Smoke
Ignore-Amus
I agree a lot with this statement. having been photographing my trees for well over thirty years, it is very hard to convey in a photo what the tree really looks like. For instance, having seen some of the premiere bonsai exhibits on the West coast as well as three premiere collections and a mess of nurseries and demos, I can easily say that if a picture even remotely looks good in a photo, it probably looks awesome in person. If it looks killer in a photo, it probably looks very masterpiece in person.Photographing trees in a way that exhibits and conveys the trees' appearance in person while on camera seems to be almost as much of an art as growing/styling/careing for the tree.
Lights and flash full on...
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Flash off, two fill lights, one overhead and one shining right from the left to invoke shadows.
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