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3 Orchid shots from recent Orchid Show in Hobart. All taken with 50mm f1.4.
I think I may have over sharpened them a bit. What do you reckon?
Click on thumbnails for larger image.

I like #1 and #3, but #2 doesn't work for me. I think the arrangement in #2 is problematic with the first flower casting distracting shadows on the second flower, plus I think you would need greater DOF to capture both flowers clearly. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for the comments Craig. I agree, shadow's are a challenge and a bit distracting on the background flowers. Even though I was using a 50mm 1.4 lens, I set aperture at f8 to get some sort of dof with the camera at minimum distance to the flowers. At f8 you haven't got much choice but to use flash (these were taken indoors), hence the shadows.

Maybe one day when I've got a couple SB800s I may be able to cope with the shadows better. The other advantage I think of using flash is it makes it quite easy to PP the background away.

I agree with you a bit less sharpening on #1, #2 would be better but #3 looks great on my screen.
I find many orchids difficult to photograph with a flash as it tends to give the flower a crystalline appearance #1 & #2 which is easily increased with sharpening. Having shot at orchid shows I can sympathise with you, I find the inbuilt flash to harsh the SB800 is good.
Any more orchid pics?

Cheers - Greg

Greg S wrote:I agree with you a bit less sharpening on #1, #2 would be better but #3 looks great on my screen.
I find many orchids difficult to photograph with a flash as it tends to give the flower a crystalline appearance #1 & #2 which is easily increased with sharpening. Having shot at orchid shows I can sympathise with you, I find the inbuilt flash to harsh the SB800 is good.
Any more orchid pics?

Cheers - Greg

Thanks for the feedback Greg.

I initially liked the crystalline effect, but it's not all that natural.

Based on trying not to get the crystalline effect, I'll go redo the sharpening and see how far I can push it without getting the effect.

More orchid shots? Hundreds!! It was a big show. I'll see what I can come up with by the end of the weekend.

Absolute cracker shots here John, did you use a light tent? Orchids are always hard to capture and you've done exceptionally well.

Max

Great shots John.

I've been mucking around with the SB800 and have been trying bouncing the flash with varying results. That's assumeing that you have got a nice ceiling or wall handy It does tend to reduce the shadows considerably.

Max and Mark, thanks for the comments.

No light tent, I don't think they'd let me bring one into the Orchid Show and re-arrange the exhibits. Done with a bit of PS PPing to get rid of the background.

I'm pretty happy with learning how to use the on board flash and trying to get better with it each time. But I am lusting for a SB800 and I'm sure I'll enjoy the learning experience with it as well. This is such a great hobby, new things to learn each time you take the camera out.