My Photo 'Studio'

Kyle, you are going to love RAW. You can change the temperature setting to account for different lighting. If you learn to set a custome white balance adjustment (not hard to do) you can set it so that the camera uses that correction. Much better than doing it in PhotoShop, you don't get the weird color shifts. Once you have the balance for you lighting system, you don't have to correct the images.

Do you apply and unsharp mask to your images? The RAW plug-in has a clarity slider that works quite well, then you can sharpen a bit more in PhotoShop if you want.

 

I bought some special florescent lights for photograph some years back, but they didn't put out enough light for what I was doing. A friend who was an engineer at Sylvania before he retired recommended Capsylite. The system I was looking at would have required new stands and sockets and was out of my reach. The Capsylite has worked well. The color doesn't shift over time (a problem I had with Tungsten lights before) and they last a really long time. They also have a standard base. It has been very consistent.

 

Here is where I shoot. The windows are blacked out with plastic. The set up is on a diagonal so I can back out the door into the hallway if I want to get back farther. I use seamless paper suspended on poles with a table underneath.

I want you to know that I took this picture several times. Every time I loaded it onto the computer, I was appalled how trashy it was. So this is what it is like after I've cleaned it.

 

It is 4 1/2 feet from the table to the top bar, so I have pretty good clearance. If they are taller or longer (ie Dendrobium teretifolium at 6+ ft) I take the table out and pull the paper down to the floor. The bar above the table will hold things on a hook. For some draculas that have a single wire hanger, I use a wooden block with a hole in it that holds a bamboo stake upright. I hook mounted plants on it too. I have acrylic risers too that I can stack up and lay a Dracula basket on its side for a sraight on shot.

 

I am using a dark blue background for most of shots of orchids. It is 4 ft wide seamless paper from the photography store. I set this up for photographing ceramics initially, so have lots of rolls of different colors. If I were just doing orchids, I probably would have gone with a velvet background. The black paper I have works great with pottery, but doesn't come out black, but more of a grey with the lighting for orchids. You can see on the floor on the right against the wall, I've covered cardboard with different colors for easily changing the backdrop for smaller plants, using an easel to stand it up.

I think your fabric in the corner is good. I lose space by having the 4' wide backdrop in the corner. If you want to vary your background at little expense, an art store will have 2x3 ft colored matte paper in lots of colors.

 

I agree with Forrest about the zoom. I would move the camera as close as possible to the subject. You want it to pretty much fill the frame. Also, using the smallest aperture and the longest shutter speed that you can will get you better depth of field so more of your subject is in focus. Though you may already know that.

There is a lot you can do with software, but a macro lens will do a lot to improve your images.

 

dounoharm, thanks for the encouragement. Cleaning up the room is on the to-do list, but not very high up.