used strobe on orchids

[chauncey]

Was a first...gotten lazy with using LED lighting and adjusting exposure while tethered.
Tis a lot different when using a strobe and having no clue, except trial and error.
Here I used a strobe on one side and bounced light from a mirror opposite side...comments?

[Digital]

William, very nice photograph.



Bruce

[JBW]

I do have a penchant for natural lighting which may account for my reaction. I love the composition but the flowers look washed out to me. In the garden the tongue like object in the center of the orchid is usually brilliant and vibrant?

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, needs a bit more shadow depth to bring the petals off the screen.

[IzzieK]

My favourite area here is the lower flower on the left..that has the most perfect shadow and detail...

[Tom Barry]

I've always found strobe lighting difficult, and admire those who can set up multiple lights to create amazing effects, but one light and a bouncer to fill shadows has, like this shot, a more natural feel to me. Well done.

[chauncey]

Hey, I got the strobe to shoot smoke, figured I would try it on flowers. I do prefer multiple
lights and shooting tethered while making subtle lighting/exposure adjustments in real time.

Brian mentioned natural lighting and, while I agree with him, it is difficult to pull off when one
is stacking and photo-merging to cough out 30-40 inch images. Wind movement and clouds
tend to disrupt everything.

The using of mirrors to reflect the strobe light is interesting...using the cheap mirror wall tiles
placed hither and yon might prove interesting. If I could, in advance, figure exposure.

[Manfred M]

While the shot is nice, I personally prefer flowers that are back-lit. That way the light travels through them and you get interesting colours, shadows (from the internal parts of the flower as well as the overlapping petals) and effects from the transmitted light. They can look almost magical when lit this way.

This shot looks primarily front-lit even though you had the lights and reflector at the side, so you get reflected light only. I have never tried flowers with flash / studio lights, but expect that you'd have to flag the light sources to control the light spill.