Still Life – Tulips

I am a big fan of textures and there are two places I go when I am looking for just the right one and they are: Flypaper Textures and Shadowhouse Creations.  Both offer excellent textures and it ultimately boils down to who has the texture I am looking for.

For this photo, I used Flypaper Textures.    They have a wonderful blog highlighting their various textures and provide examples.  They also include their recipe.  I love their work and often visit their site for inspiration.

I bought some tulips at Costco this week to work on a floral still life and I have been having a lot of fun.  It has been a great learning experience.  I am a visual learner and I learn best by doing.  The more of the five senses I use the better.

For this shot, I decided on a shallower depth of field and focused on just one or two tulips.  I set up my softbox with my flash and I also used a white reflector to get the light just right.  I took a few shots checking the lighting and focus until I was happy with the results.  I used my Nikon D800, AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens.  My settings were, ISO 400, f/1.8, 1/60 second.

Once I had the shot I liked, I made my basic adjustments in Lightroom and then went to Photoshop.  Next, I used OnOne's Perfect Effects 8.5 to sharpen the in focus tulips.

And here is the recipe from there:

1) Mystic Hues from the Spring Painterly pack, Soft light @ 100% masked softly from the tulips

2) Fly Edges 3 from the Fly Edges pack, Soft light @ 100% with the temperature adjusted for a blue hue and again masked softly from the tulips.

I am having so much fun photographing flowers that I plan to pick up more on my next trip to Costco.  Perhaps I will try some Gerbers.

Keep having fun.

Judy Hardiman