About the Image(s)

I recently returned from a flower photography conference where we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden twice daily for 4 days so I've had lots of images to work on! I've attached one I've titled "Sunburst" and here is the information on my capture and processing:

Hello everyone! I'm so happy to be a new member of your group.

I found this beauty at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I used my 40 - 150 mm telephoto lens to allow me to zoom in for a close shot while blurring the natural background. This was taken handheld at 150 mm, ISO 200, f 2.8, 1/320 sec. My desire was to keep the center more detailed with the back petals somewhat soft. I used Lightroom to crop and do the majority of the edits. I only needed to edit the background a bit to try to have it appear as if some light was radiating from the petals by keeping the green closest to the petals somewhat light and adding a dark vignette around the outer edges of the image. As a final touch, I went into Topaz Studio 2 and applied a filter I like that adds somewhat of a creamy texture to my images without losing any detail. Topaz filters are completely customizable so you can control several aspects of the effect. I believe I added a bit of sharpness as well.

I shoot with an OM 1 mark II which has incredible handheld stability. The 2X crop factor also gives you more depth of field when shooting wide open than a full frame equivalent, which I appreciate.

I look forward to your feedback!