Some Flowers

[TobyMac]

Just playing with a really shallow DoF, thought the results were kinda fun, what do you think?


Flowers3 copy by Tobias Weber, on Flickr


Flowers2 copy by Tobias Weber, on Flickr


Flowers1 copy by Tobias Weber, on Flickr

[Andrew76]

Hi Tobias. Interesting experiment/concept. I think I would have liked it better if there was a 'definite' focus point. In most of these, the entire image seems soft.

There seems to be another effect. The purple has lost all detail. I wonder if it's from some post processing, or just from having such a shallow depth of field?

[Karm Redland]

Tobias, really like the first photograph. It's an interesting flower shot.

Karm

[TobyMac]

Hi Andrew, I was actually trying to make the image over soft to create a slight dreamy effect. Getting one central focus point was tricky because it was just a pot of really small purple flowers.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Tobias,

Of these, I prefer #2, mainly because of the composition.

There seems to be another effect. The purple has lost all detail. I wonder if it's from some post processing, or just from having such a shallow depth of field?

Hi Andrew,

It is likely because the blue channel is blown (over exposed) - check the blue channel histogram and you'll see a line of pixels climbing the right hand side (in 1 and 3 only, 2 looks OK).

Tobias,

When shooting really saturated flowers like these, you need to review the RGB histogram in camera at time of shooting (assuming it has one) - the luminance histogram will give grossly misleading results because it judges blue as only about 10% 'important', compared to green being 60% 'important' and red 30% 'important'.

You can see the effect on blue here:





Cheers,

[Andrew76]

Thanks Dave, that's what I expected, but it seems I've been saying that a lot lately. I didn't want to sound like a broken record.

Tobias, I still like the shots, and they're a great subject too - don't get me wrong, just not how I would have approached it. I think you've achieved what you were looking for. For that, well done!

[TobyMac]

Yeah I actually threw the luminance dial off the charts, I think thats what has lead to the softness. I didn't really achieve the affect I was looking for but I still think they look quite interesting.