“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” – Leonardo da Vinci

I set out to create a macro image of a Calla Lily which recently appeared in one of my flower pots. I say appeared because I did not plant it, so the rhizome must have already been present in the soil. It was a pleasant surprise and I wanted to make a photo of it as a reminder of that.

It’s been a while, three years to be precise, since I have gone to my studio setup but the technique and setup quickly came back to me. After a few test shots I had the image I wanted. As I edited it, the blossom looked ‘nice’ but I wanted to pull something more out of it.

The black background that I use for my flower shots is the black wash that da Vinci refers to in his quote. I have found that the emergence of colour from the blackness adds incredible drama to images. That colour was already there but I employed a few filters to really pull the colours out and make the photo dramatic by extracting as much colour and light as I could while staying to to the original image. In the end, it ends up looking more like a painting, which I am pleased with.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
2.0 sec, f/29.0 ISO 100