Veronica spicatum, newbie needing advice

[Curlyworld]

I am fairly inexperienced in digital photography and have no experience with editing. Can you please give me some feedback on the photo below? I would have liked more light at the front but when I use the pop up flash it overexposes. Also, the whole of the subject is not sharp. Please can you advise (be kind) as to what I could have done to improve the shot at the time of taking it, and if there is anything I can do to improve it in editing? Thanks in advance.

Oh, I was using a Panasonic GX80, Lumix 30mm macro lens, tripod (used as a mono-pod). No idea what the settings were.

[billtils]

Tim, we need more information about what you did in order to give you the best and relevant advice. However, an excellent starting place would be to go through the basic tutorials on this site - click on "Photography Tutorials" at the top of the home page. Oh, and "No idea what the settings were" is certainly a pointer to head to them!

Let us know how it goes and keep posting - the folks here are very friendly.

[Geoff F]

I would suggest that you are on a lost cause with that scene, Tim, due to the amount of background reflection. Flower photography is nearly as difficult as portrait photography.

Start by doing a bit of 'gardening' to clean up any unwanted bits in the background/foreground.

Using flash for flowers is a debatable area. Sometimes it helps to equalise the lighting and avoid shadows, but other times it over exposes reflective areas. When using flash, I set my camera manually to suit the scene then apply a little flash output compensation to get the flash level exactly correct. Bearing in mind that your shutter speed may be limited by using flash.

Alternatively, get an assistant to hold a reflective panel to direct light into the dark areas, or to create some light shadow on overly bright parts. Avoid harsh sunshine. Ideally, a lightly overcast day is required.

No assistant or unable to adjust the weather? Sometimes I have managed to prop a reflector against other foliage or leaning against my backpack. Light shadow can be created by using a hand or by twisting my body into an uncomfortable angle.

For most flower shots, I do use flash but with an external flash unit (not a cheap item!) and my camera (Canon 7D Mk ll) is easy to adjust for manual settings.

Parts of a shot out of focus are another common problem. With close up photography, your focus depth will be very shallow so you can't get everything into sharp focus. The answer is focus stacking. Manually focus, with your camera on a tripod and take several shots with slightly different areas in sharp focus then use one of the auto image stacking programmes to blend together all of the sharpest shots. Many of the commonly available editing programmes have this function.

However, it does require a camera with manual focus. Alternatively, make sure you are completely square on to the subject so all areas are within your focus depth. Beware of using the camera auto settings which may select a wide open aperture with a very shallow focus depth. I always use aperture priority setting, unless I am manually adjusting my exposure settings.

So, don't get discouraged. Just try to adjust your shooting technique to overcome the many potential problems.

[Curlyworld]

Thanks Bill. haha, yes I thought someone might say about looking at the tutorials and I have already started. I do remember using aperture priority, probably on a shallow depth of field to blur out the background but no further than that. I uploaded to my PC and then deleted off the camera, so lost the info. I will definitely keep going - Cheers

[Curlyworld]

Thanks for the detailed feedback, Geoff. I will take on board your advice on close ups. In this instance I didn't really have any control over the scene - it was a spur of the moment thing, as the light was hitting the flower in an interesting way (it looked far better at the time than it does on the photo - hence me seeking advice, really). It was also a breezy day, so that meant I couldn't take multiple shots. I will try again, when we have a still day (doesn't happen often on the Lancashire coast) and post another shot. Thanks again

[billtils]

I uploaded to my PC and then deleted off the camera, so lost the info.

Tim, you didn't lose the info, it's embedded in the image file and you have that on your computer. . How to get to it depends on what image processing software you use or your computer. Just do a web search for EXIF and take it from there.

[Curlyworld]

Thanks Bill, will look into it...

F-stop f/3.2
Exposure time 1/800 sec
ISO speed 200
Exposure bias -0.7 step
Focal length 30mm
Metering mode Pattern
Flash mode No flash, compulsory

All other fields empty

[billtils]

Plenty to spare there!

Just dealing with depth of field for now, the best solution is what Geoff suggested but simply narrowing the aperture and adjusting shutter speed and ISO to compensate will give you more depth of field. Also with a comparatively large subject (for a macro shot) you can try shooting from a bit further away

[Curlyworld]

Thanks, Bill

[William W]

. . . I would have liked more light at the front but when I use the pop up flash it overexposes. . . . I was using a Panasonic GX80, Lumix 30mm macro lens, tripod (used as a mono-pod).

If you want to try using the Pop-up-flash, and you were using Aperture Priority, then it is very likely that you have "Flash Exposure Compensation" available to you. This being the case is also supported by "Exposure Bias" being read in the EXIF.

Look at your User Manual under the Flash Section.

Using the Pop Up Flash will be a crude solution providing only front on hard light, but you will learn a bit about balancing Ambient and Flash.

WW

[Urbanflyer]

You have gotten good feedback on time of capture, which, of course, is the optimal time to make good decisions. There is a fair amount you can do in post processing when you get to that place in your learning.

[Curlyworld]

Thanks, Bill. I will look into it.

[Curlyworld]

Thanks Judith. Yeah, I have got so much to learn and I am getting a bit overloaded. I'll stick at it, though. Thanks for the feedback, I would give your comment a thumbs up but don't want to change your 666 Helpful Posts

[Curlyworld]

I have looked and can adjust the flash output by up to +/- 3. Very useful to know and I would never have thought to look if you hadn't mentioned it, so thanks again.

[Geoff F]

That is normal adjustment range which should be sufficient providing you get your camera settings correct.

The danger comes with using full auto settings. Many cameras will auto adjust to give minimum Iso by fully opening the aperture and that gives a very shallow focus depth.

Typical values for me would be manual mode and settings around 1/200 to 1/320 (requiring high speed flash) and an aperture between F8 and f11, Iso 200 to 400. Then flash compensation between -1 and +1.

At least with digital cameras you can take a few test shots and see what you are getting. Unlike those film camera days where you could shoot a roll of 36 images which were all incorrectly exposed.