Is this style down to the lighting or post processing

[taxboy]

I'm quite taken with these shots of flowers http://www.paulcoghlin.com/work/chroma/

I'm guessing the lighting is very soft either overcast daylight or a largish softbox ? or is the feel mainly down to post processing.

Any ideas welcomed

 

[Phil V]

This could be a forum first:
It's the processing.

 

[danny_bhoy]

When enlarged they look like pencil drawings to me so based on that I'm gonna say it's all in the processing too - no light source I know of will do that.

 

[HoppyUK]

I'm quite taken with these shots of flowers http://www.paulcoghlin.com/work/chroma/

I'm guessing the lighting is very soft either overcast daylight or a largish softbox ? or is the feel mainly down to post processing.

Any ideas welcomed

It's both. The light is very soft indeed, almost shadowless. Could be overcast daylight, but more likely studio. I would guess at a light tent or similar. Then post-processing to bring out the painterly effect.

 

[nickjohnwatson]

I'd say processing to get that effect, although the nice lighting certainly has helped give a good base image. Either way, they look very nice

 

[taxboy]

Thanks for that now trying to figure out the processing !!!

 

[Steve T]

Whatever it is, it looks wrong, but okay.

 

[ianp5a]

Importantly the background shade has been decided based on the petal colour. Whether real or changed in pp.

 

[HoppyUK]

It's both. The light is very soft indeed, almost shadowless. Could be overcast daylight, but more likely studio. I would guess at a light tent or similar. Then post-processing to bring out the painterly effect.

Also, I think there may be some focusing-stacking involved too. When you get a flower head filling the frame, DoF is extremely shallow.

 

[Steve T]

Yes,but it still looks wrong.

 

[Denyerec]

Focus stacked and tonemapped HDRs starting out with very flat lighting. Works nicely in a collection, even if the individual images aren't that compelling on their own.

 

[gibtheo]

Why don't you email the guy and ask? I found an image I liked last week and emailed the photographer who was quite happy that someone was admiring his work and he explained the lighting set up he used. This guy might not tell you I suppose but it's worth a go. He'd probably be happy to get a compliment!

I'm no HDR expert but I'd say whatever the process it involved desaturating certain colour channels and changing the colour balance of the whole image. Possibly even some 'replace colour' in photoshop. Just a guess!