the bottom and make it an exact square........

I like it better, Lucy, and I would leave the bottom as is.

Really like the repost best Lucy, the colors are wonderful.
The closer comp really showcases the iris beautifully!