White Orchid

[ST1]

We were given this Orchid some time ago, at that time the flowers had been dyed blue!.

Now it has returned to its natural colouring I decided to create a stacked image from six images. I would welcome your thoughts on this image.

[Round Tuit]

I am looking at it on my laptop and at this size, it looks very good. If I were to be really critical I would suggest two minor modifications. First, you have lost some details in part of the white which could have been caused by the stacking algorithm. Second, I would consider centering horizontally the yellow part of the flower.

[DanK]

Very nice. I agree with Andre--it would be better if centered right to left. I'd crop a little from the left. I think the detailed section may also be too low; you have more mostly empty space on top.

Re the whites: in my experience, bringing out texture in white petals is one of the most difficult things in flower photography. Stacking can make the problem worse by changing the tonal distribution, but I doubt that is the core issue. As for stacking: if you use zerene, try comparing a DMap stack to a PMax. I find that DMap is often a little better at preserving textures, even though PMax is superior in terms of detail.

However, I think other aspects of processing are usually more important. A key is emphasizing texture. There are a number of tools for this. In the Adobe world, you have the texture and clarity sliders in ACR/LR and local contrast enhancement in Photoshop via USM. I tend to rely on the texture adjustment a good bit. The clarity adjustment works on a different frequency range and, even more important, includes a midtone contrast adjustment, so heavy use of clarity can lead to an unnatural appearance.

Nik has tools for this as well, but I rarely use them in flower photography.

Going back to square 1, lighting also is important. I generally use two lights. One is bounced off an umbrella and is very diffuse. The other is direct, although through a diffuser, and is at an angle to the flower rather than straight on. The latter creates shadows that show the texture. I use continuous lighting so that I can easily see the effects of moving the lights around.

[Wavelength]

I like it very much; I see a tigers head in skin at the center.

[ST1]

Very nice. I agree with Andre--it would be better if centered right to left. I'd crop a little from the left. I think the detailed section may also be too low; you have more mostly empty space on top.

Re the whites: in my experience, bringing out texture in white petals is one of the most difficult things in flower photography. Stacking can make the problem worse by changing the tonal distribution, but I doubt that is the core issue. As for stacking: if you use zerene, try comparing a DMap stack to a PMax. I find that DMap is often a little better at preserving textures, even though PMax is superior in terms of detail.

However, I think other aspects of processing are usually more important. A key is emphasizing texture. There are a number of tools for this. In the Adobe world, you have the texture and clarity sliders in ACR/LR and local contrast enhancement in Photoshop via USM. I tend to rely on the texture adjustment a good bit. The clarity adjustment works on a different frequency range and, even more important, includes a midtone contrast adjustment, so heavy use of clarity can lead to an unnatural appearance.

Nik has tools for this as well, but I rarely use them in flower photography.

Going back to square 1, lighting also is important. I generally use two lights. One is bounced off an umbrella and is very diffuse. The other is direct, although through a diffuser, and is at an angle to the flower rather than straight on. The latter creates shadows that show the texture. I use continuous lighting so that I can easily see the effects of moving the lights around.

Hi Dan thanks for your detailed response.I did use Zerene to stack the images, I used both DMap and PMax. This image is from the PMax Stacking. I didn’t use any lighting for the images the Orchid was in subdued natural light that was coming from a window directly behind the camera position.
To be honest there’s very little texture to the flowers though what there is may have been enhanced by some side lighting.


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