Orchids

This time, I used two of my orchids for creating my images. Orchids are beautiful and elegant flowers, quite popular these days as it is so easy to grow them. 20 years ago my schoolmate’s father pursued a hobby of growing orchids in little greenhouses he had constructed at home and every grown orchid meant great success. Nowadays there are hybrids of various colours, shapes and sizes which you can buy even in supermarkets and which don’t need any special care… I’m quite happy about that!

Here is the final image #1… and its processed original:

And here is the final image #2… and its processed original:

I took the photos in raw format, processed them in Lightroom and finally used kk_melancholy preset for #1 and kk_truegrit preset for #2 (presets having been provided by Kim Klassen in her Be still 52 course). I tweaked both of the presets a bit to suit the photos better.

Playing with presets is actually quite interesting part of the process. First trying which one would suit the photo and then figuring out how to change its settings so that the feeling of the preset is preserved but it enhances the photo in the best possible way.

I’ve been learning to improve my Lightroom skills all the time which is another adventure I love about this. My latest practical discovery is using “virtual copies” I’ve known for a while but hadn’t known how to use them efficiently before. They are useful for having the adjustments better organised and clearly arranged and it really pays off when you need to get back and have no idea what exactly you were aiming for in certain photo some time ago…