One home I pass on my morning walks has a bed of tulips at the front of the house. These flowers are so perfect that I had to touch them to be sure they were real.

When I passed there two mornings ago, I made a quick stop to get a few photos. The one I used for my feature photo was a favourite. As I looked at this single flower, I wondered what it would look like with a heavy vignette applied.

With flower photos, and only if necessary, usually all I do in post processing is tweak them a bit for exposure and white balance. On very rare occasions like this one, the flower seems to demand to stand out as much as possible.

I’m very pleased with the dramatic result. I like how the vignette got rid of the window and left just a shadowy hint of the foliage. Below is the original.

“Here are the tulips, budded and full-blown, their swoops and dips, their gloss and poses, the satin of their darks.”

Margaret Atwood