Beautiful red Rose given a Vintage effect.
I have continued the floral theme and having done with the Tulips decided to look for another subject – I didn’t have to look very far so soon after Saint Valentine’s day – I spied a bunch of roses on the window sill that had been received by my wife on the 14th of February. I must admit being a little curious where they came from – maybe I should investigate, but I have been so busy. ( I know where they came from really, and this time they were bought with her as the first thought – honest!)
So there were these roses and it was a bright and sunny day, so I decided to take them outside and photograph selected ones against an out-of-focus green hedge, but it turned out to be a bit breezy and I was going to have to use a very slow shutter speed if I was to use an iso of 100 for maximum quality – I wanted to shoot in the shade as the direct sun would have given harsh shadows. I decided to photograph them on a window sill inside of the house. I needed something to fill in the shadows on the inside because there was too much contrast between the window light and the inner side.
Red Rose colour popped.
At first, I tried a home made reflector (flat baking tray covered in crinkled cooking foil) but I wasn’t quite getting the effect that I was looking for so I used used a speed light type camera flash connected to my camera with a curly cord so that I could move the direction of the light around for best effect.
Red Rose Close-up detail saturated with differential focus – Landscape format
In the end I really only used one or two of the roses for this project, partly because the leaves of some of the roses were starting to split – you often don’t notice that sort of thing unless you get very close up, or are editing the results at 100%! I have posted a few here but to see the whole collection, visit my website using the link below. You will find them on pages 7 & 8 – Enjoy!
Paul Cullen Photography 