Susan I think this is "my kind of shot". I really love the angle (you must have been lying on the ground, or just your camera?). The sun shining through the petals is lovely. It's really beautiful, thank you !   Posted: 07/07/2026 08:09:09

Hi Susan, This is a beautiful shot! Choosing a worm's-eye view was a brilliant move-it's a completely unique angle that gives these classic flowers a really powerful, larger-than-life presence. The contrast between the bright red petals and the clear blue sky is striking, and the backlighting creates a lovely translucency. To take this composition to the next level, you might try shifting your position slightly next time to separate the overlapping petals just a bit, which would let even more of that bright blue sky and sunlight frame each individual bloom.   Posted: 07/08/2026 10:20:39

Thanks, Frans :)
I appreciate your kind words and the suggestion.
I can try it with summer blooms now. :)   Posted: 07/08/2026 12:21:11

Susan, I really like your angle of shooting from beneath. Wish I could still do that. (can't get up without a tripod/cane). I do like the red and blue combination with good focus and Depth of Field. I did notice an editing gotcha at the center top where the blue is lighter than in either of the corners. I don't think that happens naturally and that fine to darken the skies but you or your editing program missed that center section. I current versions of Lightroom and Photoshop generally select those so you can have them all selected to the same color. Not a big problem until you show it to an old photog. :-)   Posted: 07/09/2026 03:14:26

Hi Bob! I appreciate your comments and went back to iPhoto to see if I made any edits. On my original, I did not, however, I do stand corrected that minor changes were indeed made in iPhoto after I cropped the image. I apologize for any misleading, not intentional. It was a photo from 2024 that I really liked and wanted to share. Didn't remember sliding the bar slightly, making some subtle changes. Again, LR and PS are pretty new to me, so iPhoto was it, nothing fancy in making color adjustments.

However, in response to the center being lighter, that is because the sun is behind that tulip. Now, is that what the naked eye would see (lighter between those petals)... that's something to research, but it is what the camera saw, and I saw no need to alter the values of the blues so everything matched. (and at the time, I wouldn't know how to fix it anyway, lol. Masking??? Can't say I'd be very proficient in doing it now either!)

This truly is a learning experience and I appreciate your comments.   Posted: 07/09/2026 12:52:57

Great image. I like the overlapping of the flowers - it really presents them as a group. I think the lightness of the blue for me is realistic -- the very bright spot between the flowers for me makes it clear that that's where the light is coming from.   Posted: 07/12/2026 01:37:37

I asked a friend of mine who is a very experienced photographer and she said that possibly the reason why there's a little bit of a lighter area at the edges of your flowers and is that you over sharpened them. Is that possible? I don't like to sharpen things too much and also this happens if you replace the sky or move your subject onto a different sky, you May get that little halo around the edges. Not sure what your actual total process was here but maybe something like that happened. I didn't notice it until Bob mentioned it, but I think it's a valuable thing to think about in post processing.   Posted: 07/12/2026 01:38:36