Remember the sunflowers I photographed a couple of weeks ago?  I still have those flowers and I have been watching them slowing dying over that time.

This is one of the first photos I took.  It is a straight image, in that it isn’t a HDR.  I have edited it quite a bit, though I am sure there is a lot more I could have done.  It was still very yellow so I took out a lot of the colour.  I didn’t want them to look too cheerful.

This is the HDR image.  I don’t know if it is better or not.  I have done pretty much the same post processing as the first one.

I set these flowers up near a window that had a lot of light coming in, but the light wasn’t directly on them.  I put my flash on my camera and turned it down so not a lot of light came out, just enough to fill in the shadows.  If you don’t have a flash you can use some white cardboard or paper to see if you can bounce some of the window light onto the flowers.  There are many ways to take still life photos.

I turned the flowers towards the window, so they could get more light.  I also turned down the flash even more.  When I processed this image, I pushed the HDR a lot more.  I think I like it, then I decide I don’t.   I really don’t know.  I did almost the same post processing as the other ones, but there is one step I did that was different.  See this next one.

Here it is in black & white.  I don’t know if I like it.  I think it is messy and it is hard to make it all out.  The last time I did this, you all preferred the sunflower in colour, but since it is losing its colour, I thought let’s give it another go.  What do you think?

I know some people struggle with doing still lifes inside, whether it is objects or food.  I don’t use fancy lights, and there are always ways around doing things.  I just wondered if people would like to know more.