Here's another orchid image - this time with a bit more sun in the BG. I put a white posterboard covered in soft green tissue paper in the BG between the window and the plant to soften the light and create this pretty chartreuse glow.
Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 & possibly an extension tube (sorry! can't remember!)
f3.5 @ 1/80th, ISO 500 (400 just wasn't cutting it but I didn't want to go much higher because of the noise issue.)
Pattern metering, manual mode, handheld, no flash
Normal pp, with a small crop, curves adjustment, desaturated some of the pinks/magentas & then a curves adj.
Strong color impact, as these two main colors are just about opposite each other on the color wheel. I realize that wasn't just a coincidence.:D
I might prefer to have some of the sheen reduced on the bud. Interesting cropping choice. Did you have the whole flower to begin with? I don't have much experience with flowers, and am always interested to see what works.
Again--smashing colors and perfect area of focus. I love all those petals floating about--gives it a bit of a wild look. The BG looks yellow on my screen; I'm wondering how that happened if you used a green tissue paper. The shinny area on the area is focus is a little distracting. Wonderful work.:)
Randy, I only took a little off the left side of the frame for a crop. Now that I think about it, I believe I did have an extension tube on because I remember not being able to get the whole flower in the frame and still maintain DOF so I cut off each area intentionally.
Anita, I raised the yellows in the BG a bit and with the sun shining through the tissue paper it pretty much turned the green to yellow. I will probably go back and lower that yellow saturation a bit and try to get a truer "chartreuse" look to the BG.
I realize the sun shining on the bud is a bit distracting but I wanted the path of the sun to be visible in the final image so I toned it down a little bit and left the rest. Without it there the image takes on a more "flat" look and I liked this better. Maybe because I'm craving sunshine??? ;)
I really like the flower and the crop. I'm not thrilled with the yellow BG and agree that toning it down a bit would really improve an otherwise very nice image.
Wonderful image. Love the colors and really either the original or repost work for me. I did notice the sun shining on the bud. Spring is not too far off...
I love these orchid images and this is another beauty Jules. Love the fall of light and ditto on perfect focal point. I prefer your original post and think the vibrant colours are great. If you do want to change the yellow (I wouldn't) I tried the following which seems to tone down the yellow better: I went to replace colours, selected the yellow and the adjusted to -20 saturation and +12 lightness. (I'm probably the last person to give anybody PS advice so I'll understand if you burst out in laughter at my feeble attempt.;):D)
Flower colors and DOF look great but for my tastes, I'd prefer either a tighter crop or the entire flower. The way it is now makes me feel I'm missing something. :)
Orchid No. 2
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