Nestled

The background makes the orchid stand out. It is so unusual to see something other than the not so pleasant leaf structure that surrounds the orchid flower. Your sense of color and space is contagious and has given me another way of seeing things. Thank you.

Catherine: Love the subject, comp and color palette of this one especially. I do note a touch of softness in the flower and it looks like the POF is closer to the leaves to the right of the flower. Thanks for mentioning the polarizer since it may remind folks to remember that filter for Flora shots. >=))>

Catherine, it does look like the lovely orchid is on the soft side. The Maidenhair fern is a unique surrounding, but it does seem to be the point of sharpest focus, to the right of the orchid.

Ctaherine, I really like the compositions and the color palette. My suggestions: can you sharpen the orchid a bit? It is hard to tell whether the issue is focus or sharpness, which brings me to suggestion 2: can you lighten up the orchid a bit, so that it is less overwhelmed by the gorgeous maidenhair fern? (which does supply a gorgeous frame !!!)

Fine work Catherine, I agree with the above posters on sharpening and lightening the bloom, but I really love the unique contrast between the orchid and the fern

Thanks for the feedback. Since I was using the D750, which focuses in 'a quarter of a blink', I think I'll chalk this up to a missed shot and go try again. I didn't notice that the focus was quite so out of place. So your pointing that out will help me to look closer and edit (delete) more rigorously.

Believe it or not, I lightened the orchid as much as I could without it losing it's deep color, and I darkened the ferns as well… Also put an extra amount of structure, locally, on the flower, especially the center, with NIK Viveza. Oh, well… Worth another try at the Conservatory at some point.

Great to see the setting for the flower, Catherine, and mostly I like the way you've handled that with your dof choice, though i'm not entirely sure about that upper third blend ( maybe too oof ? ). The snuggling of the flower within the leaves is charming.

Hi Catherine. Many photographers already has kindly made right suggestions so I am relieved of critiques. I like colors and details of the center of this nice orchid. May be your intention was to concentrate the focus in this point (f/5,6) and softening all the rest. But it is very difficult to select the focus in the beautiful orchid flowers. I hope to see the repeated shot.