My new obsession is photographing flowers, specifically taking a set of images using focus shifting and stacking the resulting images into a single image where everything is in focus. I use three speed lights for each photograph. I picked up this moth orchid (Phalaenopsis orchid) a couple of days ago when I made an emergency run to the grocery store. The emergency was an urgent need for Talanti’s Sea Salt Caramel Gelato. I ran into the store with my face mask and gloves prepared to grab my gelato and go. But a display of orchids caught my eye and with my new obsession, I brought one home.
My plan was to photograph the entire spray showing it emerging from darkness into the light. I wanted as much of each flower to be as well lit as possible while still giving the impression of the spray emerging from the darkness. Until I decided to use this orchid spray as my subject, placement and power of the speed lights was relatively simple and pretty straight forward. But my previous efforts were photographing a single blossom. Photographing a spray of flowers necessitated placing the lights differently and adjusting the output to give the proper look and avoid shadows. It took a little fine tuning but I achieved the look I wanted.
