Flowers in Monochrome

[luator (Felix Kloss)]

Earlier this year, I started a little series of monochrome flowers/blossoms (more correctly, I started with one, then came another and suddenly I found myself doing a series :D).

It is somewhat inspired by a talk of Kevin Holiday, which someone posted in this forum. Especially the first one (the apple blossom), was an experiment, trying to emulate his style. The key elements I adopted are the somewhat dramatic look and idea that I don’t always need to stick to reality (mostly affecting the channel mixing during b&w-conversion).

The title is actually not really true, as the images are not fully monochrome, but I slightly tinted them after the conversion or in some cases kept a tiny bit of the original colour. I just couldn’t come up with a better one yet…

Now my goal is to collect more of these over time, so that I have a good Top 12 selection for a calendar by the end of next year.
Right now, it’s still in a rather early stage (not fully settled on the style), so I thought it would be nice to get some feedback now, while I might still change things a bit. I’m interested to hear your opinion, both about the individual pictures, but also on how well they work as a series.

For legal reasons I have to mention: The last two shots have been taken at Wilhelma Stuttgart (Germany).

[plantarum (Tyler Smith)]

Thanks for sharing these!

I really like the Passiflora shot. The leaves wrapping around the bloom gives it a nice framing, with the darkness of the leaves contrasting well with the lightness of the petals. The texture is a bit metallic, maybe a touch over-sharp? Maybe that’s what you’re going for - it’s certainly striking. If you applied the same processing to the other images it might make for a nice series. Kind of looks like old photographs, in a good way.

The Lotus is a similar composition, with the added depth coming from the shallow depth of field. These are nice comparisons - I think the deeper depth of field works with the Passiflora, as the framing leaves have interesting shapes, while the softer lotus leaves fade nicely into the bokeh.

I like the background of the Syringa, quiet and kind of murky, with the suggestion of shapes. I’m not sure about the subject though - the lines of the inflorescence feel a bit weak, not quiet straight, but not curved enough to be interesting. A different framing might show it off better.

The lighting for the Ononis is really lovely, and the texture of the branches is set off nicely against the gradient behind. The framing feels like it could be stronger: maybe with more branches providing a bit more repetitive geometry? Hard to say without knowing what the rest of the plant looks like.

The little white flowers I don’t like. There’s no clear subject, and any interest in the background isn’t coming through as it’s too dark. I think either all of the flowers should be in focus, or only one cluster, to more clearly identify it as the subject.

The first two shots are nice pictures of flowers, but the subjects just kind of stick into the frame, without an interesting composition to support them. I love foxglove flowers, a closeup on the blooms would be nice. Maybe something to contrast the fresh flowers against the older, decaying petals beside. The dark leaves on the branch look interesting, but there’s not enough of them in the frame to contribute much.

Looking back over them, I definitely like the Passiflora best, both in composition and processing.

This is the start of a really cool calendar! I keep thinking it would be an interesting challenge to work in black and white, but I haven’t tried it since my long-ago film days.

[luator (Felix Kloss)]

Thanks a lot for the detailed analysis! It really helps to get someone else’s view, to
better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the pictures.

@plantarum

The little white flowers I don’t like. There’s no clear subject, and any interest in the background isn’t coming through as it’s too dark. I think either all of the flowers should be in focus, or only one cluster, to more clearly identify it as the subject.

The just barely visible background is intentional but ideally, I’d indeed like to have all the flowers in focus. Unfortunately I took this at dusk with rather low light, so I was limited on how much I could close the aperture. But taking a similar shot with better focus is on my todo list

@plantarum

The dark leaves on the branch look interesting, but there’s not enough of them in the frame to contribute much.

I fully agree. Unfortunately, I didn’t yet have this series in mind, when I took that photo, otherwise I would have tried to include more of the leaves.

[guille2306 (Guillermo Rozas)]

I really like #3 and #6, both the light/composition and the color tone. However, for a series you should probably decide to either tone all or none. Maybe use the predominant color to subtly tone the rest?

I find the plane trail very distracting on #1, I think you should clone it out. On #2, #4 and #5 I find the slightly visible background silhouettes also a minor distraction, maybe emphasize more the main subject or fade the rest more to black?

I’m sure it will end up being a great calendar!