I’ve been going back and forth about what to do with this image for a while. On one hand, it’s about 70% of what I wanted it to be and when I look at the shot I just can’t help but think about how I would do it differently if I had the opportunity. It’s the one that got away, so to speak, and there’s a dozen things I would change if I could revisit the complete composition. But on the other hand, there’s a lot I really like and instead of focusing on what didn’t work, I want to think about what did work and use the rest as a learning opportunity.
At the end of the day, the main issue I have with this photo has nothing to do with anything related to composition, framing, or lighting. Rather, it’s my own lack of foresight by not shooting in RAW. I took this photo with my Fuji X100F which I can always count on to produce beautiful JPEG files that hardly need any editing at all except for maybe a bit of exposure adjustment here and there. When I set up this shot I forgot to put the camera in RAW mode, which meant I had far less editing headroom compared to a JPEG image. In that sense I did a disservice to the subject; it’s a beautiful flower that was given to my wife for a very specific purpose, and perhaps I could have done better if I had taken care to get my exposure right in the first place. To wit: the original is not great.
Alrightey then, let’s not dwell too much on what went wrong. Let’s talk instead about what’s going on in this shot (the actual one, not the original you see above) and what worked well. First of all, the flower itself is quite stunning and, being my first experience with an orchid, pretty fascinating too. When it was given to my wife as a gift several months ago its flowers were blooming nicely, and as time went by they only got more stunning. The brilliant white petals persisted, neither fading nor withering, quite unlike most any other flower I had ever seen. One day my wife remarked at how striking it looked when backlit as the sun rose each morning, and it got me thinking about how I might capture some of that essence but in a more controlled manner at night with some artificial lighting.
I set several of my Nanlite Pavotubes outside on tripods, dialed in to different colors, and then went inside with my Fuji X100F and took several shots. I experimented with different color combinations and brightness levels, and ended up with what you see above. The original, that is–not the edited version at the very top. I do think the overall concept here is sound, and the colored lighting worked well, but I just keep kicking myself for not shooting in RAW. I shouldn’t let it bother me too much though, and instead treat it like I do many of my Weekly Fifty photos: as a learning opportunity. And who knows, if the orchid blooms again I might give this another try :)