very challenging flower - black petunia

zulu42

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I've tried, for weeks, natural light, with reflector, flash, modified flash, backlit, Rembrandt, blue hour, golden hour, witching hour... And haven't been able to capture the velvety blackness of this flower.
Not even too happy with this, for so many attempts. A mix of ambient and flash.
Anybody have a shot of a black flower for inspiration?

black petunia-1.jpg
 
wow that is beautiful
 
Same problem. Got a near black iris (so dark purple that it shows as black) and I finally decided that yes there are limits to what we can photograph and that's one of them. I can make a decent photo of it so that it's a much lighter purple but I can't photograph it as it really appears.

Joe
 
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Here's mine. Who the bleep ever thought black flowers was a good idea anyway?

Joe

black-iris.jpg
 
This is difficult, but not impossible. It's simply a variation of the black dog against a black background challenge. Step one is to use incidence metering vice reflective (if you're not doing that already), and the second is to get your light back far enough that the inverse square law doesn't "penalize" you as is the case in Joe's post.
 
Even googling image results for these flowers I fail to find any great results
 
Even googling image results for these flowers I fail to find any great results

Yep, I've done the same. The near black iris cultivar is named Superstition. Photos on the net are generally awful. Part of the problem is we try to photograph them in a normal outdoor environment where everything else is much lighter. One day I'm going to cut one and bring it in the house where I can control the lighting and the background. Out in the garden doesn't work.

Joe
 
Nice shot, but I agree with others that it is impossible to accurately reproduce the dark purple flower as the black we perceive it to be..
 
I'd shoot it in black and white
 
I've found with any velvet style dark flower (haven't tried black but can imagine), natural lighting is your worst enemy.

We had some velvety dark crimson flowers and for the life of me I couldn't get a shot of them outside. I almost thought I was doing something wrong. I tried every lens/camera/flash/setting combo I could come up with. I did manage a 99% likness in the studio. I'm at work now but I'll try to find it when I get home.
 
I wonder if a colored gel on the speedlight would work? Which color? Haven't a clue. I bet @Derrel may have the answer to this.
 
I had the thought of color gel. If you could show the flower as black, some color spilling over the texture might enhance.


I'd shoot it in black and white
I think my problem with black and white is it loses impact. You're not sure if the flower is black or if it's just the lack of color in the photo.

black petunia-1-3.jpg
 
If anybody can photograph a black flower my money is on @oldhippy
 

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