Lauren Heerschap
January 2020 - High Key Amaryllis
About the Image(s)
This is titled “High Key Amaryllis”. It is one bulb with two stalks that bloomed together at once when my kitchen was warmed up for holiday cooking. I used a white reflector backdrop and window light, taken indoors. My goal was to produce an interesting Christmas card, however we decided on another image. I don’t work much with high key images, using white on white, but I liked the way the edges became transparent and the different shades of white light in the image. It is photo-stacked in my Olympus camera with 10 images for sharpness in depth. ISO 1600, f4.0, 1/200 sec.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted
Best wishes for 2020 Lauren! A lovely image. The flowers have come up well with the high key treatment. I love the spidery lines and the raggedy ends. A nice composition. I can't make up my mind re the stalks. I didn't think twice about them at first. Then I decided that they were an interesting juxtaposition....strength and fragility and I think that's it.......but I keep wondering what could make them better. Do they detract a little? The flowers are so delicate and delightful on their own. Can't decide....what does everyone else think?
Anyway which way, it's a beautiful image!
Val Posted: 01/08/2020 17:20:10
Anyway which way, it's a beautiful image!
Val Posted: 01/08/2020 17:20:10
What a lovely way to brighten the winter! This is a wonderful high key image. The colors and texture of the flowers just pop against the white background. I feel distracted by the stems. I would mute them by lowering their vibrancy and saturation, or perhaps applying a haze. Posted: 01/08/2020 18:47:50
Hi Lauren, This method of lighting a scene creates a beautiful translucency and lovely color. Well done. Simple things like the diagonal composition and various views of the blossoms make it more interesting. The focus stacking helped make it 'picture perfect'. Karl Posted: 01/25/2020 14:35:53
I think this is just gorgeous! Beautiful colors & great clarity. I must confess I don't understand stacking. Maybe if one of you has time and inclination you could head me at least to an understanding! Posted: 01/27/2020 20:20:27
Hi Sandra,
"Stacking" or "Bracketing" in Olympus cameras is a process where you layer the same photo on top of each other in a literal "stack". You can do this process for White Balance, Iso, Auto Exposure, Art settings, and Focus. What is being done is taking a different setting on each photo then stacking on top of each other. What I have done in this photo is Focus stacking. The reason is that I wanted to get the entire flower in focus from front to back. Think of it as a MRI or CAT scan medically where they take slices of a part of the body. You can stack photos without using a fancy camera that has it built in. What you do is try taking a series of photos while on a TRIPOD (because they have to be perfectly aligned). 8 or so photos usually works. Try focusing on the front, then middle, then back of the flower or subject. You can stack them in Photoshop, or there is an app called Zyrene Stacker that I would recommend, it does the job efficiently. Or you can get an expensive camera like Olympus that has this feature. Some have such good stablization you don't need the tripod most of the time. You can stack for different reasons. By the way HDR is a stacking process, but for different reasons. That is to get the range of light and colors. In this image I stacked it to get the focus of three dimensions. Does this explain it? Posted: 01/28/2020 13:33:56
"Stacking" or "Bracketing" in Olympus cameras is a process where you layer the same photo on top of each other in a literal "stack". You can do this process for White Balance, Iso, Auto Exposure, Art settings, and Focus. What is being done is taking a different setting on each photo then stacking on top of each other. What I have done in this photo is Focus stacking. The reason is that I wanted to get the entire flower in focus from front to back. Think of it as a MRI or CAT scan medically where they take slices of a part of the body. You can stack photos without using a fancy camera that has it built in. What you do is try taking a series of photos while on a TRIPOD (because they have to be perfectly aligned). 8 or so photos usually works. Try focusing on the front, then middle, then back of the flower or subject. You can stack them in Photoshop, or there is an app called Zyrene Stacker that I would recommend, it does the job efficiently. Or you can get an expensive camera like Olympus that has this feature. Some have such good stablization you don't need the tripod most of the time. You can stack for different reasons. By the way HDR is a stacking process, but for different reasons. That is to get the range of light and colors. In this image I stacked it to get the focus of three dimensions. Does this explain it? Posted: 01/28/2020 13:33:56