Shot this today in a public garden, a hot sunny day, far too bright. I shot into the sun, but got my assistant to hold a round mesh diffuser (that's the white background you see) behind the tulip (between the sun and the tulip so it was backlit) This shielded the flower from the direct sun, but gave it plenty of soft light. I used a Canon 430EX with a Gary Fong Lightsphere on to get the front light exposure. IOW it had a strong light both front and rear. 1/250sec, ISO200, f/14, Canon 50D, 24-105L. Not much PS processing, but I applied a soft filter with Optik Verve.
Comments welcome.