Light Purple Water Lily

[nicuRNmama]

This is one of my favorite pictures. Do you have a preference of the "normal" colors over the "glowing" colors? I was just playing around with different effects and kind of liked the way the glowing one turned out.

Thanks for looking.

Nikon D5000
Nikkor 55-200mm Zoom
ISO 2500
150mm f/5.6
1/4000
taken 7/16/11

[crockny]

I prefer the 1st one - I think that's the glowing one? The 2nd one seems washed out ...

[AceCo55]

First one "pops" - second one just sits/exists. First one is bursting with life, grabs my attention and says "wow, look at that ... and that ... and that". I just want to explore the image a lot more than the second.

[sk66]

I don't know which one is "normal"...Of the two I prefer the first image, but it's a bit over saturated IMO. I prefer the leaf in the second, and I might prefer the second overall, but it's a bit washed out and you've lost a lot of focus/detail in the flower.

I'd be looking for something more in the middle I think.... maybe like this.

I just combined the two layers and erased most of the dark one except for where I wanted more detail and set mode to hard light and reduced opacity.

IMO, just playing with settings can result in some very nice pictures, but it can't deliver what you want..You have to know "what you want" first.