Artificial light for flower detail

This evening I was inspired by the unusually nice condition of an indoor flower, and decided to photograph it using artificial light (diffused off-camera flash). I did another focus stack, this time requiring only four shots (at f/11) to get everything sharp. The background was a medium toned beige drape, but when you have control over where the light is coming from and going (and when the background is sufficiently far from the foreground) a mid-tone can be rendered as black. The inverse square law* is useful!

*The intensity of light (from a "point source") is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to the object being illuminated. Although I was using a somewhat broader source of light, the result was approximately the same. For example, points 3 times as far from the light as the subject was received roughly 1/9 as much light. With the plant already very light toned, it was easy to get enough difference for a black background rendering.

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