Orchid

05/11/11

This image of an orchid was one of several in a series. It worked well in colour with the full beauty of the flower coming through. However, I wanted to have a simpler image for a calming piece of wall art that would go with different colour schemes so converted it to black and white. I think that removing the colour has highlighted the form and gentle lighting. Hopefully the shallow depth of field adds to the peaceful feel.

Technically it was simple. The flower was set about a foot away from a white wall with cloudy window light coming in from the left. The camera was tripod mounted, the mirror locked up and a cable release used to minimise vibrations with the longish exposure. In manual mode the exposure was kept towards the right side of the histogram to give a slightly high key look.

A couple of the other images from this shoot are in the Plants Gallery on the website.

Technical details:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Lens: 100mm f2.8 macro
Exposure: 1/15 sec, f2.8
ISO 320