Ok here's the deal...I've been playing with this one for awhile now. I'm satisfied with the contrast and saturation. DOF is narrow, a problem of shooting on a rainy day the aperture had to be kept wide open. I've been playing around with different croppings on this and I'm having trouble seeing straight...I need some other eyes to look at this and give me opinions. Obviously I want to keep the sharp areas.....

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com

Another thing if you hate it say so....this is one of those images that I'm on the fence about. I like the color and stuff but I'm not sure if this one was worth the effort.

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com

I seems fine to me. But if I had to nitpick I would clone out the brown section in the bent leaf in the upper 1/8 of the image. Why not make it as perfect as possible. Bsteph

hi, i like this...looks good to me... now that bsteph2069 mentioned the brown bit i can't take my off it...lol have you tried it in b&w?

Pictures appear to me, I shoot them.   Elliot Erwitt

Well Michelle, water drops on green is always a good thing, and you've been successful in this before. This is fine too, but there's no place to settle on... everything is going in all directions... but that might not be a big deal to some. If it were mine, I'd make it a vertical, cropping off the soft part on the left.

I think the only problem with this is you've been looking at it too long! I really can't find fault, I even like the brown bit ; )

elusive.chaos

"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star...." (Nietzsche)

I like it the way it is, Mich, brown thingy and all. It's a well composed pic with good DOF. About the color, I love the vibrant greens on this. However, I find that the brightest green (on the upper right) isn't exactly the sharpest in the pic, it's just distracting me a teenyweenylittlebit. (*

I like it Michelle, very nicely composed, I especially like the bent leaf bit, but I tend to agree with Jovan about the brightest diagonal going to the top r-hand corner being a teeny bit distracting. (If that's the bit she meant) :-)>

I thought about ripping it apart, but my printer head was clogged so could not get a good copy to tear. Don't think it would have helped anyway. Sometimes you just have to use what nature offers, and cannot improve it beyond some point. This sure is an interesting photo to look at, with all the deep color, detail, and drops. On the ripping apart theme, I did try this beveling thing to try to emphasize the criss-crossyness. My try did not come out too well, but may be another direction to think about.

just leave it as it is..brown bit included. It just screams nature and why mess with her?

Michelle, Had a play with this and cant find a better crop. Tried b&w and toning but this still comes out tops. I agree the problem is no centre of interest my eye keeps returning to the folded leaf at the top centre but its in the wrong position, perhaps if there is more on the neg. you could try a crop with this feature in a more prominent position. Love the colour. :O)

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing. Salvador Dali

I think what bothers me the most about this image is the non-uniformity of the leaves and the jumble of criss-crossing going on ....mother nature wasn't co-operative that day. It's sort of a like not like image for me. You guys gave some good tips! Thanks a bunch!

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com

When I started this reply Jeff your post wasn't there so I missed it. I think you are right on about it....I could not find a crop that worked. This is image posted is the image in full no cropping here. Thanks....!

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com

Careful with the unsharp mask settings! Otherwise a really nice effort. Next time perhaps a tri pod and longer exposure would allow more DOF. Shane