Judy - thanks for joining us again as I have missed seeing your photos. A lovely sunflower with water droplets and a good attempt to present why sunflowers are a great photo subject. However, a few things to be aware of in the future - water droplets can be a problem when in sunlight (assuming this was taken out doors or in strong light) as you can get strong reflections that are just white dots as in the upper left corner. Also, while some of the back petals are in focus, the edges of a number of petals closer to the front are soft - these are mostly toward the bottom of the image so am not sure what your f-stop was. Finally, it appears that you wanted to brighten up the center so you used a circular mask (maybe)around that area but the edge of that mask shows especially on the right side - within the mask, the petals are brighter compared to outside the mask. If you did use such a mas, you likely needed to have used a larger feather with it so that the intensity change is gradual rather than abrupt. I appreciate that you are willing to stay with this as truly it is how we learn. Ray   Posted: 03/13/2025 20:00:59

Good and complete analysis from Ray. Thanks.
I like the water droplets, I think it brings a lot, but it is quite difficult to avoid reflection. Unfortunately there are not on more leaves.
I like the composition and the format gives the impression of a dynamic opening of the petals, what a square foam would not have given, event with the symmetry.
Good idea of the white border.   Posted: 03/23/2025 10:25:48