Cynorkis angustipetala - Orchid Board

naoki · #1 10-12-2016, 05:36 AM

The nomenclature of this species is very confusing (well, it is not as bad as the case of Phragmipedium humboldtii), and Johan Hermans and his collaborators have been working hard to straighten up the confusion. It was quite a bit of reading adventure to find out what the correct name of this species is, so I decided to put it down as a blog post (link to the post in my Orchid Borealis blog), even though I don't take any credit of growing this species. I just got a giant tuber from Louisiana Orchid Connection, who imported it from Madagascar in Spring 2016, and it just made the magnificent flowers.

These name changes from 2014 were already mentioned in here by Philip (link to the thread) , but I didn't know the details, so I had to confirm it by myself. Basically, this is the species which used to be called Cynorkis guttata (and C. uncinata before that). What we used to call Cynorkis angustipetala is actually C. speciosa. Real C. uncinata is C. calanthoides. For the detials, see the blog which has much more photos (better yet, read the papers by Hermans et al!). If you want to see their originals, let me know.

Cynorkis angustipetala, raceme on Flickr

Cynorkis angustipetala on Flickr

Cynorkis angustipetala, whole plant on Flickr

Just for camera geeks. With this set of photos, I used Olympus E-M1 in-camera focus stacking. But this is the first time I tried cheap continuous light sources. I usually use wireless remote manual flashes with whatever cheap speed lights. But focus stacking is quicker with continuous light. Also, you can see the effects of light, so it is much much easier to fine tune. I got 2x Hyperikon dimmable PAR38 LED spot bulbs, 14W, 1260lm, 5000K, CRI 90+, 40° beam angle from Amazon (this one with this dimmer). One through white shoot-throgh umbrella from left, and the other direct from right as a fill. Low CRI LEDs don't make nice green color in general (and you can't quite correct with post-processing), but I'm pretty satisfied with this higher CRI LED bulbs. I didn't use RAW, and shot with JPEG as usual, and auto white balance did most of the work. Not too bad, isn't it? There are better high CRI LEDs, but Hyperikon is much cheaper. So these make a very workable multi-light setup for cheap (at least for small static objects like plants). The shutter speed becomes slow, so you do need a tripod.

Fernando · #2 10-12-2016, 06:29 AM

Great plant, and, as always a skilful presentation. Thanks for sharing all those gems!

WhiteRabbit · #3 10-12-2016, 09:59 PM

Beautiful!

u bada · #4 10-17-2016, 05:50 PM

beautiful image, beautiful flower! and thanks for the photo tips! I shoot with an omd as well... I've been lazy and just using flash, but with not bad results... I'll have to try out the fixtures/etc you recommend. I've been doing photo stacking a lot more myself, handy practice i'll say that... what lens are you using? mm?

naoki · #5 10-17-2016, 09:37 PM

I'm mostly using Olympus 60mm/f2.8 macro lens. Very nice lens and an amazing bargain. I was a Nikon-only kind of person, but now I rarely bring out the big cameras. Unfortunately, in-camera photo stacking can't be done with any lens (which is understandable because the camera has to know the specifics of each lens to calculate the focus intervals). But 60mm is a great lens for orchids.

For stacking, the continuos light is very nice, so you should give it a try. I can't use the high speed shutter, but it works ok for static objects like flowers.

I was going to make DIY COB light with high CRI (>90) for photography. After checking around, I thought Generation 7 Bridgelux Décor Specialty Vero 18, 5600K, 90CRI, was very promising. But it is still too new, and not available in a small quantity. So I decided to try this cheap spot light. But after trying this, I decided that the flood light is cheap and good enough although Vero would give a couple order of magnitude higher output.

Do you do focus stacking with the in-camera, Olympus software, or other software? I've never tried software based stacking although it will probably do better job than in-camera.

No-Pro-mwa · #6 10-24-2016, 11:17 AM

Camera shots are above my head, but the orchid is a great one.

Tindomul · #7 10-24-2016, 12:26 PM

Drop dead Gorgeous.

naoki · #8 10-24-2016, 02:58 PM

Thank you all, I should have waited a bit longer before taking photos. With more buds opened, it is quite pretty.

u bada · #9 10-24-2016, 07:38 PM

been meaning to reply to this...

I'm not a technician photographer whatsoever... but I get by with all the learning... I'll pm you for tips if you don't mind, nice to know someone who also uses the camera also... I will say that there's so much controls with the camera it's almost barely necessary to have to get everything right in the moment anymore... and I do a fair a mount of tweaking in post production software anyway... so yeah, that's how i do photo stacking. Gotta figure out the focus bracketing (in camera), just have to sit down one of these days...

I did get a LED bulb for continuous light to try out myself. bought it local, so it was a tad pricey, and cri is 80, not bad. 5000K, 800lm, 40 beam.

Just posted a photo I did with it:
Care tips for cattleya dormaniana?

For micro miniature flowers, not quite bright enough, but for larger flowers not bad at all. At least paired with flash it serves up a decent if not good back fill.

Rarely direct disposable income towards photography these days, so yet to get a good macro. It's on the to do list, good to know the 60mm is pretty good. I've been debating between that an lumix, although can't remember which... although I could really use a good zoom, all mine are primes... well have the crappy kit lens which is a zoom. anyway, use 45 mm zuiko with a macro converter if you can believe that.

naoki · #10 10-25-2016, 01:29 AM

Good luck with C. dormaniana. I tried once, but I couldn't get it going.

As you mentioned, it is not strong, but I would say that it is easier with smaller flowers. Don't you think? That's because I don't need to use umbrellas, diffusers or softboxes for small flowers like Lepanthes. And with larger flowers, I need to place the light quite a bit further so it doesn't create too much contrast on the light vs shadow side. But with smaller ones, I can place the light fairly close. But we'll see, I need to experiment more with this light.