Hydrangea macro

[katynoelle]

Maybe, this should really be in post processing? Feel free to move it if so.

Away back in the summer, I had done a couple of macro of hydrangea. Willie had some helpful insights and had done an edit. I'm finally getting around to trying to somewhat reproduce it on my own. However, I don't know a lick about what I'm doing, well, maybe, I should just say I'm figuring it out as I go.

Willie suggested sharpening the middle and blurring out the sharper parts to the right of the middle that were within the circle of confusion and drawing the eye. I tried a wee bit of Gaussian blur, too, and have no idea if it worked or not. Also, I 'healed' that brown patch and took down the red, a little. It doesn't have that magic glow that I think he gets that from efex pro.

This is the original one that I had posted:



after:



Up close before:



After:



Help and any insights would be extremely gratefully received!

[katynoelle]

The second one needs to be brightened a little bit?

Bleary eyed - see you in the morning!

[nickjohnson]

Hello Katy,
IMHO I think you've succeed with “after”. My eye is drawn to the centre just as you intended. As for brightness – if anything I'd back it off – perhaps quite a lot. Nicely done - I think the limited colour pallet works well.

[katynoelle]

Thanks, very much, Nick! I'll work on that and see what happens. Get back to you, later...

[manthos]

Katy and Jiro, I'm sorry but I like the first version without the blur much better. What I like in that is that after after I'm done observing the center of it I can explore the little details and textures that surround it. I believe that the colour is nicer in the edit.

[katynoelle]

Thanks, Giannis, for the reply and the insight.

Jiro's edit was much better than my try but I missed the details that I could explore, too. Maybe, I need to try again!