I shot this cactus today and really struggled getting a good overall exposure, especially for the flowers.  They are bright yellow (little light sponges) and tissue paper thin.  Maybe I should bump up exposure compensation more to fool the camera?  I'd like to see more detail in the petals if possible, but keep the rest of the cactus well-exposed.  It was an overcast day and I tried many different settings in manual and aperture priority.  Will try again tomorrow.  I get frustrated with these cacti blossoms -  haven't yet been able to capture to my liking.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Difficult shot. Overall exposure looks O.K.so I don’t think exposure is the answer.  I think other factors might be that focus might not be right on the flower. It might be hard to do with the buds and flower in the same plane but a composition that  would throw all but the flower out of focus a bit might help.  A composition that better puts the flower in a better point of interest might help in general.

Some work in post to darken the, I’ll call them “buds” and keep the flower bright, sharpen the flower plus blur the forground with “lens blur” might help.

Just noted you may not be able to do all the above in Picasa so try opening up your f stop wider and focus closely on the flower. Yes keep trying and let us see how you make out.

 

 i like the textures in the OP's shot, it's interesting to me....Point and shoot, your play blew out all the texture in the buds and they are now little bright blobs........

pointandshoot:

It might be hard to do with the buds and flower in the same plane but a composition that  would throw all but the flower out of focus a bit might help.  A composition that better puts the flower in a better point of interest might help in general.

Thanks, pointandshoot, for some ideas.  I tried every composition under the sun (hah - pun!), even putting the flowers into direct focus (using manual focus), and just can't grab any clarity out of them.  The petals are very thin, so their 'planes' of focus are tough even unto themselves.  Messed around with some black and white, and the flowers look good, but the rest of the cactus looks blah.  I really like the color and texture that the buds offer and the yellow burst complements those colors so well.  Just an interesting juxtaposition of elements that is challenging to make all come together.

Am using an 18-55 mm kit lens.  Maybe a prime lens would help sharpen it up.  That along with a macro will be the next purchase, but still doing research and biding time.

I'll try pulling it into Elements and see what happens.  Elements is still in the box - little intimidated by it.  I'm taking photography classes at the University and will begin the climb up the Photoshop mountain at the end of August.  Thank you for your input! 

I'll post twice with two others from yesterday.  In the first I got some detail in the flower, but the rest of the cactus looks blah.  This came out of the camera pretty dark. 

Second, kind of a dramatic look, but the flower is all blown out.  Will keep working to find the happy medium. 

I like the first of your second two the best. The flower looks good and I like the contrast of the colors and texture in the foreground also.

 

I thought there was too much foreground so tried a crop that also brought the flower closer to the upper right quarter. I left the flower alone this time (don’t mess with what is o.k.)  but darkened the background and foreground (slightly) as well as blurred the foreground a bit to make the flower stand out . I had fun working with it but won’t show it unless you want me to.

 

I think you have plenty of lens for now. It did not seem to need much sharpening. A macro would really do it. Defiantly get Elements out of the box. School and help here should make you a pro.

 

You should be complemented on your courage to post. You have encouraged me to do the same.

 I really like the colors on this shot.

If you want more details you can use a plugin like LucisArt or Topaz Labs.  Make sure you do it on a separate layer and pull the opacity down to your liking and don't be afraid to take it off in different parts of the shot if it is to much in one part but looks great in another.

 

LaDair

Thanks, LaDair.  I'll make note of those plugins and will give them a try.  The editing is just as much fun as the shooting!

Some of these look a bit over exposed and most of your originals have weak shadow areas which are giving them an overall flat appearance. I would try leaving the highlights and midtones where they are and just darkening the shadow areas with a Curves Adjustment Layer.

LaDair did a nice job, P&S did the usual crank up the contrast and saturation which really doesn't work here. It took all the nice subtle color out along with some of the detail.

Thanks, Cort.  Still checking my safety gear before roping in to make the ascent up the Photoshop mountain.  I'm in training!  When I learn what a curves adjustment layer is, I'm on it.  Gracias.

 

Vicki