Basics of orchid photography P.2

Rhyncholaelia digbyana

Continuation from P. 1...

Taking the best angles

Many people casually take photos without any further consideration, and this is quite fine if what you are after is only a photographic record. However, always keep in mind that as a photographer, you owe it both to your subject matter and to yourself- because the quality of your shots are a reflection of your tastes- to take the best possible photos you can take.

Too often, we inadvertently ignore elements that can ruin our photographs, be it a passing person in the background or an object with a coloration bright enough to wrest viewers' attention from the focal point. Of course, you can use a black cloth to block unwanted elements from creeping in, but it is not a fix-all solution. In many cases, you just have to be more attentive. Plant tags, ribbons, tie wires, and pots do not belong in your orchid photos.

The laterally oriented flowers of species such as Bulbophyllum fritilariiflorum means that a photograph from the front is not going to give justice to the flower.

The most prominent feature of Flickingeria fimbriata is its undulated labellum. 

Above and below: The photo above of Bulbophyllum contortisepalum shows two elements that should not have appeared- the weedy Pilea microphylla, and the blue plastic ties used to attach the plant into the mount. By slightly changing the angle, these distracting elements have been eliminated.

Another thing you have to take notice of: sometimes we get too caught up with the technical aspects that there may be elements in the background that seem as if these are connected and sprouting out of your subject. This illusion is further reinforced when the distracting object is about the same color as your subject matter. A related stumbling block is when a floral part seems as if it's connected to one of the plant's vegetative, or other floral, parts. To illustrate this to you, consider the photo below of Coelogyne sulcata, and note how the right petal appears to be connected to the floral bract behind it. That their colors approximate one another reinforces this. At a certain distance, this anomaly becomes much more obvious.

By slightly changing the angle, then the separation between the two plant parts become clear:

Above and below: The Duck Orchid (Pecteilis sagarikii) is so named due to its labellum which curiously resembles the beak of a popular domesticated bird. To better illustrate how this orchid got its common name, you have to show the labellum profile at an angle that justifies the name.

More on composition

You do not always have to put your subject dead center. Sometimes, when you want to show the vegetative parts, you may need to allow your subject to be somewhere near the edges of the frame. In the two photos below of Dendrobium (Ceraia) escritorii, I intentionally included the plant's two rows of sword-like leaves but doing so required that the flower is placed on the opposite sides of the frame due to the elongated rachis.

The leaves of the dainty Psygmorchis pusilla are also in distichous rows, but because the inflorescences are very short, I only needed to place the flower slightly above the frame to allow the viewers to catch a glimpse of its vegetative parts.

This photo illustrates the unusual growth pattern of Maxillaria tenuifolia, where the new growths often arise from atop the previous one.

In this other example, you will see the elongated pedicels of Dendrolirium ornatum. If one is to focus only on the flowers, then the showy floral bracts will be partly or even completely missed.

A similar situation is presented in this Bulbophyllum mearnsii with its much-elongated rachis and funnel-like floral bracts arranged in distichous rows:

Appendicula crotalina was so-named due to the floral bracts that evoke the rattlesnakes' (Crotalus ssp.) most distinguishing trait.

The way cirrhopetalums' flowers are arranged lend them well to different angles and composition. In the end, it is entirely up to you on how you want these blooms presented.

Filling in the frame

Inexperienced photographers oftentimes take pictures with way too much background. I have lost count of pictures with a tiny person in the middle and a huge expanse of sky in the background, that sometimes it makes me think if the subject matter was really the sky and not the person posing in front. Be conscientious of the negative spaces; if there isn't much to be shown, then drive the viewer's attention straight to your subject matter.

This photo of Catasetum pileatum shows what it means to 'fill the frame'.

Habenaria myriotricha

But of course, there are exceptions, such as when your photo is intended for publication, which requires that layout artists be given ample room to manipulate the given photos. Another exception is when you are taking in situ photos and you want to capture at least a portion of the plant's habitat. Taking photos in this manner provides insight into how these plants live in the wild, and in some cases, their sympatric species. A still undetermined species of Habenaria is shown below:

Paphiopedilum fowliei. This photo clearly illustrates this species' preference for sloping grounds, amongst low herbaceous vegetation including grasses.

Phaius flavus in mossy forest.

Post-processing

I know of some people who avoid post-processing, thinking that doing so is akin to cheating; photos, they would often say, should be raw, pure, and unaltered. But, let us be very frank here: no matter what your camera is, there are instances when the pictures it will take are flat with a somewhat hazy/milky appearance, and with very little contrast between light and dark areas. Such photos do not at all make a decent representation of what you actually saw. Post-processing allows you to manipulate photos towards the closest approximation of how you remember the subject matter looked like, and in some cases, how you imagined it should be.

No matter what software you use, keep your post-processing to a bare minimum; I use Picasa and usually concern myself with cropping the photo and using 'Auto Contrast' although I may do some tweaking if the recommended exposure is not to my liking. High dynamic range (HDR) provides a lot of contrast between light and dark regions of a photograph and can be useful for textural flowers, such as on Dendrobium peguanum below, where I used very minimal HDR to bring up the highly textured labella. You'll find very little use, if at all, of HDR in flat and smooth flowers like in Phalaenopsis, though.

I originally slightly overexposed this photo of Bulbophyllum echinolabium, then darkened the photo on post-processing to give that fading effect on the flower's rachis. When darkening photos, you may notice the saturation deepening, in which case you will need to lessen the saturation levels back to realistic levels.

The same approach was applied on this photo of Polystachya paniculata to help bring out the undulating pattern on the leaf. Sometimes, it's not just about the flowers, but to other plant parts as well to create a more well-rounded photograph.

The original photo of this Bulbophyllum medusae provided very little depth and definition, a situation resolved by merely adjusting contrast. 

Some last words

I put a lot of premium on composition, lighting, and clarity, with a LOT of weight on the last one. If I zoom at my pictures and see even a slight blurring due to camera shake or improper focus, I discard that, no matter how good I think the composition and lighting was. Take lots of photos and do not hesitate to cull down those that are wanting, and be your own worst critic. Look at websites and blogs with lots of orchid photos and compare your shots to what you see, then try raising your bar if you feel there is still lots of room for improvement. Try different shooting conditions and do not put yourself in a box nor be intimidated by those who use more expensive gear. At the end of the day, a photo is deemed worthy not by the price of the camera used, but by the merits of the photo itself, even if it was taken with only a point and shoot. 

This photograph of Dendrobium bursigerum was taken only with a Nikon Coolpix S9300, a point and shoot camera.