Orchids - The perfect flower to practice dramatic lighting techniques!

[@leonking5128]

Excellent!!

[@unclebuck5957]

Beautiful pictures The lights are beyond great hope to have them some day?

[@melissam731]

Great tutorial. I like the idea of adding diffusers and lighting from the back of the flower. Thank you!

[@Adaptalux]

Hey Melissa, glad you enjoyed it. Backlighting flowers is great to try out, just didn't really work well for this one due to the contrast in the petals.

[@andreak4280]

beautiful shots! love these small lights and the adjustability, accessories etc… hope to own a set sometime

[@Adaptalux]

Thanks Andrea, they really are great for this kind of thing!

[@carolschultz1058]

Beautiful shots! I love the final image ! You've done a great job I making it look dramatic!

[@Adaptalux]

Thanks Carol, glad you enjoyed the results!

[@debbiethomas3687]

I found this really interesting and useful, as orchids are my main interest and I'm always trying to find ways to photograph them better. I'm an enthusiastic, but not greatly knowledgeable, amateur, which means a lot of my photos are too and I'm trying to progress to something that stands up as a good photo rather than just a decent but uninspiring picture of a flower. Lighting is something I need to learn more about because I don't have external lighting, so when shooting indoors I have to use the on-camera flash and always end up with harsh shadows on the background. I'm not going to look at your video about darkening backgrounds without needing to use a dark background. Thanks for the advice and the clear explanations.

[@Adaptalux]

Everyone starts somewhere Debbie, and we're all learning as we go. I would always try to avoid the on-camera flash, it's very rarely a good option for lighting. Try turning it off all together to force the camera to use the ambient light in the room. You can then start to experiment with the light that is naturally available to you. Try placing the flower near a window to get some soft light from the side, or use a flashlight to add some extra light from another direction as a starting point. Good luck!

[@ingridcoke1360]

This was quite informative. I am now subscriber. Thank you for sharing.

[@susieboard3230]

love your videos but I usually forget to comment! Love the way you shot this orchid, so pretty. I mostly shoot flowers outside as I don't have very good off camera lighting for inside.....

[@stephenrobinson9923]

Well done as always. What do you think about combining Focus stacking and HDR to enhance the dynamic range?

[@Adaptalux]

Thanks Stephen! I think it would be an interesting project to undertake, but a LOT of photos to process together. I'd need to think about the best way to approach something like this, I'm thinking it would be better to process the 3 stacks for 3 different exposures before then combining them into a hdr image - but if the stacks process differently and fall out of alignment somehow it wouldn't be good for the final result. Maybe It's something I'll have a go at some day!

[@stephenrobinson9923]

@@Adaptalux Thanks for the reply. I am going to try (for the first time) slabbing the three sets of exposures to see if that will solve any alignment issues. I think I will be able to open the result of the slabs as layers in Photoshop and use masks to get the exposure correct. I have recently started exploring the more complex aspects of Focus Stacking and HDR and still have a ton to learn.