Same picture as vazaar.com/user:ErikUnger/photos/id:33289/ , this time the flower is much sharper. I've been getting mixed opinions on which one is better. Some like it sharp, some like it soft. Any opinions?

The bokeh is so beautiful on this on that you really don't need to muck it up with the soft focus effect on the other one. I MUCH prefer this one!!

I agree with Beamer, the flower has much more to say this way.

This to me is absolutely stunning! Love all the red, it certainly fits the "RED" topic to a tee!

These are some wild colors man!! I like all 3 of these. Tell us some about your lighting setup, please.

Thank you. I am actually pretty lucky with how these turned out. Took them with the Cannon 100mm f2.8 macro lens. I didn't have a tripod on hand, nor do I have a ringlight flash or a good flash for that matter. It was mid afternoon (about 4pm) and the light was hitting them almost directly at low angle. Took the shots by hand set to aperture mode, and just kept experimenting with different apertures trying to get the most detailed shot with a fast enough shutter.

The lighting pretty much came out that way to begin with, but with a little messing around the blacks in raw.

Very cool Erik, nice work for sure!!

interesting sunset attempt. the structure seems to have a personality, it looks like its energy is coming form the sun

This would have been a great opportunity to shoot a bracket and do some post tone mapping. You could either use an true HDR program or you could also blend the different exposures with layer masks. Check out this example of a similar subject done as HDR:

www.vazaar.com/user:Beamer/photos/id:32389/

Or, for an example of the more manual approach:

www.clydebeamer.com/?p=184

Wonderful image. Only the sun is a little blown out.

Great colors. What an interesting object/location.

This is beautiful, but I think it would look much better if cropped to about one/two inches below the flower, then it would look superb! :O)

Erik,

This is beautiful work - I must have missed it somehow.

Best,
Jon

I had submitted a previous version that looked very similar but had a gaussian blur to that many felt added an unwanted softness to the background. I've also removed some other added textures, and I feel it is a much stronger picture now.

Yes, this is better! I do like this one very much.

I agree this is a better treatment.

This is a shot that packs a lot of interest and is great to look at and study for awhile - nice work.

Cheers,
Jon

Thanks a lot Jon. I was really upset when people were slamming the first version, but it made me open my eyes and I fixed what people were complaining about, and it really turned out far better.

Very nice. Great photo Erik !! Congratulations.

Ah, my least favorite things to see in the sky, contrails. But they do make for some interesting sunsets don't they. This could easily be a Southern California sky. I've got a shot that looks sort of like this:

www.vazaar.com/user:Beamer/photos/id:21469/

You have a nice capture, well controlled exposure, nice job. Might have worked just a bit better with a little more panoramic composition, loosing some of the top? Not sure...

I would have loved to have done a panoramic of this. I'm still a pretty new photographer, so I was to busy making sure to get the right settings that a panoramic didn't cross my mind, but next time I will be ready.

Great sky, clouds and colors.

Wonderful work and an instant fave for me!

Cheers,
Jon

This could not have been any better. Keep it up!