Yellow Orchid

[Julie Kenward]

There was an orchid display at my local botanical garden so I went out last Saturday to check it out. The orchids were in a conservatory room (almost all windows) but the day was drab and gray outside - as was my original image. I pumped it up a bit in PS and then corrected the gray background by boosting the blue channel - and the image finally popped.

Could I have avoided the gray cast to the original photo by using fill flash? Or does that tend to be a problem when you have windows all around? I really wasn't sure what to do in those circumstances.

Canon 40D & EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
ISO 200 / natural light (what there was of it)
3.5 @ 1/125
Hand held

[John Cooper]

A very attractive orchid Julie showing some nice tones.
A diagonal placement of the orchid in the horizontal format would further enhance the composition.
A fill flash would correct any cool cast on the flowers but I always prefer natural light if possible.

[Robert O'Toole]

Very nice, comp and framing are good, and you did an great job on the exp considering the tricky condtions.

I agree with John about Natural light.
Most people use Av or Auto for flash and this would have changed the entire image. Flash used properly as fill in manual mode would have just added some detail and color to the darker areas and the stem and to removed some of the blue/gray cast. You could have also used a reflector to add some fill sometimes a warm reflector is even better. A sheet or white paper or even a t-shirt would do if you didnt bring a proper reflector.

Robert

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks guys! I am also a lover of "natural light" but wondered if FFreally might have helped here. I'll try the white paper trick when I go back next week if I run into the same weather conditions.

[Don Lacy]

Nice detail and exposer on the Orchids, next time you could also set your W/B to shade which would add some warmth to the lighting and if you shoot raw you can always play around with the W/B in the conversion.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Julie, very nice comp. I'm not a fan of using flash but will admit theres time when its needed.