Gardenia close-up

[tercalew]

I have gotten remarks about the angle of this shot (should be more straight on), and the crop (should be cropped putting bloom on bottom left). Any comments would be appreciated.

[Jediboy]

Personally, I think some droplets of water would look nice. Just a thought.

[GeoffWessex]

I think that when a 'critic' suggests that the bloom should be on the left, he's dealing with it as a face... and then falling back on the traditional 'rule' that a face should be given some space to be 'looking into'.

'Should be more straight on' is (to my mind) purely an opinion. I'd ignore it.

However, I think it's a bit 'bottom heavy' and a crop of 10% off the top might improve it.

It's a good shot, with enough DOF to keep the arrangement of foliage nice and sharp and still blur out the background. Well exposed, keeping all the detail in the petals, and well lit.

[tercalew]

Thanks to both for responding. Your suggestions are deeply appreciated.

[Markulous]

Yup, I'd agree with your original suggestion for the flower to be at the bottom left - better balance. Personally, I'd have tried to move to the right, placing the flower towards the bottom left of the frame with the leaf stems going up slightly to the left of the flower, providing a left border to the shot