Orchid - Doritaenopsis genus - Unnamed Hybrid

[Ed Vatza]

We went to Longwood Gardens (PA) this morning for the orchid exhibit. There were many, many beautiful orchids there but conditions were far from ideal for photography. It was payback for those comments I made regarding Anita's and Julie's photos from inside flower shows and conservatories. Backgrounds were deadly - bare walls, windows, flower pots, you name it. The light was ricocheting off of glass everywhere. I and others there to photograph were often found just shaking our heads.

Is there a secret to this, Anita? You know Longwood.

Anyway this image was made with my Canon 50D and Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens, tripod-mounted. As if to add insult to injury, my flash was acting up so I just shut of off and went with the natural light as best I could.

And as a final finale, this is my first attempt on the iMac with new Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 software. I feel like I am all thumbs.

1/13 sec @ f/8; ISO 200

[Aristotle Georgiou]

You sure handled this shot real well Ed!

Nice comp, excellent exposure control and great DOF.

Well done.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Ed, looks like you succeeded in conquering the elements. Like the nice sharp details and light looks good.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Ed...I tend to do alot of closeups when I'm shooting orchids there to make the backround a non issue....

[denise ippolito]

Ed, I like the cascading look to the orhids-Sounds like you had your hands full in capture and PP! I think you did well!!

[Julie Kenward]

Ha! You mocked me and now you must pay! :eek::cool::D

Ed, for all the woes you mentioned this is a beautiful orchid. Our exhibit for Orchids starts up next month (if I remember correctly) and I can hardly wait to go. It does cause lots of challenges but then so does shooting on the forest floor, trying to photograph screaming children and don't even get me started on birds-in-flight!

I think your DOF is perfect - lots of clarity to this image. I think you have a nice amount of BG without it being too busy. Your colors are spot on - this is one of my favorites and it looks just as I remember it.

Nicely done.

[Gus Cobos]

I like it as presented Ed,
Well done...the colors and details are superb...:cool:

[Anita Bower]

Ed:

I'm only now getting to this lovely image. I completely agree with you about the challenges of photographing at Longwood. I have not been successful with Orchids and find them especially challenging to photograph.

I think you did a fine job, here. I like the position of each flower and the tight crop. The exposure and DOF seem right on. The colors are lovely.

I think the white stake holding the flower up is a bit distracting. Jules would probably be able to clone it out. I'm not good at doing this, but that would improve the image. (Those stakes get in my way all the time.) Also, how about darkening some of the brighter leaves just a bit?

My approach to the Conservatory is to lower my expectations of how many flowers I will be able to capture, focus on macro images that get in close and eliminate the background, look for flowers and angles that provide a colorful out of focus background (I spend a lot of time on the floor), use shallow DOF. I have even used my Plamp to hold a flower in a more favorable position. And, as I said above, I sort of ignore the Orchids.