fern

[Jeremy Roussak]

?

Jeremy

[francois]

Superb, it looks like the mythical hippocampus…

[rabanito]

?

Jeremy

Great!
I'd have made the light forms in the background darker
The baby leaves are fascinating as well

[John R]

In macro or semi-macro you have to be mindful of your backgrounds. In this case the light areas are a big distraction, as I am sure they would be in colour also.

JR

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It should be fairly easy to darken the background light areas without spoiling the excellent main subject.
It's well worth a try.

[Jeremy Roussak]

How about this? I'm slightly concerned that I've over-darkened the distracting light areas, removing any context.

Jeremy

[rabanito]

How about this? I'm slightly concerned that I've over-darkened the distracting light areas, removing any context.

Jeremy

Agree with that.
IMHO there should be some "presence" in the back.
But it is a matter of personal taste of course

[John R]

I agree, in general most flower shots are better with backgrounds that reflect their environment. However, one still has to be mindful of how it all looks together. No different than not accepting trees and poles growing out of people's heads. If you don't care about the documentary aspects of the image, I would just select swaths of surrounding dark areas, copy, and paint out the white areas. right now it just don't look that natural. But bw is not natural anyway.

JR

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I agree, too.
I think something between versions 1 and 2, closer to version 2, would be just right.

[John R]

In some cases it is better to eliminate distractions in the colour version before converting to BW. Let's say there are some beautiful soft greys or greens or browns in the colour version. You clone the parts you want and paste them unto to the hot spots or distracting elements. When you convert to bw, it will be much easier to smooth over unwanted areas. I fear in this case, there is just too much distraction to make this worthwhile. I have been there. Macro is tough. You always have to be mindful of the bokeh or out of focus elements.

JR