As with the previous entry this image required very little work. As this started out as a RAW image I adjusted Levels, Curves and Saturation (and used a minimal amount of sharpening), but other than that I didn’t need to make any changes.

What struck me about this image thought is that the lily looks less ‘delicate’ (for want of a better term) at this level of magnification. This was taken in macro mode and has drawn out aspects of this flower that you might not ordinarily notice. In particular I was struck by all the small extrusions from the petals (I’m sure there’s a name for whatever these are) that I don’t think I would have seen had it not been for this image.

One other difference I noticed between this image and my previous attempt is that it seems much easier to throw aspects of the image out of focus by using a wider apeture in macro mode and, in this case, I suspect that macro photography is probably a bit easier with a compact digital than an SLR (where depth of field in macro mode ofter required the smallest possible apetures).

And, finally, I think I prefer this image to the previous one. While it isn’t as stereotypically pretty, I do think it’s better executed. In particular, despite this one being hand-held and the previous entry being taken with a tripod, this image seems much sharper and required much less work to get it looking reasonable.