Spring Orchids

I photographed these orchids from the comfort of my home studio or what we usually refer to as our dining room. The afternoon light beautifully reflected from our neighbors' house and windows through our dining room window. The late afternoon light provided wonderful back lighting but I decided to photograph the orchid flowers in front of a black background to bring out the pink colors and make them pop more. To do so I used a black cardboard as the background, blocking out any direct lighting onto the flowers. In addition I placed the orchid on a white cardboard and used a second white cardboard that I angled approximately 35 to 45 degrees in front of the orchid flowers. The arrangement of the white cardboards directed and enhanced lighting from below the flowers. Prior to metering the light and releasing the shutter I lifted the black background cardboard a few inches to allow light streaming onto the white card boards. That enabled me to direct the light towards the floral from beneath while the background dissolved in total darkness. The camera self timer combined with my tripod provided stability for good image quality while an aperture of f/6.3 provided the required depth of field. During the post processing I minimally adjusted contrast, lighting and color saturation before sharpening. I especially like how the lighting enhanced the edges and provided extra volume and provided the two dimensional photograph with form and providing a three dimensional feel to it.