Tulip masking technique

[wsbII]

OK so I tried two things with this shot. The first was to use just the natural light and get the light at a specific angle. The second was to use CS4 to explore the functionality of layer masks. I took the shot and processed in raw using three different exposures (background, stem, and flower) to best accentuate each piece. Then I used the layer mask technique (hide all and paint back in the desired effect) to expose the stem and the flower. I duplicates and "screened" the flower layer to make it more vibrant. I put all of the bottom layers in B&W and left the flower head in color. I wanted to take the shape and overall looks of the tulip and accentuate it with the single color point of the flower head. Any and all critique welcomed. Thanks in advance...
Bill

Before:

Tulip before processing | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

After:

Tulip | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[cyber3d]

The before image is not showing up.

It looks much better full size. Very nice. I do wish it were sharper and a tad more vibrancy however.

Kinda hard to tell how good it looks from the smaller image.

[Tito87]

Originally Posted by cyber3d

The before image is not showing up.

It looks much better full size. Very nice. I do wish it were sharper and a tad more vibrancy however.

Kinda hard to tell how good it looks from the smaller image.

I might add that a hint of green on the leaves wouldn't look too bad.

[brooksamanda89]

That looks just great. Nice work on the tulip. You could have left a little bit of stem just below the flower to be colorful. Would make one understand what you have actually done.

[wsbII]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I actually took the "before" pic off of Flickr after I hadn't had any comments for a while and I didn't think anyone was goign to look at this :} Sorry to pull the before. I do appreciate the comments and will try out some of your ideas to see the impact on the image!
Thanks,
Bill