We have four Hellebore plants in our front yard and this is the earliest blooming after Snow Drops. This image was taken hand-held since I couldn’t get a tripod low enough to the ground and stable since this was on a hill with soft, wet ground surrounding it. I used a Nikon Z 6II with a Z 105mm macro lens. Lighting was with a Nikon R1C1 flash which mounts on the the lens and is triggered by a SU-800. The image is a RAW file with ISO=800 at ’/22 and 1/160 sec. The small aperture was to have a deep DoF. I have not seen a problem with diffraction but you can be the judge. The flash stops any motion .sss
I processed the image in Lightroom Classic applying an Adaptive Color Profile and cropped to a 1:1 aspect ratio.. I then masked the flower and made tone adjustments. In order to have a black background, I duplicated and inverted the flower mask and applied decreased Exposure, Highlights and Shadows. To finish the image I brought it into Radiant Photo 2
5 comments posted
Teresa Hofer
Harrison, really wonderful macro capture. It sounds like you considered all the pertinent technical aspects in your setup, and it shows. Well done! Posted: 04/01/2026 08:32:35
Kathleen Colligan
Thank you for sharing your process-this bloom absolutely pops against that black background! The intricate details and those beautiful rings of color are stunning. Were you shooting from directly above? I'm especially excited to try inverting the mask to achieve that dramatic black-background effect! I noticed you have used Radiant Photo 2 in several of your photos. Is that used instead of Photoshop? Posted: 04/02/2026 00:13:17
Arabella Dane
A stunning photo. Beautifullly lighted, and artistically staged. The dark background adds another dimension of contrast to a very strong composition.Magnificent in its clarity and etail. Posted: 04/02/2026 01:48:43
Laurie McShane
I love the dramatic way it seems to be floating on air. I have not used Radiant Photo 2, but plan now to check it out. I am wondering if a little bit of sharpening may improve the image, but it's lovely as is. Posted: 04/02/2026 15:59:09
Peter Bean
A beautiful macro image. Depth of field is excellent and all of the flower is in focus. Color contrast is great. The center of the flower has almost an alien feel. There are two small distractions in the background, one adjacent to the flower on the left hand side and one in the bottom right corner which I would have removed. Posted: 04/16/2026 21:52:37
