My first dahlia

A nice extract from a larger bloom Albert. I like the color gradient. Have you applied any sharpening? It seems just a tad soft to me.

Nathan

Nice 'flow' and comp and I like the 'cornered' red that fades to yellow.
Very attractive Albert!
Well done

I find the composition and color scheme to be quite attractive. However, I believe the texture, or "feel" of the image is not attractive at all. It, IMO, lessens what could otherwise be another very nice abstract. Not sure what can be done about it.

After further viewing, I think I can see what my issues are -
All the following, of course, is strictly my opinion -
It looks somewhat dirty, with all the detail. I think an abstract like this needs a much larger aperture. F16 simply shows too much. With f2.8 - f5.6, you could have focused on one of the petal lines, allowing the rest to be less detailed. Furthermore, I believe it is also quite flat in contrast. I would do a bit of line sharpening to get the edges sharper, but mask off the rest of the image. PS>Filters>Stylize>Find Edges, then invert, add 1-2 pixels of Gaussian blur will do this for you. I'd add some diffusion, or better, some glow, then increase the contrast. May not be at all what you're after, but that's how I see it.

Beautifully composed, Albert, with that one sharp edge leading the eye so well through the image. Maybe a little more texture would have been nice but I do like this as is.

I like the flowing lines and color transition to this composition. It would be interesting to see this at f5.6.

Albert - Very good try. Love the leading lines and the colors here. If possible I'd remove all those tiny dust spots.

I like the comp and colors. I also agree that it looks a bit soft.

Interesting reading the comments on this one, Albert. I am in the camp that would prefer more detail, especially in the top half, where you lose focus/sharpness. Other commenters wish for less dof. Maybe you have it just right after all!

Hi Ram .. thanks for the comment.. My camera has no more spots on the senser. nikon cleaned it up. there were many black spots on the flower.. pollen? i tried to clean them all up, guess i missed the really small ones, because of weak eyesight.

Regards Albert Darmo

Hi Albert--Wonderful color change in your composition. The small dust specks are a minor nit and can be taken care of in post processing. A tad more sharpness may help bring out some of the texture. For your next attempt, you may want to try a small amount of flash coming in from the upper left to help reveal some of the texture in the veins and folds of the petals. .................................Jim

Albert: Nice job getting in close. I like the comp and the color palette. 2 thumbs up! >=))>

This is sweet. One of my fav flowers. A bit of speck cleanup would enhance this image.