Photographing flowers

[crisscross]

In tidying up the Azalea shot, I decided to also bring back a bit more of the colour in the background ending up with this (leaving a few actual natural flaws to annoy Dave)

and while at it, here is one of oilseed rape which is more normally viewed en masse (will return to it as a landscape feature shortly if any successes)

just a tree trunk as background

[Dave Humphries]

(leaving a few actual natural flaws to annoy Dave)

Awww, You needn't have worried especially for me

I think I prefer this one, and the oilseed rape is a lot better than my attempt at something similar, which has been consigned to "pixel heaven".

[VeryImproperCharlie]

I wish I'd taken every one of these beautiful shots....and I see also that not all of each bloom is in sharp focus in some cases; so I guess this DOF thing I'm hooked on is really something to be used creatively, if I can just relax and enjoy it. < ; )

This is such a sensible forum, thanks all....so much clearer than most of the others, plus more adult in approach.

V.I.C.

[Wirefox]

CrissCross/Dave

I am with you all the way on the backgrounds. I am going to show my novice status here and ask how you get the vibrant flowers in the foreground and yet have the background be unobtrusive. I seem to get the plague of the lumogreen blobs lurking in the background ChrissCross's last two images show what I would like to achieve.

[crisscross]

I ...ask how you get the vibrant flowers in the foreground and yet have the background be unobtrusive. I seem to get the plague of the lumogreen blobs lurking in the background

Pleased that the thread has aroused some interest and thanks for compliments

When flower hunting, just hunt one with something darkish behind it, tree-trunks useful, (but not too easy to carry about). In PP putting on a luminosity 'S' curve, the darker background automatically darkens (or can be helped to) when you get the shading right between bright and shaded petals. The Azalea is pure cheating as the 'background' could only be the same colour range as the foreground. Cut an accurate mask then do whatever needs doing with background to blur and darken. Stamp out irritating background highlights.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve and Charlie,

As Chris says, in a lot of cases, you have to dodge around to get an angle against a dark background, or wait until the sun is in the right place that the background is in deep shadow.

However, there are times when it is unavoidable, like here;


In this case, first, before I took the shot (in a public park), I cleared away as much loose leaves, dead flowers, etc. as had been blown around this bloom, then I spent a fair amount of PP time 'burning' (i.e. selectively reducing the brightness of) the backgound grasses, nothing too drastic, just enough to make the subject the brightest thing in shot. There was a little desaturation on those buds in the background too.
Plus, to accentuate the subject further, a liberal brush over everything except the bloom with the blur brush, so that when I did the final sharpen, all it sharpened was the bloom itself, not the grass.

It was shot at 1/500s @ f8, ISO200 on a 6MP Fuji S6500.
Shutter speed was that high to avoid wind movement, the aperture was the best I could get for DoF on that camera. Fortunately it was a bright sunny February day, so I didn't need more than ISO200.

Hope that helps,

[Raycer]

Here's my flower pic.
cheers

[Brigitte]

They are all great shots. Wow.....

[Jim B.]

[wjh31]

well if we are showing off our flower shots, here''s a recent one i like, taken in the cambridge botanical gardens

[Wirefox]

Dave/CrissCross
Thanks for the tips. I will certainly take more care with the backgrounds in future. Dave that crocus is pin sharp. I must admit, for this kind of shot, I did have more success with the old FinePix S7000....I will keep practicing.

Whoops almost forgot. I do love your campion(?) image. Very clean and natural.

[Dave Humphries]

Nice pic wjh31 (Go'on, tell us your name please?)

I had to check the EXIF to see how you got a whole bee and most of the flower in focus; and it's the usual story, not shot using a DSLR, so benefitting from the extra DoF f8 and a small sensor brings, just as Steve (wirefox) was saying!

Perhaps I'd better hang on to the Fuji ....

[crisscross]

I had to check the EXIF to see how you got a whole bee and most of the flower in focus; and it's the usual story, not shot using a DSLR, so benefitting from the extra DoF f8 and a small sensor brings....
Perhaps I'd better hang on to the Fuji ....

For flower shots where you need the leaf in focus for botanical ID and some special situations (eg getting snowdrops from below), I wish I still had my 1st digital Nikon E4500 and still have some 'definitive' shots from it which I can't improve on. For newer converts to digital the E4500 was a 'swivel' compact focussing down to 20mm in front of the lens and the swivel keeps the whole mechanism in the case, no forward projection of the lens on zooming. (also very popular with digiscopers)

Nikon occasionally produce a new swivel, unfortunately recent ones with no manual or .nef, but when I can no longer hump a DSLR about....

Yes I should keep the Fuji Dave (or if you have penurious daughters, lend out in the family)

[Dave Humphries]

Yes I should keep the Fuji Dave (or if you have penurious daughters, lend out in the family)

Yes, my son already has his eye on it for a European road trip in August.

[fauxbird]

ok im adding one though i was more interested in the pool of water trapped in it

[crisscross]

the pool may not have had so much attraction somewhere else Suzanne

welcome to the forum from me

know to look right down into potential water carrying flowers now This is a sort of inversion of the sculptress Barabara Hepworth's garden where her sculptures can contain water pools that reflect her roses and it totally transforms them.

[fauxbird]

i would have liked to get the shot from looking directly into this ranunculus flower but it was not possible,it was planted in a display and i dont have a very long arm reachhmm maybe i can get my arms stretched?

[wjh31]

@dave

name is will hall, wjh31 is just a generic login id i was given at uni and still use.

I was shooting some test shots for a small project of mine, and happened across the bee, i only managed a single shot before it buzzed off so was lucky to get it to come out, but sometimes the best shots are the ones you didnt plan combined with a little luck

Post processing was quick, a crop to get the bee off-center, unsharp mask and bring up the colours a bit

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Will,

but sometimes the best shots are the ones you didnt plan combined with a little luck

This is certainly true!

Cheers,