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Thinking I would have some bulbs blooming for Thanksgiving when the family would be together, two months ago I bought 5 paper-white bulbs for forcing. Well, they didn't make the table for Thanksgiving, and they're in full bloom today, Dec. 5th!! That means they will be gone by Christmastime, so I decided to take some photos of these delicate looking white blossoms to prove that they did bloom!
I started off with taking photos using the white of the door as a background and the sunlight shining in for light. All of these photos were shot without a flash, daylight setting and ASA100, shutter speed1/90, f2.5, hand-held.
(I love to have an excuse to take photos of flowers!). Here is a smaller group in the sunlightwith the door as background.
I didn't care for the lines in the door, so thought I'd try some colors. One of the first purchases I made when starting to take photos was a variety of colors of simple postor boards. I learned this trick from Johnny Film Boy, who has posted items and tutoritals on this web-site. When I bought this, I was attempting to have different colors of background for dandelions, and then later used postor boards for some of the competitions we have had in POTY. The same effect could be obtained with cloth or any solid colored object. At first, the sunlight was bright , but as I progressed, the sun went behind clouds, still giving enough light to shoot photos.
I first started off with a white backboard…used a little piece of tape to hold it up to the door (scotch tape and masking tape come off poster board easily if lightly placed). This is what my first photo looked like. Now remember, I don't have a fancy camera, and I don't have a close-up lense. I also like to use natural light for as much as possible, especially with flowers as the camera settings can be changed to affect the correct exposure. However, I wanted to see how different backgrounds would look with this flower. The next photo is interestening. Yellow brings out different aspects of the blossom, making it seem warm.
I also have a black postor board, so I tried that next ... using the same piece of tape!
This is what I got! Looks quite different and sharp and the yellow centers show up nicely as does the green stem. Next, I have a dark blue board, same piece of tape!
This is more interestening, as the blue makes the stem receed and the white has the tint of blue. I also tried a green background:
Stem still receeds, and perhaps the color is just as good with a slight greenish cast.
One color I tried that did not work, and that is a burgundy red. For some reason, burgundy had sort of a muted effect, didn't add to the picture. Perhaps a bright red background might be tried with white blossoms, but burgundy wasn't the color for this day, although I like the pinkish tinge.
When I downloaded the photos to the computer, I decided to have some fun. In PS, made some changes to one of the photos that had a white background. This is what I came up with, using some of the tools in PS to desaturate the color, create an extra layer, erasing some small spots of color, and then painting on some others.
This doesn't look natural to me, but it's fun to see what is possible. A simple piece of tape and postor board or solid fabric for different backgrounds can make different looking photos!
Many other things are possible with white blossoms and colored backgrounds. When I purchased my digital camera two and a half years ago, I had no idea what fun was in store. I look foreward to many years of pleasure learning about this evolving world of digital photography!
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