Flower comments please - DPChallenge Forums

Canon PowerShot Pro 90 IS

03/27/2005 05:18:29 PM · #1

Wanted to see what you thought of these. (if I'm improving lol!) I don't have the right lights to work with yet, so I took two of these near a window. (rainy outside) The other one, I wanted to see if I could do a black background. :) Thanks!

christie3

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

03/27/2005 05:29:15 PM · #2

I like the first one, although there is something (another flower?) in the top right hand corner that bugs me, other than that I like it.
The second one looks a little overexposed on the outer bits of the petals.
I like the third one, too.
Purty pictures! : )

coolhar

03/27/2005 08:01:29 PM · #3

They look good to me. It's refreshing to see some flower shots with good depth of field to them, you see so many where too much of the flower is out of focus.

03/27/2005 10:02:23 PM · #4

Thanks for looking at them for me & commenting! :)

eostyles

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

03/27/2005 10:04:32 PM · #5

I think they are all very good but I think the third one has really great colors and stands out from the other two...

Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM

03/27/2005 10:45:33 PM · #6

Originally posted by eostyles:

I think they are all very good but I think the third one has really great colors and stands out from the other two...

Thanks! I was a little worried that maybe I had gotten the third one too sharp. Glad it's ok. I love my new hobby! This is SO much fun! :)

Message edited by author 2005-03-27 22:49:08.

Bud

Canon EOS-550D Rebel T2i

03/28/2005 03:35:24 AM · #7

#1 & #3 are more interesting than the middle photo, just because of the background.

train

Panasonic DMC-FZ30

03/28/2005 03:53:47 AM · #8

I like the first one the black makes it really striking
The others are nice also Keep up the good work

mrmojo

Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2

03/28/2005 04:07:17 AM · #9

You don't need expensive lighting to shoot flowers. They are very small so a couple of desk lamps or clamp lights with daylight bulbs in them will work fine. Also if you use your onboard flash correctly you can get some great results with it. You can make a softbox for a couple of bucks out of cardboard or white foamcore. Make sure you paint the cardboard glossy white or use tin foil on the inside. Then rap the enclosure with a piece of white shower curtain or nylon immatation silk. I shot whis photo with my onboard flash and a homemade softbox.

03/28/2005 09:11:17 AM · #10

Originally posted by mrmojo:

How pretty! I shot my black one in the laundry room with the door closed and the lights off! lol I used a flashlight to light the flower! :) I did use a dark background cloth farther back though and made sure not to light it. But hey, it worked!

03/28/2005 09:22:49 AM · #11

Originally posted by mrmojo:

Also if you use your onboard flash correctly you can get some great results with it.

Can you explain this further? I noticed that in the "dark laundry room" when I was taking the pictures, if I used my flash, it didn't look good. The pics were too washed out or it lit too much of the background. I ended up just using the flashlight and no flash.

Message edited by author 2005-03-28 09:30:01.

Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF

03/28/2005 09:26:18 AM · #12

Originally posted by aguapreta:

#1 & #3 are more interesting than the middle photo, just because of the background.

Originally posted by train:

I like the first one the black makes it really striking
The others are nice also Keep up the good work.

Thanks! :)

mrmojo

Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z2

03/28/2005 01:39:56 PM · #13

what you have to do is speed up the shot. Shoot at like iso 100 and shoot the shutter at like 1/1000 or 1/2000 with it on manual set the shutter to f8 and shoot from there. If it is to dark then drop the aperature down a half stop and continue until you get what you want. What is happening here is you are tricking the ttl in your camera. Most cameras flash sync only go to 1/500. So with this fast shutter you are tricking the ttl to think that the image is exposed when in reality you dont give the background enough time to expose and so it is around 2 stops darker than the foreground. This only works when you are close up to the flower, dont be using telephoto will takin the picture.

What the softbox does is soften up the light and also narrow the depth of field and the distance it is effective. It tightens up the distance at least 8 fold. Onboard flashes are only effective for like 10 feet at most anyways, with the softbox it is more like 3 or 4. So less light hits the background.

Also if you have an offboard flash you can set your camera to like 2 sec exposure and in a dark room trigger the flash in your hand from the side with a piece of white foamcore on the other side to act as a reflector. If you narrow the flashes spread to like 80mm it will only shoot the flower and leave the background untouched making it come up black in the photo.

faidoi

Pentax K10D

03/28/2005 01:51:38 PM · #14

1 - Excellent lighting. The contrast of the black background really helps to give your attention to the flower. The way the flower is opening up automatically brings your eyes toward the center. The beautiful shadows and highlights make this a very pleasing image.

2 - Not a bad crop, but would add interest if it was a bit sharper. Maybe the adding water droplets or something. The soft lighting makes this image not as good as the other 2. Playing with levels, contrast, curves may improve it.

3 - The contrasting background color really helps to focus your eyes on the flower itself. The sharpness of the center really brings your eyes toward it. I don't mind seeing the tops and bottoms cut off compared to the other flower on the left side. Contrast is good. Wonderful shadows and highlights in the petals. Pure eyecandy.