Orchid Still Life

Orchid Still Life #1 2013

I have two orchids growing in my kitchen window. The one above is about three years old. It is blooming after a long hiatus in which I wasn’t certain that I’d see another flower.

As I understand it, a still life is an image of an artistic arrangement of objects. Often, the artist uses the still life to study light and it’s interaction with a variety of surfaces and textures.  Because it is a controlled environment the image-maker can fine tune lighting, grouping, and content.

This is very different from my preferred genre of editorial photography which often relies on available light and composition is captured on the fly.

I took this image in the backyard. The orchid is on my garden table which has a nice weathered look. The table is in a a nifty space with Lilac trees  on two sides. Its a great place to read and listen to the birds. I placed a sheet of black mounting board behind the orchid to simplify the background.

Back in the digital darkroom I used Lightroom to remove a distracting wooden stake from the pot and tweaked brightness, contrast, vibrance, and color. I then used Photoshop with the NIC HDR plug-in to pull out a wider dynamic range. Last, I used Photoshop to brighten the image and increase contrast just a touch, giving it a little more punch.

From the start, I had in mind an image that was soft and with rich colors. I want it to look like a memory. I had intended to have a deep black background but the shadows of the lilacs were so intriguing that I left them in.

 

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