Saturday, October 31, 2009

Brahma Kamal (pseudo)

As per Wiki, Brahma Kamal is Saussurea obvallata, a Himalayan plant that grows at altitudes of 4500 meters. Raat ki Rani is a jasmine-like flower, Cestrum Nocturnum, native to the West Indies. The flower below is Epiphyllum oxipetalum, Night blooming Cereus, or Dutchman's Pipe, and is from South or Central America. Nevertheless, google shows that a lot of people call it Brahma Kamal. By any name, it is a spectacular flower.

Canon 5D, 24-105mm f/4 @98mm, 1/60 second, with flash, default lightroom settings.
bk-2

Histogram:
histogram1

The camera metering did well, there is no highlight clipping in the exposure. But the lack of detail in the flower is bad.

Problem is I don't know the recipe for fixing it. Here is one (extreme) attempt using Photoshop. A lot of detail shows, but at the cost of brightness and whiteness.
bk-1

Histogram:
histogram2