Flowers,  Monochrome Madness,  Photographic techniques,  Themed galleries

Gallery: floral triptychs in monochrome

January 28, 2026 / 30 Comments

There are always flowers for those who want to see them

Henri Matisse

In a Northern Hemisphere winter, seeing flowers can always lift the spirits. Whether it’s a rare winter-blooming plant in a garden, a vase in the home or photos from past summer or journeys, the sight is always a welcome one.

So it made sense to me to focus on flowers for Elke’s Monochrome Madness theme of triptychs. Inspired in part by the work of a friend at my photography group I created a handful of images using the same technique for each. Firstly, using Photoshop Elements, I flipped the shot horizontally and saved it as a new image. I then combined the two, lining them up to create a symmetrical image. I used Nik Silver Efex to transform this into a high contrast monochrome version. Back in Photoshop Elements I used one of the ‘fun edits’ options to turn that into a triptych with a different filter applied to each section. It sounds a fiddly process, and the first time I tried it, it was, as it took several attempts to get it right. But once I had the workflow clear in my mind it proved much quicker and easier. The most successful shots were those that were completely uncluttered (if necessary I removed stray leaves intruding on the image and tidied up backgrounds).

The downside of using these tools is that you are limited in your options. It works best with a simple image, where the flower stands out from an uncluttered background. It’s not possible to change the balance between the three sections and some worked better than others, depending on the position of the flower. And there are a limited number of tones available too. Nevertheless I hope you enjoy the results.

I’ll be travelling for the next few weeks so my apologies in advance if I’m slower than usual to respond to any comments; they will still be welcome and all replied to in due course.

In Laos
Also in Laos (and my feature photo is from there too)
In Nepal
In Costa Rica
In Spain
At home in England

30 Comments

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