A little on the light side?

[okmqaz42]

Not sure on this one! Any thoughts?

[Bambi]

I am sure. I really like it. the backlight is lovely, the focus is spot on and it's nice use of negative space. It might be stronger if you cloned out the oof stem in the back (or at least the light bit).

[okmqaz42]

Hi Bambi, thanks for the suggestion. I may try and photo it again without the other stem in the background-it will give me a nice excuse to revisit the botanic gardens.
Do you think it would be better if the second stem was in focus?

[asnow]

That was the one thing I noticed too was the stem in the background. Other than that I really like it. I think that even if the second stem was in focus it would still be a distraction.

[Bambi]

Hi Bambi, thanks for the suggestion. I may try and photo it again without the other stem in the background-it will give me a nice excuse to revisit the botanic gardens.
Do you think it would be better if the second stem was in focus?

I think you would be better off to just use some software and remove it.

[aubintbay]

Beautiful shot!! I do agree though that you should clone out the oof stem. I could see this blown up to a "large" size and placed on a wall.

[thoughton]

I think I already picked this one out on Flickr, like it very much

[okmqaz42]

I think for me the point at which I start to clone the other stem out of this is the point at which it would lose it's "heart". Until now the most I have ever done in PP is crop and straighten(I am convinced that one of my eyes is significantly lower than the other, no other way to explain it). I have tried a slightly different crop just for an alternative viewpoint. Better or worse.

[Iguanasan]

I think for me the point at which I start to clone the other stem out of this is the point at which it would lose it's "heart". Until now the most I have ever done in PP is crop and straighten(I am convinced that one of my eyes is significantly lower than the other, no other way to explain it). I have tried a slightly different crop just for an alternative viewpoint. Better or worse.

Every photographer has to decide for themselves about how much they will or will not manipulate the image in post processing, however, I think you should consider what you might have done if you had seen the "offending stem" in the viewfinder rather than the resulting image. If I had seen it, I might have pushed it to the side or if it's just a bit of grass I might have even plucked it right out of the ground to get it out of the frame prior to shooting. Therefore, to me, cloning it out afterwards doesn't upset me one bit.

Also, you might want to consider that if you are willing to crop the image (throwing away thousands of pixels) what's the big deal of replacing a few as long as it doesn't alter the "reality" of the image. Unless of course, you want to alter the reality of the image.

In terms of the new image vs the old image, I prefer the old image but I too wish the extra stem wasn't there.

[Bambi]

Every photographer has to decide for themselves about how much they will or will not manipulate the image in post processing, however, I think you should consider what you might have done if you had seen the "offending stem" in the viewfinder rather than the resulting image. If I had seen it, I might have pushed it to the side or if it's just a bit of grass I might have even plucked it right out of the ground to get it out of the frame prior to shooting. Therefore, to me, cloning it out afterwards doesn't upset me one bit.

Also, you might want to consider that if you are willing to crop the image (throwing away thousands of pixels) what's the big deal of replacing a few as long as it doesn't alter the "reality" of the image. Unless of course, you want to alter the reality of the image.

In terms of the new image vs the old image, I prefer the old image but I too wish the extra stem wasn't there.

ditto