Happy Valentines day Darling...!

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys

Bought my wife this Orchid for Valentines day, then spend all day photographing it instead of looking after my wife...! I am a hopeless romantic... yep, absolutely hopeless... Actually she was working on making my daughters wedding dress so its all good really.

This is a 5 image focus stack adjusted by hand and using the Helicon stacking software to render the image. I should get the helicon remote for the image acquisition but... I used 4 ft Profoto OCTA (overkill I know..) with a 580 speedlight as the main light and a separate 430II to backlight light... Most of the time was spent playing around with the lighting trying different things...

Canon 1D4 & 100mm macro on a tripod and remotely triggered. I rendered the raw in Helicon then imported to CS6 where I adjusted the vibrancy slightly and sharpened. this is full frame.

1/200 sec @ F8 , ISO 160.

DON

[Jerry van Dijk]

Don, the light is gorgeous. When I opened your post I thought you made very good use of a low sun through a window. I was amazed that you did this with flash. Details of the stack are great. I'm not so sure about the tight crop. It does create an intimate atmosphere, but I do feel that there's a bit too much being cut of at the top. On second thought I believe that a little more room between the closed bud and the lower frame line would already help, because I think you've found a good balance between and distribution of the open flowers throughout the frame with this composition.
Big congrats on the coming wedding day!

[Don Railton]

Hi Jerry,

thanks for the comments... I did wonder with how to frame this flower head and have taken many variants, some tighter on the central flower in this shot and some wider showing the whole head. This is the image I liked the best but i do agree in hindsite that the bud is too close to the frame edge... I could add canvas easily here to fix. I also looked at cropping out the flower immediately above the bud but backed out of that, it left the image unbalanced IMHO.. The big Octa is very diffusing/easy to use, initially I used that as a back light but it worked better in the front to soften out the shadows...

regards

DON

[Anita Bower]

This is a beautiful orchid and you captured it with beautiful light and detail. Nice clean background. Excellent work. I think the composition could be improved by eliminating some of the less important parts, including the stick holding up the orchid. Here is an idea, quickly done--cloned and cropped.

[Don Railton]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions Anita.

As I said to jerry, I have other images, one is similar to your RP in that it focuses in on the single flower with minimal peripheral clutter. I do like what you have done, so maybe I'll work it up and post that as well.

best regards

DON

[Diane Miller]

Lovely sharpness and lighting. I go nuts trying to find a simple composition with an orchid plant. I like Anita's idea, and would consider burning down the flower in the corner.

[Don Railton]

Thanks Diane...Understand the "going nuts", I too was bit like that until I said "that's enough..! just post it"

[Don Railton]

A tighter crop of the flower similar to Anita and Diane's suggestion with peripheral clutter removed.....

[Anita Bower]

Nice! I like it more than the OP. Simple. More striking. Upper right corner is a bit distracting. What do you think about brightening it up a bit to bring out the beauty you have captured?

[Don Railton]

Hi Anita, Is this what you were thinking?? removed BG flower top RHC, 'averaged' BG to smooth out remnants, lightened the flower center and added a bit of vibrancy...

DON

[Anita Bower]

Yes!!! I like it better. Do you? Your opinion is the one that matters.

[Don Railton]

Hi Anita.

I took 3 different compositions of this flower head, one of a single flower in tight (see 2nd to last post..) the OP that showed a bit more of a second flower, a bud and stem, and a 3rd image that encompassed all flower heads (not yet seen on BPN). I like them all for different reasons. The close up is the best to study of the flowers beauty and colour, the OP shows more of the back of the flower & bud (ie has extra elements that I like in the picture at the risk of diluting attention) while still showing good detail in the flower, while the 3rd image has 3 flowers arranged in a line, showing nice repetition of beauty/colour at the expense of good close up of the flower. I posted what I thought was a good compromise of all the elements worthy of inclusion to seek other opinions...and I am most grateful that you have shared yours in our little dialogues! and think you have encouraged me to get the colours stronger in the final post, so again thanks..

regards

DON

[Ron Conlon]

good discussion of alternative crops