Luxor4u

I've no idea the name of this flower,it was my brother's pride & joy this year in his garden measuring 28cm across, he did have many of the same flower.
I've been doing some enhancements on it & need opinion/advise on the finished flower, I was thinking of getting it printed/framed for him or maybe to canvas if I got the quality good enough, what you think?

Before



After

Kiya your flower is a Dahlia and they come in many types and colours.
The second picture with the black contrasting background looks very good
And ................. that bloody big Scarab sets it off quite nicely

Kiya, I took the liberty of removing a few stray bits from your own picture, then adding a few more leaves near the bottom, gave it a sharpening pass and made you a nice frame Hope you like it

PS still got that bloody Scarab though

Horus wrote: The second picture with the black contrasting background looks very good

It enhances the scarab too

To me there is too much empty space with the black, I think if you fill in the black with more leaves it would look great.

EDIT: BTW I did not see the post from horus when I posted my bit

Horus, thankyou it does look so pretty & I can spot where you fixed some stray bits........ my only problem is if I printed it with your frame & gave it to my brother like that & with the scarab he is going to think I've assigned myself a new signature............no offence Keefy to the scarab.

The point of leaving the black area empty was to focus on the flower but as Keefy himself suggested I did think of adding some leaves to the black area or some fern ??

Back to the drawing board again

Your dahlia photo is beautiful Kiya. Here is a bunch of roses to help complete the bouquet. Their single petals should compliment the fullness of the dahlia. I'm thinking it is called a "dinnerplate dahlia" but am not sure. Not sure what other flowers will compliment the dahlia but will check through my flowers and see what I can come up with. ;);)

What about a little bit of Gypsophila to fill some of the black (light & fluffy & white) ?

Don't have any photo's but you could Google it or go & take one, most florists have it in stock if its the wrong time of year locally

Sometimes adding too much detail can over-egg the picture, blank spaces if used correctly can look very good

I took this when out walking round Hawkstone Park this summer

Horus wrote:Sometimes adding too much detail can over-egg the picture, blank spaces if used correctly can look very good

That was my idea first of all & to focus on the flower being the subject.

Kiya wrote:

Horus wrote:Sometimes adding too much detail can over-egg the picture, blank spaces if used correctly can look very good

That was my idea first of all & to focus on the flower being the subject.

Kiya I agree, to me it only needed tidying up a little bit, otherwise OK

Nice Toadstool Redsaffy I think that they can make great pictures, just a matter of finding a good one. About now is a good time for finding various fungii growing in woodlands etc. on dead or decaying trees I must see if I can find a few subjects

Well I was reckoning to take a photo of my new solar lights in my garden and ended up with a cobweb instead Mind you I wouldn't be able to capture that again if I tried-I must of pressed the macro button?

Horus wrote:Kiya, I took the liberty of removing a few stray bits from your own picture, then adding a few more leaves near the bottom, gave it a sharpening pass and made you a nice frame Hope you like it

PS still got that bloody Scarab though

So how have you changed the back ground and been snipping at leaves Horus? I've not come across anything on Picasso for that?

JoJO I was working PSE7 with this flower, I started off with a new blank page ,changed the background to black, after I finished working with the flower I used the move tool to get the flower over to the black back ground,not sure if picassa does this ?

PSE7 Kiya? can you download that program off the net?

Yes you can if you know what your doing, I got my son's friend that works in IT to do a copy from the net for a friend recently, its been working perfectly for them.

To buy its around £70 - £80 now

Finally got a day to myself to try out more macro/close-ups, got loads of pics....most are deleted.
Apart from macro I tried evey other mode + functions.
These flowers with manual using F/5 1/200sec ISO 200 I think the pink 1 is ISO 800

Can someone give me names for flowers please...you must know by now I'm no green finger

Hey Kiya, that's a quantum leap from your disappointment at the gardens you visited.

I am sure there are some Dahlias there, if not all of them but I am not green fingered either.

Converting the image to mono looks like a good idea because it looks as if it would better show any OOF.

Love the blue one.

Thanks Grandad, I'm really really trying the b/w was orange but looked terrible in its original colour.

I like the blue also

Hi Kiya - TERRIFIC photos! Niceeeeeeeeeee

I'm thinking you have dahlias and maybe Mums (chrysanthemums) but I can't see leaves so I can't say for sure.

You are coming along wonderfully!! Love your photos Kiya!