A friends flower
 

Now I know you purists are not going to like this. Just wanted that stated up front.

I would agree that usually a natural flower should look in a photograph like it does to the naked eye. But sometimes...you get shot that you like, but aren't totally thrilled. My definition of "not thrilled" is that I would not hang it on the wall.

A couple years ago at a friends house, I shot the image titled ORIGINAL. I liked the shallow DOP, I liked the fact that I caught the bee perfectly, but after playing around in Lightroom, I still wasn't happy. Too much non-descript bokeh.

I got the entire suite of TOPAZ LABS plugins for Lightroom last year and ended up with the image titled FINAL. I printed a 13x19 on fine art paper, (almost canvas like) and it really turned out nice. I know the colors are not original, etc. etc. but I now consider this an artistic piece and not an image of the flower I saw that day.

This may be something (or similar) that can be done with your favorite pics of orchid blooms that you really like, but don't quite consider wall worthy. Of course you could retain the natural colors if you wanted. In fact you can do just about anything.

Just wanted to share, and maybe start you thinking.

SJ

PS - I know WAY more about this stuff than growing orchids, but found out the OB board likes photography of flowers way more than the photographers like orchids! :biggrin:

Both images are wonderful.

I like it!