Aquilegia

Well stacked and lit.

Rob - Well Lit (obviously). Looks all nice to me and about the only thing I might suggest is putting a 1 pixel black border to prevent the white bleeding into the white of the Forum Screen. 

Rob: Superbly crafted image and a fine result. I do like that the larger version has a well defined border. I might edit the site BG on the 720 image so that the edge of the frame is apparent.>=))>

Artisiticly envisioned and expertly taken, Rob. Great subject and this looks like a fine painting. The lighting on the upper buds lloks just a bit strong, causing a tiny bit of wash out, but this is way better than anything I could do in a studio. 

Thank you guys. 

Scott - the setup is quite simple, as you can see in the setup shot above. A key-light flash to the left for the subject (which you can see on the display table) A sheet of white art card on the wall, with a studio flash to give a pure white background. I set the lighting for the background first until a test shot shows the white starting to blow out on the camera view screen.

I then use a light meter for the light on the subject. I then have a pure white background and a well exposed subject. The large diffusers on the lights give a vey 'painterly' look. I try to get the look that you see in botanical drawings/watercolours in botanical books. The soft light from the large diffusers really helps that process due to the relative sizes of light source and subject. The light diffuser is 18" high and the subject height is 4" - which gives a ratio of over 4:1. Compare that to doing a head and shoulders portrait with a bare flash where the ratio is reversed and is probably 1:7 (small light source to larger subject) and gives a much harsher light as a result.

It's actually quite easy to do - honest!

Rob, thanks for sharing your set-up. You are certainly suceeding in getting an appealing botantical look.  

Great shot Rob!  I love the high-key look to the BG, and the lighting is great.  Nicely stacked too!

Nathan

Your use of the flash does a fine job of capturing the details.  The white background makes this look like it would be included in an old time flower ID book (like something JJ Audubon would have done).  Given that you used flash, I'm wondering why a stack, I would have thought that going to f/16 or maybe 22 would provide plenty of dof as as my personal testing has shown me, no loss of sharpness.

Hi Rob,

I like the illustration look of this image.  The stack worked out quite well and the image quality is excellent......................Jim

Beautifully crisp image, very nicely composed, Rob !  I am only wondering what it might have looked like on a black bg, as the flower and buds are quite light in tone, but this is lovely as is.

 I am only wondering what it might have looked like on a black bg, as the flower and buds are quite light in tone

 

I usually shoot against black as it does show the colours slightly better. However, for some shots I like the 'botanical book' look which really only works on white.