Boulder and Columbine

I like this photograph a lot, but feel it needs cropping to improve the composition. P645N on Velvia scanned at 3500x4800, so grain barely begins to show up at 67%. I wonder if I had an 81A filter on as my memory holds a bluer version of purple in the columbine.

Here is a crop I like better, but I still would like suggestions.

(Because of the detail I had to choose a pretty strong jpg compression. The crop is just as sharp as the original).

That's some pretty harsh light you captured these under. Burning down the highlights in the rocks would be helpful.

The bright sun is killing this image. A large white diffuser would have helped in this situation or simply wait for shade to appear in this spot. As far as composition goes, I'd crop off part of the bottom and top, leaving part of the diagonal granite showing.

When I like a photo, but there's something not quite "right" about it, I try to zero in on what exactly it is I like about the image. Sometimes it's the color combinations, sometimes it's a specific part of the image only that I could crop in on. And sometimes, it's simply that I associate the image with an enjoyable trip.

You mention you think cropping it might help. Can you isolate the part of the image that most appeals to you? As an objective third party, I have to agree with John and Ken - this one's going to be a real challenge.

I tried burning out the boulders, but the flowers remain a bit over-exposed. The cropping finally narrowed the image down to the things I like about it. But, now I can see some wind motion in them.

Tom, I like your crop, and the diagonals converging on the flowers.

Flowers in bright sunlight are a challenge. The colors look so saturated and crisp, but the large dynamic range hardly ever translates well, especially when bright white is included. I've had plenty of experience.

If you shot this in raw, you might try some highlight recovery, before conversion. The raw files usually give you an additional stop or two of highlight information to play with.

Since you mention motion blur, what shutter speed did you use? You should have had plenty of light to use a faster shutter.

Thanks for posting this. It should provide some good discussion of wildflower photography issues.

Ah-ha?! I had Velvia ISO 100, and I believe I used f9 or f11 to get depth of field. The wind was blowing pretty hard, therefore I should have waited or backed of on DoF.

Nikon's ADR is good for average situations, but yes, on digital, flowers blow out the highlights all the time, especially the reds. Apparently histograms measure off of the green channel, so you don't see the red problem in the histogram. I've had to go -1 or -1 2/3 on the EV to catch bright flowers. Bright whites also have this problem.

Velvia slide film is pretty contrasty and saturated, but I think has a better "knee" at the bright end compared with Digital. In this case, with velvia, I think I should have waited for a cloudier day, but living in Colorado, what can you do! I was attracted to the scene because of the bright, contrasty light. I mean, it kind of did look like the picture.

I've shot with Sensia which isn't so saturated and contrasty, but when Velvia finds a sunset it starts to sing. I think it is the special LSD emulsion.

Velvia vs D90.
http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/12773383_JjgF5#1061897768_fpVzt

On my "plant" gallery listed above, you can see a comparison of D90 vs Velvia images of as follows: 9 on Velvia 100, 6 on Nikon D90 and 1 on Sensia 100. Seeing them juxtaposed you get an idea. The velvia in light shade is not so radical. In sunlight it almost glows, whereas the Sensia stayed sensible, even in bright light:

Sensia:
Blue Pot: http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/00520027/1061897768_fpVzt-M.jpg

Velvia:
One red lilypad: http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/00610026/991508412_S5zhh-M.jpg
Red lillypad: http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/00610013/1061889840_XFNTL-M.jpg
Seed Fluff: http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/00600002/1061900390_g6WjK-M.jpg

D90:
Orchid and fern: http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/DSC9803dnsshrp/920527015_TGvTE-M.jpg
Amanita Muscaria: http://www.photokinesis.info/Nature/Nature/DSC2300/977555427_xrap9-M.jpg

The orchid and fern only needed -.7EV as the sky was cloudy and the background moderately bright (and not at 10,000 ft).
The amanita mushroom had slightly blown highlights, even at -1.7 EV (Shows a shortcoming of relying on matrix metering with a dark background).

Hey Tom - The comp works well and I like the 2nd crop best, though I wouldn't crop just a bit less to give the last bloom some space on the bottom. Honestly, though, the harsh lighting has killed this image and the bg is just too busy - a shallower dof would help, but in this setting, you would have trouble blurring the bg and getting most of the blooms in focus.

Thanks to all the comments. External criticism is more than invaluable when you are emotionally attached to a picture.