Crimson and Lime Green Gerbera

While shopping yesterday at a fruit and vegetable barn I don’t usually go to as its on the other side of town, I spotted this bunch of gorgeous crimson gerbera, that are highlighted with touches of lime green on the backs of the petals.

Of course they found their way into my basket, and today I spent some quality time with them in my studio.  I have many textures from Denise Love of 2LilOwls – and she uses her own still life photography to show off her textures.  Denise has a particular style with her photography that I have long tried to emulate, without sucess, and with much frustration.

Today I tried to shoot in her style, these are the steps I went through:

1. Setup the scene with an interesting base – an old book of sheet music
2. Use a physical prop that the flowers interact with that fills in the frame, adds to the story but does not dominate – old pointe shoes and their ribbons
3. Add three flowers staged to overlap in layers to add depth to the image, but also positioned to catch the light and have one as the hero
4. Edit in LR with a Kim Klassen preset to enrich the colours and add a subtle matte finish
5. Finish off with a subtle texture and an emulsion frame

I am *really* happy with this image, it took ages to position all the pieces the way I thought they needed to be, changed lens to my zoom, changed the height of the tripod and the angle of the camera, all to make it a very intimate portrait.

The final bit that made it zing was the LR Preset from Kim Klassen, that made the colours rich and added real punch to the flowers.  A couple of 2LO textures to finish and voila!

This image was going for more of a negative space styling, again edited with a KK preset and finished off with a 2LO texture from the Savory range, a new one and I quite like it.

This image has been edited with a different KK preset – that mutes the colours but highlights the lovely texture in the back of the flower.  Edited with a couple of 2LO textures to add a slight grunge effect that I think works with this colour styling.

Given that summer appears to be over, its been suddenly cold and dark in the mornings and lots of rain, today was a good day to be inside with the camera, creating new work 🙂

Three quite different styles of images here, interested in your likes and dislikes, why one works for you or, perhaps, doesn’t work?

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