orchid art

Following Wild Wassa's thread in the post processing forum, I've become somewhat intrigued with his layering process and decided to try my own variation. This shot was done in 4 layers:
Base - orchids hanging from a tree desaturated 35%

Layer1 - distressed concrete shot from straight overhead at a distance of @ 14' converted to sepia and set to overlay 90%

Layer2 - distressed concrete shot from straight overhead at a distance of @ 8' converted to B&w and set to multiply 45%

Layer 3 - distressed concrete shot from straight overhead at a distance of @ 4' saturated and set to exclusion 20%

Merged / highlight-shadow / unsharp masked at 9.9-20-5

Looking for feedback on whether I'm heading in the right direction or just way off base...:confused:

The colouring effect is very effective. The pic delivers a feeling between the impressionist and the crayon art. Well done!
yoyo

Thanks Yoyo, that means a lot to me coming from someone with your level of expetise.

I think the technique works very well. As for the composition I think you could lose most of the bottom.

Beautiful effect,love to see new techniques,agree with Greg about the crop.

jetrim - nice job! I think the blending mode stuff works extremely well here. Good stuff.

The more I look, the more I like.

The colors are beautiful together, and the effect is very unique...not quite a painting and not quite a photograph. Very artistic.

I disagree with the cropping suggestions. I like the mass of blue and the more subtle shades of purple below. Makes a good eye mover, I think.

We can certainly try a crop, although I was thinking the negative space might work well for a card.

I usually love the originals posted and this is no different. The original is much stronger than the cropped one imo. The darks and lights were much more balanced.

I also like the treatment you gave this. Very artistic and pleasing. Well done.

Really really nice! I'm with Leels ... like it without the cropping.

Hmm. This one really works IMO. Definitely "art" looking. To me it is really an expensive wrapping paper design, classy.. Very nice.

You may want to dup this in the PP forum for others to read too!

G