Very well done. Is there a color version too? Please post them.
I too, take flower and other shots, frequently on a black background. I do it mostly in my studio, so I have better control of the lighting, but have done it a few times outside too. It's just harder to get good results outside, and the black background needs to be perfectly black for the desired result. There is a special super black material for doing this (can't remember the name, but available through the larger photography suppliers). Indoors in my studio I frequently use black felt material and the results are great. Back lighting, so as to illuminate the pedals of the flowers from behind, yet have a black background is done using a larger size soft box about 3X or larger than the black background, and using a smaller piece of black felt suspended in front of the soft box as the black background. I usually employ a chemical lab type stand on the table to hold the flowers in position in front of the black felt, and arrange it so that the soft box light comes around the black background to light the back side of the flower pedals. To light the facing side of the flowers, I usually use small pieces of white matte board or foam core, positioned off to the sides of camera view and angled to reflect the soft box light back at the face side of the flowers and stem. Additional lighting can be used instead, but I can usually get enough light using just the small matte board reflectors for a good shot, I usually use small pieces of wood A clamped to the base of these to make a stand and keep them sitting properly upright and in position sitting on the table. Whenever pointing a light source directly at the camera, a mask is needed in between these small white matte board reflectors and the camera lens, with a hole in it's center sufficiently large enough for the camera lens to see through it's hole, but with the hole size small enough to block all of the soft box light from directly hitting the camera lens. Positioning, and sizing of the hole in this black aperture mask will take a bit of experimenting and test shots, but the result of all this preparation can be quite impressive. This mask prevents any flare from reaching the camera lens, even though the soft box is pointed directly toward the camera.
I love doing shots like this. It's a bit of mental challenge to get right the first time, but well worth doing for the learning experience alone. You will learn a lot about how your light for photography behaves and this setup or similar can be used for many other kinds of shots too. Attached is a shot straight from the camera with no editing. I blacked out the stuff on the right in POST, but left the shot included with nothing done so you could see the raw result.
