It’s hard not to love sunflowers. Sunflowers are a sunny flower. It’s in the name, and also in the big, yellow, platter-sized flowers. They are artistic and often painted by van Gogh.
All this made me think it would be neat to present somewhat ghostly sunflowers on black. Whether or not you like this approach may depend—metaphorically speaking, of course—on whether you are fonder of the “girl next door” or like a little bit of Goth in your diet. In any case, this is a different way to view the sunny sunflower.
To make this image I shot three frames on a lightbox. Each frame was an HDR (High Dynamic Range) composite of six exposures. After processing the HDR frames I used them to create a panorama in Photoshop by hand stitching (the alignment was pretty good to start with).
As a final step, I inverted the white background to position the sunflowers on black, and added some overlay textures to brighten up the petals.
Click on Sunflowers on Black to see it larger!
Workshop notes: Registration is now open for Macros, Close-Ups and Flower Photography (Point Reyes Field Institute, June 1-3, 2012; information and registration) and for Dark of the Moon Night Photography in the ancient Bristlecone Pines (August 17-20, 2012; information and registration). These workshops are both under the auspices of the Point Reyes Field Institute, and are less expensive than would be possible otherwise.
We have space for only three more photographers in the Tao of Photography workshop at the Green Gulch Farm & Zen Center (August 3-6, 2012; registration and information).
We are taking expressions of interest for our April 28 – May 5, 2013 Paris workshop, and have room for only a few more photographers. Later this month my co-leader and our Director of Social Awesomeness Mark Brokering will be scouting locations in Paris and preparing our way!
As a “thank you” to anyone who expresses interest in this workshop before formal registration is available we will let them sign-up at the current listed price—we’ve upgraded the hotel and added a night to this trip, so open enrollment will be a little more expensive.