Spot The Difference? - Orchid Flower Photo Edit

Believe it or not, editing photos of plants is just as controversial as retouching models in advertising photography.

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It might seem silly, but wildlife and nature photographers have certain ethical standards that they hold each other up to. If you upload flower photography to the internet, many will interpret it as an accurate representation of the particular plant specimen.

My stance on this subject is similar to my stance on retouching promo/fashion portraits. Whether it's people or flowers, I'll edit out distractions, so as to maintain focus on the subject. I may remove temporary blemishes but I won't make fundamental changes to the shape or color of the subject.

Apart from a little "dodging" to brighten up parts of the orchid and improve detail, the main editing was tidying up the background. One of the quickest ways to remove distractions is to make them the same color as the surrounding area, in this case green. Layer blending modes such as hue and color can help achieve this and you can use the opacity slider to adjust to taste. This image was also sharpened and sized down for submission to stock photography websites like Shutterstock. Sometimes this also requires some selective noise reduction.

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Nikon D750. Nikkor 105mm Micro.
ISO 400. 1/125. F22
Godox TT685, bounced.