Iris

[Cheryl Flory]

Canon 40D
Tamron 17-50 lens
1/6"
F9
ISO 200
Partial Metering Mode
21mm
auto white balance



I used bright window light for the blossom, and blocked out the light from the lower window to keep the background as dark as possible. Yet the black sheet I used still reflected a lot of light. Also held up a light on the left side to add some light there. I adjusted the raw image twice; one for the plant, and once to darken the sheet and then layered the images. I didn't like the vase seeming to float in the black space so I brought back some of the table top sheet.

The purple stripe in the vase is the reflection from my shirt. Leave it? Remove it? Tone down the vase overall? Tone down the table top? Is the background may be to "inky" and detail-less? I tried bringing back some of the lightness in the background, but couldn't get anything that I liked.

This image is a first for me in a lot of ways... first time posting out of ETL forum, first time working with flowers and getting an image that I like, and the first time shooting manual. When shooting, I just couldn't get the highlights not to be overexposed shooting on aperture and adjusting the exposure compensation. And then duhhhhhhh, it finally dawned on me to try manual! lol

so here goes....what do you think??? Where do I go from here?

[Grahame Hamblin]

Nice but my eye keeps jumping between flower and vase.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Cheryl, it's a nice comp, and the lighting is what makes the image for me. Very good sharp details.

[Julie Kenward]

Cheryl, welcome to the macro forum...I've been wondering when you'd get here!

First off, I think this is a wonderful first post and you have done a really nice job with the dramatic lighting. I think your scale is off a bit and that's why the eye keeps bobbing up to the iris and then down to the vase. When using cut flowers I try to keep the stem ratio to no more than one full length of the length of the vase. In other words, if the vase is 6" tall, the stem can be as long as 12" but more than that and you get too much separation between vase and flower. Make sense? It all depends on the flower and how big the head is but it's a good 1:1 ratio to start with and then see what you think.

I also feel the lavendar stripes on the vase should stay because they pull the purple from the iris down to the vase - a nice coincidence! If they were orange or brown I'd probably tell you to try to clone them out but I think they work here.

I think you did a great job with the lighting - might back off on the sharpening just a bit - the iris and leaf feel a little bit oversharp to me. Remember that petals are meant to be soft. Sometimes I use "sharpen edges" only so the petal stays soft but the edges get nice and crisp. Try that next time and see what you think.

Let me know if you have any other questions and keep them coming!;)

[Cheryl Flory]

thank you Grahame and Mike and Julie! I really appreciate your comments and help!
Julie, do you keep that stem length rule with it is a flower that is suppose to have a very long stem?
Bummers, because I have several images of this iris----all with the same length stem of course. lol

[Julie Kenward]

Cheryl, looking at this image, if you cut the stem off from the water level down, I think it would work a bit better. You'd still maintain that long length but it wouldn't be so far away that it gets "disassociated" from the vase itself. You did well to use a long, thin, vase - that totally matches with the attributes of the flower. Again, my rule of thumb on length is only that - it's just a guide I use to make sure my stems aren't too short or too long and then I look at my in camera image and make adjustments from there.

[Ken Childs]

Hi Cheryl, Jules hit on the only negative I could come up with, that being the stem is too long. Other that that, I think it looks great! With a solid color BG like you have here, it's a relatively easy fix to cut out part of the stem and rejoin it in PP.

[Cheryl Flory]

How do you crop out the center of an image? :o

[Julie Kenward]

Cheryl, if you have CS4 the easiest way is to use "content aware scale." Do a google search and it should tell you how to use it.

[Cheryl Flory]

Thanks. I will do that.

[Ken Childs]

Cheryl, if you have CS4 the easiest way is to use "content aware scale." Do a google search and it should tell you how to use it.

Is that what became of the free Liquid Resize program? I'd heard that Adobe had bought the rights or hired the programmer.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Cheryl,
Very good advice given above and I agree about the seperation! In this case especially.....I find the vase a FG base just as interesting as the flower......so getting it closer to the vase......will help the impact overall! Sweet job on the lighting!

[Stuart Frohm]

I can't add to the very thorough comments, but I did not want to leave without saying "Bravo!"
I look forward to seeing more of your work in the macro thread and to exploring what you've posted elsewhere at this website.
All best,
Stu