Studio Shot

Gallery: FloraPosted September 29, 20131,043 views11 comments

I am doing a little volunteer garden photo workshop at a local botanical garden. Today was a blustery and rainy day. So I brought my black velvet drop-cloth, a few plant specimens and used my head lamp to back-light this anemone. We tried a few other plants. The class was excited to stay inside rather than get soaked.

Zeiss 100mm, D800E, tripod, cable...

Glad to be back...been away vacationing ...and catching up with work and yard duties.

Comments

11 comments

Comment posted by Sanjay Sundaram on September 29, 2013 at 1:33 PM

Superb, Ken! You have kept all the excellent detail in the whites and these are a nice group of flowers and buds. I would have liked a little more room at the top, but not sure that was possible with the remote studio set-up. Remarkable that you could do such fine work while teaching a class.

Excellent image overall!

Sanjay

Registered on April 9, 2013, 107 Posts, 725 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on September 29, 2013 at 2:51 PM

I can't argue your camera and lens, but I think your light was a bit strong, producing some chromatic aberration, blown highlights on the larger flower and an objectionable halo (to me) at the top of both blossoms. I do like the Golden Ratio composition

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Ramamohan Pai on September 29, 2013 at 5:24 PM

Ken - I have never seen these pure white Anemones - all that I see are pink ones. Great use of the light to highlight all the delicate textures in the petals.

On the flip side, I am not completely certain about the bud coming towards the left edge, and whether it compensates adequately for the negative space. A composition resulting from getting rid of it and cropping some from the left looks more interesting to me.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 550 Posts, 9037 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Fach on September 29, 2013 at 8:28 PM

Ken: Looks like you made lemonade from your lemon of a day! Beautiful portrait and excellent lighting and whites. >=))>

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1805 Posts, 26981 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on September 29, 2013 at 8:48 PM

Kudos for the employing the technique to set up and get this image, Ken. An excellent lesson for your workshop students, and a fine, artistic result. I like the entire presentation except that I agree with Ram about the single bud leaning out to the left.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on September 29, 2013 at 8:54 PM

Beautiful presentation. But, I have to agree with Phil. The blown highlights are too much of a distraction for me. Next time, try diffusing your light source.

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on September 30, 2013 at 12:52 PM

Beautiful lighting. This is a real stand-out.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Ian Wolfenden on September 30, 2013 at 3:12 PM

Excellent lighting, Ken, a fine composition and a beautiful presentation altogether. I don't often find signatures help an image but this one is perfect.

Registered on May 18, 2007, 1108 Posts, 7647 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on October 1, 2013 at 12:31 PM

Pure art. Brilliant lighting.