Orchid Photography

[Oscarman]

I have this Phal. in bloom and have tried to get a picture of it which represents it's true and accurate color. I just cannot seem to capture the depth and intensity of color.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

This is what I have so far, but the flower is much deeper purple and burgundy in color.

[Tindomul]

[ScottMcC]

Do you have a grey card you can use to set the exposure? I think the darkness of the color, combined with the overall darkness of most orchid shots (black background) is fooling the light meter into over-exposing you.

If you can set your camera on totally manual, you can always just bracket the shot (-1, -2, etc).

[Ross]

It's TOTALLY due to reflected light color - what I mean by this is that if you do not like the quality of the color you recorded, it could be a result on one of two things: either the lighting you used was either to warm (reddish) or too cool (blueish) - meaning the original image is in error, or it could also be the monitor you are using is not color-calibrated. On my setup (see my web site reference in my sig-tag) which is totally computer-controlled, I see a very intense magenta-colored orchid. If yours is washed out, then I suspect it is not your camera setup, but instead your monitor. FWIW I use a LaCie ElectronBlue 19 IV monitor controlled via a USB connection from the workstation to the monitor and use a "puck" style calibrator regularly to check the brightness, color, and saturation. I believe what I see is what I get!