fresh one

[dave23]

My Rhododendron bush has started working again...

[llewpics]

Overall, an excellent effort. The composition is very good with strong and clearly defined subject. The focus is on the water droplets, as it should be, and it helps draw the eye to the correct part of the image. There is quite a bit of detail. The photo is darker around the edges, which also helps with the composition. For BW, good range of tones is very important, and here it's almost there. I see plenty of black and all kinds of gray tones, but I am struggling to find a clear white area - I would suggest a tiny tweak of levels - I would pick the point of reflection on the droplet as a clear white ...and if you use the droplet tool in levels - define this as white ...the rest of image may "re-tone" just a little ...Finally, try a white border instead of the black - I think it will make it pop a little more. :-)

[dave23]

Overall, an excellent effort. The composition is very good with strong and clearly defined subject. The focus is on the water droplets, as it should be, and it helps draw the eye to the correct part of the image. There is quite a bit of detail. The photo is darker around the edges, which also helps with the composition. For BW, good range of tones is very important, and here it's almost there. I see plenty of black and all kinds of gray tones, but I am struggling to find a clear white area - I would suggest a tiny tweak of levels - I would pick the point of reflection on the droplet as a clear white ...and if you use the droplet tool in levels - define this as white ...the rest of image may "re-tone" just a little ...Finally, try a white border instead of the black - I think it will make it pop a little more. :-)

What a great critique- thanks! I'll tweak it a bit, and try the white border, as well.
EDIT: I tried this, although the white border is invisible on a white background, so I added a thin black outer border...

[llewpics]

Dave, thanks. The white border should be about 3x the size of the one you have now for impact ...and yes, the black around it will need to stay :-) ...perhaps worth a try...