Hosta

[Ron Conlon]

Hosta scapes before the flowers open have interesting shapes and curves. Here is a single unopened flower from a scape, photographed in my setup.

lightbox with background and remote flash, tripod, D5100, 200mm f/18 1/200 ISO 100
cropped to pano, some canvas added, a few specks and fibers removed.

[Nancy Bell]

The design is exquisite in simplicity; just 2 elements with soft, repeating, curved lines and the 2 colors of white and soft greens! What exactly do you use for your bkgds in the light box? The effect is soft and without obvious texture.

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, Nancy. The background is an oof photo of my lawn this spring printed at Costco. I wanted prints with a matte finish and Costco doesn't do matte but they do do fast and cheap so Costco it was. I shot a bunch of oof vegetation, with various textures, including blobby, stripy and smooth; predominantly spring greens but greens with reds or blues or browns. Learning which ones work best with which flowers has taken some work, but it is easy to shoot a bunch while swapping backgrounds. I also vary their lightness by moving them closer or farther from the flash and the rest of the set up. This particular background I thought lacked character so it didn't get into the rotation until I wanted to shoot the very subtle variations in the hosta scape.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great techniques used here, thanks for the additional info. I love the sharpness yet softness of the processing. Very appealing.

You say Costco does print in a matte finish...I always print with a matte finish at Costco (rather than glossy), unless you mean something else?

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, Dan. What I wanted for backgrounds was something like a high end inkjet print on art paper, like Jon suggested. I used to have an Epson 2000P printer at work, before scientific publishing went totally digital, and it took matte finish Epson papers. The printer is no longer used but it is also dead so I need to find a service. From Costco I get the pearl or semigloss or whatever they call the non-glossy finish, but it still generates reflections when the angle is wrong (I was never a good pool player, and so often shoot and then adjust). Putting the background at an angle to shot/light generates gradations of illumination, which in some cases are nice, but in others I would like a more even background.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely shot for a moment I wondered if it was a little smaller in the frame it might look better but I think it looks great as it is.

[Nancy Bell]

Ron, thank you so much for the detailed information on your technique. If you don't mind, I'm going to copy it :S3:! No Costco in my area so will have to check the near-by towns.