Just one last one for the day...end of Week 17. For C&C please...

[IzzieK]

OK...so I bought this $5 orchid at Lowes. Down from $17 original price...I took it home and nurse it with liquid fish fertilizer and water mixed together very thinly...Here is a healthy specimen....



Please critique...it is the closest colour to the original flower...please remember too that I am new to this kind of genre...so don't just be nice to me...as I want to learn some more...

[Rebel]

It lacks a bit of sharpness, I can see your shutter speed is 1/13, did you shoot this on a tripod?

[FootLoose]

+1

How far away from the subject were you, Izzie? The exif indicates you were shooting at f/5.6 with a focal length of 300 mm. According to my DoF calculator, you would have to be at least 3m away to obtain a DoF of 2cm.

[Barbara Ponder]

I have to agree on the sharpness. The flower is lovely so you should have another go at it!

[GBO25]

+2, not quite enough DoF but I do like the composition.

[Kaye Leggett]

Oh flowers are so beautiful and so difficult to photograph aren't they ? But we'll get there !
For me, this is a little too bright, but maybe that is due to the lack of sharpness already identified ?

[IzzieK]

It lacks a bit of sharpness, I can see your shutter speed is 1/13, did you shoot this on a tripod?

Yes. I tried to. I was about 8 feet away from it. I have an overhead light and an LED light...and I shot in manual.

[IzzieK]

+1

How far away from the subject were you, Izzie? The exif indicates you were shooting at f/5.6 with a focal length of 300 mm. According to my DoF calculator, you would have to be at least 3m away to obtain a DoF of 2cm.

Yes..I was using a 70-300mm Sigma with macro option. Somewhere between 200mm and 300mm is the range I can see this flower sharp at a distance of 8 feet or so. I think the Sigma is a different animal or something...after choosing my ISO, I manually adjust the SS and the Aperture until I had obtained the right flower colour closest to the original. I have other ones that did not match the original flower colour so I dumped them, either too blue when I used a smaller DOF or something else colour, mostly with wider whites. I was also trying to avoid getting sharpness with the background because this table it was standing on is nearer my deck door and on the other side of the flower is our powder room which can be seen on other shots, hence the use of the wider aperture. Going on another angle, is our wet bar. I don't want to show them on the shot either. And I thought I was successful in that regard but the sharpness suffered.

I will do a reshoot during my break tomorrow...Hubby promised me a trip to the Botanical Garden but I need to finish my memorial. Five more flowers and one more mulch to go...and only two days of sunshine...so the Botanical Garden can wait Tuesday...

Thanks for the comments and tips...I really do appreciate it very much.

[IzzieK]

I have to agree on the sharpness. The flower is lovely so you should have another go at it!

I will -- tomorrow...I promise...thank you very much for passing by...even if it is not a birdie shot...And oh, I now have a new position for my birdie feeder and the birds finally found it yesterday afternoon...I will shoot more birdies when the weather will be good...

[IzzieK]

+2, not quite enough DoF but I do like the composition.

Thank you Graham...I thought about composition while on that shoot. I would normally shoot then think about composition when doing the PP...I have to get use to composition while the camera is in my face actually...a habit I should not take for granted...thank you for the reminder. I appreciate your comments very much.

[IzzieK]

Oh flowers are so beautiful and so difficult to photograph aren't they ? But we'll get there !
For me, this is a little too bright, but maybe that is due to the lack of sharpness already identified ?

I thought I would open the overhead light (which actually is a fan light) to get that defined crisp edges on the flower and had called my husband to shine my little pocket LED light on the whites of the flower to make it look nicer...Well he did on the other shots and the colour of the flower became bluish so I shined the LED a little bit further...

(You know, I kept forgetting to sort out my remote...I should get that sorted or use my ring light...) my actual shooting steps I had responded above to Greg's comment in Message 8.) I will do a reshoot and use a smaller aperture and adjust my SS to suit. And composition of course. So three things to remember there...thank you for looking and commenting. I appreciate it very much. So much learning and remembering to do, sometimes my brain just needs a little rest just cooking and gardening, sleeping and Cesar Millan...(my latest video craze...)

[James G]

Hi Izzie,
You said that some of your other captures showed significant colour shifts. Did you adjust your white balance? (You indicated you had an overhead light as well as an LED)

And as regards distracting backgrounds... I've been known to use a black shirt draped across a straight backed chair and my subject on the seat to get around that problem. If it's a nice cloudy day, you can also move this out side and take advantage of natural light, although I did use Janet's little black number in that instance since it produced a much more satisfying matte background.

[FootLoose]

Izzie, I think if you are shooting a still subject such as this with a tripod, all you need to worry about is the aperture. I would set the camera to base ISO and aperture priority, set my aperture to give me an appropriate depth of field and let the camera adjust the shutter speed to suit.

I only shoot in natural light, but I suspect your colour problems are being caused by using an overhead light and an LED. You have two different light temperatures to confuse the camera's metering. Why not try taking one shot of a gray card to establish a reference for processing, and then take your shot of the flower. Then you should be able to adjust your white balance in PP to get the flower's colour right.

[deetheturk]

Beautiful flower Izzie and good comp, but needs to be sharper pal, keep at it!

[Shadowman]

The petals and stem are a bit soft, but the bulb/stamen has a nice contrast.

[IzzieK]

Thanks James...I got myself one of my black backdrop fabric and used it on this....what do you think?

1.


2. And this...

Hi Izzie,
You said that some of your other captures showed significant colour shifts. Did you adjust your white balance? (You indicated you had an overhead light as well as an LED)

No. I didn't. I have my white balance at Cloudy and I was shooting indoors by the side of the deck door which is a little bit like bright there so I was shooting the other way from the door to lessen the bright light that might occur and also I stayed inside because of the breeze. It is a little bit too breezie, not at all the normal quiet one like today, there is a breeze but not as harsh.

And as regards distracting backgrounds... I've been known to use a black shirt draped across a straight backed chair and my subject on the seat to get around that problem. If it's a nice cloudy day, you can also move this out side and take advantage of natural light, although I did use Janet's little black number in that instance since it produced a much more satisfying matte background.

I just took one of the backdrops I use upstairs and brought it down. I know I should had ironed it first but I was just too busy to do it, so I just digitally erase the folds it has ... I know...cheating but that is what softwares do. Other than that, not much editing done but structure from Nik...no final sharpening which I always forget for uploading to Tinypic...

Thank you for commenting. I appreciate the tip and the feedback.

[IzzieK]

Izzie, I think if you are shooting a still subject such as this with a tripod, all you need to worry about is the aperture. I would set the camera to base ISO and aperture priority, set my aperture to give me an appropriate depth of field and let the camera adjust the shutter speed to suit.

I only shoot in natural light, but I suspect your colour problems are being caused by using an overhead light and an LED. You have two different light temperatures to confuse the camera's metering. Why not try taking one shot of a gray card to establish a reference for processing, and then take your shot of the flower. Then you should be able to adjust your white balance in PP to get the flower's colour right.

This time in my response to James, I did not use an overhead light and I also shot these two from my formal dining room which has a big bright bay window where my orchids lives, hence the backlighting effect on one side which I find attractive really...used no flash, still on cloudy metering but this time, I used a grey card as per your tip. I should remember that I have one of them...a useful tool, if I may say so...thank you so much for that tip...and thank you for the added info and comments. I do appreciate it very much...

[Geoff F]

With the black backdrops, Izzie, I think the first might take a slight crop on the right side; but this is really a matter of personal taste and some people like some negative space.

The second is just a fraction too close to the edge.

[IzzieK]

Beautiful flower Izzie and good comp, but needs to be sharper pal, keep at it!

Thanks David and John (Shadowman)...thank you for your kind comments. I concentrated my focus on the bulb John that is why... I wish I can know how to use grouping in this D810 thingie. I have once seen an article that you can use grouping on a D4 and D810 on a single object, that time, it was a single bird but the grouping focus was on 4 areas of the bird close to one another almost encompassing the whole bird, a sparrow I think or something bigger than a sparrow...but I did not save the link on that article. Bugger!..now I will have to look for that article again to learn how to enable mine on my camera.

Thanks for your kind comments and feedback. I truly appreciate it very much...

[James G]

Izzie #2 works best for me.

As regards the background I like it when there is a trace of texture as there is here...