Yellow Lady's-slipper

[Steve Maxson]

This is a small (as opposed to large) Yellow Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium calceolus variety parviflorum) I photographed on an overcast, drizzly day last week. 40D, Canon 180 f/3.5 macro, 1/13, f/11, ISO 400, natural light, tripod, mirror lock, cable release. Comments are welcome.

[John Lowin]

Hi Steve, First, it's enjoyable to find another orchid enthusiast. I really enjoy your image. The saturated but soft green tones combined with the rain drops create a wonderful atmosphere for this great little woodland Cyp. The blossom is nice and sharp. I found the dark areas a bit distracting so I opened them up a bit, added a bit of canvas at the left, shaved a sliver off the top and moved your sig down. Hope you like my changes. - John

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Steve, First, it's enjoyable to find another orchid enthusiast. I really enjoy your image. The saturated but soft green tones combined with the rain drops create a wonderful atmosphere for this great little woodland Cyp. The blossom is nice and sharp. I found the dark areas a bit distracting so I opened them up a bit, added a bit of canvas at the left, shaved a sliver off the top and moved your sig down. Hope you like my changes. - John
Hi John. Thanks for your comments and the repost. I especially like what you did with the dark areas. :)

[Mike Moats]

Hey Steve, nice job with the sharpness though out the flower while maintaining a clean BG, John's clean up of the dark areas works well.

[John Lowin]

Hi John. Thanks for your comments and the repost. I especially like what you did with the dark areas. :)

Glad you like it. - John

[Ed Vatza]

Excellent job. Getting to f/11 and still maintaining the diffuse background is a real plus. I like the toning down of the dark areas since the darkness tended to pull my eye toward those leaves in the LR corner. I still wish they weren't there but now they are less distracting!

[Julie Kenward]

Stephen, your original was nice but John's repost really tightened the composition. Stephen, do you know how to lighten the dark areas of a photograph? John, would you be willing to share how you did it for others to understand?

[John Lowin]

Stephen, your original was nice but John's repost really tightened the composition. Stephen, do you know how to lighten the dark areas of a photograph? John, would you be willing to share how you did it for others to understand?

Gladly, I used several steps of Vivisa, isolating and working on an area at a time. Vivisa is a PS plug that allows you to point (select) an area and color and then with an eyedropper (part of the program) replace the first color with the new one selected. I probably did it in five or six steps. You don't want to do too large an area at a time. Then I cloned some additional BG along the left side and shaved a bit off the top. Because of that crop I had to move the signature with the use of the clone stamp tool. Hope that helps. - John

[Gordon Craig]

The soft green background against the sharp slipper works really well in this picture. I like the use of 1/3's.

[Thomas Herou]

Well done!
I think they're hard to make look good in pictures,but you've done it beautifully.