Cala Lily

LiquidAir

Shot in direct sun. I pulled our BBQ grill behind the flower as a black backdrop.

Nikolai

Liquid,

LiquidAir wrote:

Shot in direct sun. I pulled our BBQ grill behind the flower as a black backdrop.

One of the rare occasions where the direct sun can be in fact very useful. Takes master to use it properly, I must say
Great job on the BG, too!

Skippy

LiquidAir wrote:

Shot in direct sun. I pulled our BBQ grill behind the flower as a black backdrop.

Wow that almost looks like glass :jawdrop and nice black background too
I love the way you used the light for this shot.
Excellent Job .... Skippy
.

Phil_L

Verrrry nice..... the black background really lets the lens stamp out the flower!

Awais Yaqub

So beautiful weldone great light and background

Dalantech

Stunning image -you really nailed the lighting on that one!

ShepsMom

Outstanding shot! You don't have a BBQ grill for nothing!!!

LiquidAir

Thank you all. Actually the lilies know the right light as they tend to grow toward the sun. Sunlight shining down the center of the lily makes the whole flower glow and for the stem, the lily petals themselves serve as a nice diffuser. They are one of the few sujects that look their best at the peak of the sun.

As for getting pure black backgrounds, it is actually quite easy in direct sun. Diffuse reflections off black materials (like the BBQ cover in this case), run about 5 stops darker than reflections off white materials (the lily). In direct sun shadows are at their brightest 3 stops darker than the highlights. Since in this shot we are looking at the shadowed side of the grill cover it ends up being 5+3=8 stops darker than the lily. Since my camera only has only slightly more than 8 stops of dynamic range, it took just a slight tweak of the black point to drop the background to pure black. In camera light meters tend to overexpose a tad in direct sun, so remember the sunny 16 rule (ISO 100, 1/100s, f/16) if you want shaded blacks to plug up like this. Otherwise your camera will try to pull out some shadow detail (and simlutaneously blow out your highlights)when you specifically don't want it.

DavidS

That is beautiful. I love the lighting and the contrast between the white and the black.

ultravox

Great use of light, I like it a lot.

loi

really beautiful...