They literally glow!
My goal was to create a slightly surreal series starring flowers. I believe I found a way to do that without any photo-manipulation, but solely by using a special kind of light... Ultraviolet Light.
Pink Daisy
Orange Leucospermum ‘Flame Giants’
White Chrysanthemum
Pink Daisy
Rose Protea
Ensemble
Yellow Gerbera Daisy
Pussy Willow Branches
I went to my local florist and selected my favourite blooms - this is the first and easiest step. Back in the studio, I arranged the flowers, and attached my camera with a 60mm lens on a tripod. Finally, I get the lighting in place, a Broncolor Siros S800 with a UV attachment. This UV attachment filters out all the other lights, so that only the UV part remains, consequently the petals begin to glow.
Once my shooting session was up, I selected my favourite images and set main adjustments in Lightroom; a bit of clarity here, contrast there, sharpness and white balance.
Not all plants or flowers will glow under ultraviolet light. Check out my pussy willow branches above. In daylight, all branches are the same brown colour, however when under UV light, some of them mysteriously change into otherworldy blue/green tones. It is clear that some plants might not be in the right stage to glow just yet. The only way to find out is to test several plants of the same species.
In addition to taking stills, I wanted to make the flowers look like they are alive. This literally took ages, and to explain the process, I think I'd need to dedicate a whole tutorial video for that. But simply said: I'd remove a petal, take a photo, and repeat until there were none left. Back in Photoshop I'd stitch the photos together into a single gif. Et voila, the flower is alive.
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