Fomagnolia

That won't become easy because the values in the bloom are very narrowly together in comparison to the rest of the picture. In order to bring the white petals to glow, the surroundings should be darker. It seems that the negative itself is just like it has to be - normally. In this case, one should consider it as a score, that requires an interpretation.

Keith, I agree completely with Wolfgang. You have a great score and the final interpretation is yours alone. Burn the surrounding areas to make the flower pop!
Very nice image.

Jim

I agree with Wolfgang. The neg has potential, and it needs to be interpreted keeping the focal point, the blossom, in close consideration. I would probably split grade print it to get the petals just right, and then blast it with a grade 5 filter to get more texture and tone in those petals. The surrounding area needs heavy manipulation too, but it looks like you have a great negative here!
- Thomas

Thanks guys, I will burn it! Hadn't considered that. You're quite right that I haven't really done any "interpretation" of the neg.

Incidentally I shot this in very low contrast light- overcast weather and under a magnolia tree... even so, it's really hard to get detail in the blossom. I took 4 shots and bracketed my development in wd2d+. So I have some more and some less contrasty versions; this was the one that seemed to work most with the whites but I do have a less contrasty neg that may be worth a try. Thomas I agree that I should try split grade. I'll do that next.

Jim, maybe I will attempt some Per Volquartz action and try to spot warm the blossom during development to get a few deeper tones here and there.

Thanks again!