366 Days Of 2012, Day 9 - White Lilies

There is a beautiful vase of white lilies gracing the dining table. We try and keep fresh flowers in the house when ever we can so there is almost always a flower photo opportunity to be had.

There are two things I found awkward about taking this image. The first was the stark contrast between foliage and flower. Being stark white it is difficult to capture any detail in the white without underexposing the foliage. The second was getting rid of household clutter in the background.

The solution to contrast problem was to simply apply some gamma distortion to the raw file to effectively narrow the image latitude. The solution to the second was rather novel. I placed the the flowers in a brightly lit foyer in front of a long corridor with all rooms shut and lights off. The resulting natural light shot has all the details with the dark background as desired.

... Robert

Photo: Robert Rath, 'White Lilies'. 5 sec at 100mm f/16, ISO 100