David Smalldon  


Orange Beauty by David Smalldon

April 2018 - Orange Beauty

About the Image(s)

I took several photos this month hoping that one of them would be good enough to put up in the Digital Dialogue group but I was unhappy for one reason or another with a great majority of them. My beer photos didn’t turn out the way I had hoped (yet). My cosplay portraits I felt were lacking a little something. Nothing seemed to go the way I had planned this month. So as I scanned all the photos I took during the month, I settled on a flower photo shoot that I had done mid-March at my house on the dining room table.


I always try to make sure to tell the group something new about me and my photography when I submit a photo. Last month, it was that I like “dramatic” cinematic photography. This month is all about one of my favorite passions of all: flower photography. However if anybody says that I’m a flower photographer then I’ll deny it. As much as I hate to admit it, I find myself inexorably drawn to flowers to photograph time and again when I just want time to relax and unwind. When I’m taking pictures of flowers on my table, they are very patient and they don’t yell at me and they never tell me afterwards that they are unhappy with how I retouched them.


So I had the flower laid out on the table with the blossom towards me on a black cardboard background and took this shot with my 18-55 variable zoom lens on my Canon t4i. I did some minor post-processing in Lightroom (increasing the shadows) and dropping out the background in certain areas even more. I also dodged the right portion of the flower a little bit as well to bring more of the petals out of the shadows. This then is another example of a type of invisible black background photography which I feel works well with the orange in the flower. All too often, I feel that it’s very hard to photograph flowers in real life since the color overpowers the camera settings if you’re not careful (interpret as: I hate to use tripods in real life and so long exposures are difficult to do hand-held). The invisible black background technique allows me to more fully explore the flower’s beauty with all of its color shades as well as the deep rich shadows present throughout it.


My settings for this shot were ISO 100 1/125 seconds at f/22.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
14 comments posted




Dr Isaac Vaisman   Dr Isaac Vaisman
David, great image of the orange rose. The way you placed the illumination really creates beautiful shadows and gives tridimentionality. It is very sharp, and the invisible black background really works well here. The signature of the artist, complements the image.   Posted: 04/06/2018 14:37:14



Guy Davies   Guy Davies
It's all good, David - the lighting, the focus, the colour, the background. I find it interesting that something as delicate as a rose can be portrayed as a strong powerful image, and it comes over very well. I must say that if I were doing this kind of work I would have to use a tripod, otherwise I would have problems with focus and composition. The flower may not move around, but I do!   Posted: 04/09/2018 07:51:37
 
Thanks for the comments Guy. So it IS a rose :) I wasn't sure. I got it in some flowers at the local Wal Mart and was photographing all of them. More and more I'm starting to see the benefits of using a tripod :) I just used it the other night when I did another beer beverage shot where I wanted to composite into one photo several shots of the beer and the beer glass along with the different lighting effects from all the different shots. I don't have to do anything that elaborate with flowers though!   Posted: 04/09/2018 11:17:19
Guy Davies   Guy Davies
What do you do with all the beers afterwards? :)   Posted: 04/09/2018 11:43:39
 
I very very rarely drink Guy so once I'm through with the beer, I throw it down the sink. To me, it's just another object to be photographed. Now if this were a Pepsi or a Mountain Dew then I'd be drinking every last drop!   Posted: 04/09/2018 13:15:17
Guy Davies   Guy Davies
My favourite non-alc drink in the USA was root beer.   Posted: 04/09/2018 13:17:41
 
mmmm...root beer :) My favorite non-alcoholic drink is milk. I go through a LOT of that every week. People say I should drink more water however I despise that.   Posted: 04/09/2018 13:26:41



 
I'm generally not enthusiastic about photos of single flowers, but this one works very well for me. I am particularly impressed that you got everything nice and sharp even though you didn't use focus stacking. And yes, the invisible background works great!   Posted: 04/09/2018 12:00:36
 
Well that's very nice of you to say Joseph. Actually it's funny you should mention "focus stacking" because I'm thinking of buying a focus stacking piece of software. I know that it can be done in Photoshop or Lightroom as well though. I might start experimenting with that sometime in the future when the mood strikes me.   Posted: 04/09/2018 13:17:24



Stephen Levitas   Stephen Levitas
(Group 32)
Hi David. The really deep color is great, and you chose a blossom that was wide open. I would like to hear about your lighting setup--it looks like a single source fairly close to the flower?   Posted: 04/12/2018 22:37:27
 
Hello Stephen:

Yes, I used my Canon Speedlite over to the left of the flower lying on its side I believe for this photo. The flash was set to a low intensity. Most of the shadows on this however come from the invisible black background setup.

I hope that this answers your question. Let me know if you have any other.   Posted: 04/15/2018 08:50:08



Erik Rosengren   Erik Rosengren
This is an interesting Rose. It appears sharp and yet soft. The bright color cry's Impact and Good technicals with subject placement and a clean background. My only suggestion would be to add a 3 pixel border to better confine the image within your canvas.   Posted: 04/16/2018 19:43:27



Ian Chantler   Ian Chantler
Hi David
I have never tried flower photography,I am still trying to get my head around the fact you did not use a tripod for this shot you have created a stunning image in low light hand held a feat I would not even had attempted.The flower does not overpower the background and vice versa they compliment one another beautifully the detail and textures especially in the outer petals are beautifully defined the toning is perfect you should be very proud of this image for me its perfect,hopefully this will inspire you to show us more of your in house still life work.   Posted: 04/18/2018 15:09:28



 
Another fun and exciting month learning from all of you and talking with everybody! See you next month!   Posted: 04/26/2018 14:21:44