Keukenhof

Keukenhof is the world’s largest flower garden located near Lisse, The Netherlands. Each year Keukenhof is open for only two months, usually from late March to mid May. This year I visited Keukenhof to take photos of the beautiful flowers.
It was a clear, overcast day, perfect for photography. A sunny day is nice, but the contrast can be too high. Taking close-up photos is a challenge. The flower beds are located in lawns and you are not supposed to walk on the grass. Even though, take a look at the first photo I took:

I discovered the automatic white balance tends to subdue the bright colours of the flowers. Take a look at the following photos. The first photo is the standard, out-of-the-camera JPEG image. The second photo is a JPEG image, processed with DXO Optics 6.1 from the RAW file with white balance set to daylight.

Photo 1

Photo 2

The actual colours of the flowers are like the ones in photo 2. It turned out to be that the daylight white balance produced the correct colours for the photos taken outside.
In the morning, it started to rain just a little bit. Luckily, Keukenhof also has indoor exhibitions. Here are some photos of orchids on display.

After a while it stopped raining, and I could take some photos of the tulips up close and personal.

Here is an experiment with flash photography. The ambient exposure is stopped down –1 stop. Flash exposure is compensated with –2/3 stop.

The colours are really fantastic.

Here is an interesting artwork. It is called 'Looking at bulbs' .

The tulips and other flowers are situated in a beautiful garden.

Keukenhof also has other plants, besides tulips.

 

You can see all my photos in a slideshow by clicking on this link, or click on the photo below.