Tiger Lilies
Hi Everyone,
Since March heralds the beginning of Spring, and the famed Philadelphia Flower Show is held in March,
I thought what could be a better time to showcase flowers in all my posts this month.
I take basically two types of floral photographs: what I would call flower portraiture, where the lighting
and composition is carefully controlled, just as in people portraiture; and wildflower beauty, which are shot outdoors, at random, and often,
fortuitous locations.
Today’ post, “Tiger Lilies”, of course is an example of the first type. The lilies actually came from my garden, where I cut some of the best specimens and brought them into my “studio”.
The reason for the ” ” is that I don’t have a studio. In side my house I used a tripod for the camera, one spotlight, a small table and black poster board. That was it.
The point is that if you want to take a floral portrait – or a portrait of anything or anyone else, go for it in the most simple of ways.
I have even done this setup without a spotlight, using only light coming through a window.
But what I did have was a predetermined concept of what I wanted the finished product to look like.
I think that’s really important. You can certainly experiment with changing the direction of the light, or with the composition, as you go along in the shoot,
( and that can lead to wonderfully creative ideas ), but there should be an overall direction and purpose to the work.
Now I did do a bit of post editing on the computer – getting the background black enough, some sharpening, etc., but nothing more than that.
Anyway I thought it might be interesting to share some of the behind the scenes action that produced this photo.
Hope you like the picture. On Sunday, there will be a different featured flower, so check back then.
Thanks for tuning in….