First of all, I am an avian photographer and not a flora photographer. However, my wife grows and raises orchids and has well over 50 in our upstairs. So there is always something in bloom. She knows a lot of about plants; she is a master gardener, and I know nothing and plan to keep it that way currently. I’ve always had an interest in taking floral pictures and since I have a revolving gallery upstairs, I put together studio on wheels which will allow me to experiment with these images. I am open to any criticism and I will not take anything personally. What I know is what I’ve learned from the flora gallery on NPN. If anyone sees any image of an orchid that interests them or would like to know more let me know and I will go to the expert.
What technical feedback would you like if any? So this was taken using two 150 W LEDs on my rolling studio . With respect to white balance, what is the general rule of thumb when using LEDs for light source? The software has not caught up yet. Plus there are cool LEDs, daylight LEDs, and others. And yes I just calibrated my monitor to be sure that it didn’t look too weird.
What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any and all
Pertinent technical details or techniques: iso-100, 105 mm macro, F 11, 25th, D 850, tripod, no flash, essentially full frame. There is no cloning on this image. I set the depth of field to get all of the open flowers as in focus as possible.
(If the background has been replaced, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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David: These are beautiful blooms and a variety I don’t think I’ve seen posted before. This comp works for me although the suspended bud feels a little awkward. Perhaps a slightly wider view that shows its connection to the stem would work better for me. I do think it adds interest so I would be inclined to keep it even though it would be relatively easy to make it go away since your BG is uniform. Great to have you aboard and looking forward to seeing more of you and your wife’s work.>=))> PS: I tell everyone who comments on my flower and butterfly images at the office that Chrissy and I have this arrangement; I pay for our garden, she grows and maintains it and I take pictures of it. She will let me throw water on it but that is the extent of my gardening skill set. Sounds like you’ve got a similar deal.
Use some stacking so that the back bud is also in focus as well as the base of sepals and petals. I would also crop so that the brown tipped OOF leaves are not in the frame. Other than that, a neat photo of an exquisite orchid. Well done…Jim
Thanks for the tips. I’m working my way up to image stacking. I just re-downloaded a third-party Nikon tethered program (Control My Nikon 5.5) that will allow me to do much more intricate stacking then either the Nikon D 850 or Cam Ranger device.
As beautiful as orchids are I find them very difficult to photograph. I cannot give you advice as to LED lighting since I very rarely do studio shots. The unusual color of the orchid, the pleasing background and the sharp focus makes an interesting photograph. Think I might have cropped a little off on the left but that’s a personal choice.
I enjoy photographing both birds and flowers, whatever’s available at the moment, LOL. I have managed to keep 2 orchids alive for over a year, and consider myself lucky, not skilled. So I can’t imagine having that many available for portraits at any given time. This, I think, is a rather unusually-colored specimen which adds to its interestingness. Nice and sharp in the enlargement, smooth background, and the composition is balanced pleasantly. I can deal with the unopened bud but agree with Bill about showing its connection to the plant.
Dave, A very nice image of beautiful orchids. I echo Bill and Jim’s suggestions. If you are able to remove the bud on the top, that would significantly improve the image. I have found orchids to be a very difficult subject due to their 3 dimensional aspect requiring a lot of dof or stacking. I don’t do studio work or with artificial lighting, so my skills are almost none on these. I have used camranger in the field, but find it very slow and it generates hundreds of images that I find difficult to work with, so it may be a good tool for indoor work when wind is not an issue.
