Last month I bought what I thought was a lovely set of Jalah roses to photograph in my studio. Problem was – they weren’t in as good of shape as I thought they were – and the damage to the petals (especially along the edges) really shows in the photos.

Once I realized the flowers weren’t in the shape I needed them to be in to create the photos I wanted – I should have stopped shooting and done something else. Instead I tried all sorts of things to get better captures – including taking sets of images that I could stack in Helicon Focus to create images with greater depth of field.

What I ended up with – was a bunch of photos I’m not particularly happy with – after spending a few hours in the studio with them – and way too much time in Helicon Focus and Lightroom. I’m sharing them as much for a reminder to myself that it’s better to walk away from images that aren’t working – than to spend a lot of time creating not so great images – as anything else.

So here are the best of a not great photo set . . .

2 Comments

Jan on November 18, 2015 at 8:16 pm

I think you have a touch of the Georgia O’Keeffe (?) (I know her last name is spelled differently, but I don’t have time to look it up….) in you at times–especially in the very close up images that don’t look a lot like a rose. The image of the 3 petals just reminded me of some of her mountains out in New Mexico…. I love this! ya done good, lady….!!!
Cindy on November 19, 2015 at 12:08 am

Life is full of imperfections, no harm in capturing them. Dying flower fotos are a whole genre in and of themselves. However the lesson you’ve learned is valuable. I’ve applied that to shooting, learning to stop when I realize there is no way to make the scene what I want, instead of endlessly deleting later…

Jalah Roses – or Ever Just Have One of Those Days . . .

2 Comments