JD has some beautiful orchids around the house right now. This one is on our screened-in back porch. I like the colors, the flow and the textures of these orchids, but every time I have tried to photograph them, I did not like my results.
On Sunday, I tried a new approach. I wanted the photograph to be more dramatic with a surreal look. I wanted to create more flow within the image. I thought that I could create more flow through how I lit the scene.
I places a Nikon SB800 outside of our screened-in porch and shot through some lattice work in order to create some shadows on the floor. Next, I placed a SB800 with a snoot and pointed at the back of the flowers. I wanted this flash to provide some separation from the background and to make the flowers look more translucent. And finally, I used a SB800 with a small softbox attached to light the flowers from the front. I triggered everything using the commander unit in the Nikon D700. I played with the lighting ratios until I got them to where I wanted.
After taking several shots, I decided that I wanted the lighting pattern on the floor to be more blurred but I could not change my aperture because I need the aperture I was using in order to get most of the flowers in focus. I moved the orchids to the top of a small step latter (thereby increasing the flowers' distance from the floor) and shot from the top of a larger step latter--thus I was able to keep my shooting angle (and the lighting pattern on the floor) and the depth of field that I needed for the flowers, but added blur to my background.
I am still not completely happy with my final shot, but, I am getting there. I have a couple of more ideas about how to shoot this one, so you might see these flowers again in the near future.
Enjoy.
Camera Setting: Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, ISO 200, f/11 at 1/60th of a second with three NIkon SB800 speedlight triggered by Nikon CLS.
Post Processing: Lightroom and Photoshop--set white and black point, adjusted white balance, used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast and glamour glow filters and sharpened the flowers using the high pass filter in soft light mode.
After completing my post processing, I flipped the image so that I had the lighting pattern running from top left to bottom right as Craig Tanner recently suggested in a couple of his daily critiques. I was quite surprised at the difference it made. It made the overall flow of the image more pleasant and less strained as I was looking at it. What do you think?
Nice shot Patrick!
ReplyDeleteA lot of hard work but the results are beautiful!
Cheers!
Barry
This is an outstanding example of "making a photo" rather than taking a snapshot. I like the way you constructed the various elements. You are absolutely right, you need the backlighting of the flowers and then the front lighting to bring them forward; and without the light pattern on the floor, you would have little more than a dark background. By making the light pattern fall on a diagonal, you added a very dynamic feel to the overall image.
ReplyDeleteI do question one aspect of the photo: the lower left corner. There is a lot of negative space here. I do not like cropping it out because of how the light starts in the upper left corner and leads your eye to the flower-I think this is important to the flow of the image. If there is a way, I would suggest additional pattern lighting in this area would greatly improve the overall feel of the image.
Nice work.
The Professor
I like the brown and pink color pair and the texture in this shot. It reminds me of a chocholate sundae with a cherry on top!
ReplyDeleteNice photo. Not sure I understanding your write up but I do like the product. The whole thing seems to work together.
ReplyDeleteJeff
I love your photos I will put a link on my photography page. My website is www.linkathought.com. Please come and check it out. Thanks Bren
ReplyDelete