Lilium

M

martin henson

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A study of a home grown Lily, what a beautiful plant, we have watched this plant grow day by day then one it revealed its beauty, I just had to have a go and photograph it.

Side on view
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Up Close
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Chanomix 45N-2
150mm lens
Fuji Acros
Developed in Pyrocat HD
Epson v800 scanner, Vuescan
 
Any comments to were I could improve appreciated, I don't do a lot of still life, however want to learn more, I don't have really any proper set up or lights , just make do with what I have, so what type of lighting would be more appropriate, how could the composition be improved, what colour background rather than the rear parcel shelf of the car which was dark grey with lighter flecks in it would work best.

Does these images work or am I way off the mark.

Regards
Martin
 
Rather topically, some of the best flower shot's i've seen were done by Robert Mapplethorpe (despite his "other" work) which i think was down to the lighting.....maybe worth a look if you haven't already?

Mike
 
lol, just make sure you refer to flowers when searching, otherwise you're granny will have kittens if she see's his other work! :eek:
 
I like these pictures. I think the dark background works well. I enjoy still life, although I'm still trying to make good images. I tend to use a piece of black velvet cloth most for my backgrounds. I like to keep it low key. I see still life on other forums where the person has found a good object, or collection of things to form a still life, but given no thought to the setting. The picture has to be created as a whole. Natural light is good, and for B&W you can use desk lamps, etc, as well. I'm experimenting with one studio flash head and a softbox. You can use the smaller ones made for flashgun/speedlights to good effect. You don't really need masses of power, but the ability to vary the output is very useful. The most important thing, however, is imaginative compositions, which is where I'm struggling at the moment!
Alex.


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I do need to get a better more consistent set up for still life, just bought a diffuse tent thingy and hope that will help, I also struggle to think of different imaginative ways for composition, feel the best way is to look at others work as mentioned by Mike
Martin
 
I am not an expert on this type of shot but I would say they are pretty successful. I prefer the side on composition.


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There was an Imagine programme on Mapplethorpe recently. It covers his extraordinary life and shows some of the "controversial" gay pictures as well as his flower shots.
His flowers are mostly photographed in much the same way as you have photographed your lily – that is, isolated blooms against a simple background. Your pictures are attractive already. Other compositions will undoubtedly follow if you persist.
For backgrounds you will remember that Weston used a tin funnel for Pepper 30 and John Blakemore made some of his Tulip images on a background of crumpled paper bags.
Would it be an idea to keep an eye out for potential backgrounds and collect them until a flower comes along that particularly suits one of them?
Or you might try variations. I was out to dinner last night, which made me think of this. A bread roll photographed on a worn wooden board tells a different story if it's photographed on a starched white tablecloth and different again on, for instance, grass.
 
Thank you Dave, your thoughts on backgrounds has opened my mind rather than sticking to the norm so to speak.

Regards
Martin
 
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