Through the Looking Glass
This is an inside view of a tilted iris on a light box and with external lights. This came about because the vase of iris fell over and as the stems and petals crashed and broke apart one white blossom landed on the light box. And so an image was born!
I wanted a quirky and unusual orientation that makes one tilt their head with curiosity, and lighting to add a bit of the surreal.
Layers of topaz glow, impression and simplify, variously adjusted and tweaked. Then a bit of PS saturation.
The lighting works nicely, and you have a nice range of tones and of other colors to set off the oranges. The blues are great complements. The softness and abstractness of the image are both appealing. If you don't think it'd be inconsistent with your goal of making the viewer curious, I'd suggest rotating the image 180 degrees so the stronger colors are at the bottom and the eye enters the image in a lighter area.
Hi, Nancy, I love the look - it looks like it's frozen underwater. I like the sense of depth and the wonderful soft colors and textures.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly" - The Little Prince
http://tuscawillaphotographycherylslechta.zenfolio.com/
A happy accident! Lovely rendering!! Wonder how it would look with the beard given some sort of pseudo-sharpening or line effect?
Thanks all! I wanted to work more with the iris but the blooming season is already over. On to the next flowers...
Some cool effects and gorgeous pastel colours, serendipity, it's always fun!
Nancy Bell thanked for this post
I like the softness, the translucency, the diagonal composition, the curved shapes.
I've never worked with a light box, but it intrigues me. You write that the light was from the light box as well as external lights. What were the external lights? Were you pointing the camera down towards the flower?
Flowers fall over and water spills for me all the time. :-)
I wanted the center of the flower to be lighter, and some of the light areas a bit darker, so that the focus of attention would not be the bright areas which are less interesting. I did some darkening and lightening, and added high pass filter to the center, just to show the direction in which I was thinking.
(How do you find time to photograph in the midst of setting up a new home?)
Anita, I really like the direction you took this! The external lights are a simple desk lamp that just happens to have a bulb that has a yellowish cast and some ancient floor lamp that I put in a bulb with a much whiter light. I move these around as well as putting a translucent piece of acetate in front of the window. The flower was on its side and I was mostly level with it.
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