David Smalldon
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
(Group 32)
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
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