[pete_pf]

i'm trying to do some light painting on some poinsettias i got, hoping to make nice xmas cards for friends and family, but it's turning into a disaster. the results turn out really ugly, bland and obviously fake. does anyone have any ideas for light painting flowers? i get the basic concept because i've done a little bit of it in the past, but i'm struggling with this flower.

i'm really not that creative with props and staging, so if you know anything that could help me out i'd appreciate it.

in case you don't know what light painting is, basically i'm in a pitch black room and set my shutter speed for 30secs and light up the flowers with a flash light. here are some examples.

Rose - Light Painting on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Light Painting - Still 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

i'll upload my image just to show how much i'm sucking at this lol

don't know why the attachment uploads so crappy, but the quality is a bit better on my pc :P

Attached Images

 

One thing I notice about the two links you provided, there is space between the camera and subject which allows the light to work. Your shot doesn't allow that to happen because there is no space.

[marcdsgn]

Only thing I'd suggest is having one flash behind and below the flowers as a backlight, which might help to define the leaf edges.

[Slowpoke Rodriguez]

It looks to my amateur eye like there might be a depth of field problem here. It looks to me like the dark leaves in the background are what is in focus, and the flower petals are not. Was that your intended effect?