Motif - Hosta

[Gail Spitler]

This is an exercise for the dof assignment. Additionally I am trying to deal with some other challenges. I want the flower parts from front to back to be in focus (dof) and I want to successfully expose the white of the flowers, and to deal with the range of light covering the flower and the water droplets. I did a lot of playing around with the exposure until I settled on this one.
I lightened the image a tad, sharpened another tad and cropped slightly.
The image was made in hopes of learning more about all of this. I welcome your suggestions and comments.
Thanks for looking
Gail

Canon 30D 70-300mm at 130mm with 12mm ext tube, f/18, 1/50 sec, ISO 640, EV with 0 compensation, handheld

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Gail,
I'm happy to see that you are painting flowers...:) I like the basic composition here. The image is a bit under exposed. You did great with the whites, you have good details. and I like the water droplets...:D I took the liberty in making a few corrections, I hope you approve and like...;) I started by cropping just a tad from the right side of the frame to off set the flower from the center. I increased the contrast a bit and made the flower just a little lighter. I cloned out the leaves in the background which were taking away from your main subject. and a gave you just a wee bit of sharpening...:cool:

[Gail Spitler]

Gus
Wow ... great improvement, thanks for the info on how you went about the modifications. I think the only thing I can add is that the pollen on the stamens on the left are now a bit over-exposed, so I'll try to isolate them from the lightening and increasing the contrast.
Thanks very much.
Gail

[Richard Waas]

Great comp Gail. Way to go on the flowers! I like the lightening by Gus. Fix the stamens and you have a WINNER.

[Arthur Morris]

Great re-post work by Gus. Avoiding having part of a shaded subject lit by the sun is a good plan. Not sure if your image was too dark because of problems with the capture or the processing.

Do you understand what it means to expose to the right???

[Gail Spitler]

Art
I think what "expose to the right" means is to try to get the histogram shifted to the right as far as possible without blowing the whites. Then you can increase contrast and brightening without increasing the noise to unacceptable levels. Is that close?
By having part of the flower in sunlight, I knew I was creating difficulties at both ends of the histogram. So I tried to expose to the right, but couldn't avoid some overexposure on the whites. So the best I could do was to minimize the overexposure.
The plant was in deep shade.
I knew that the light was problematic, but that it might be dramatic.
Gail

[Lance Peters]

Like the Gus repost - agree with the stamens, and the OOF leaves were distracting.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Gail,

re:

I think what "expose to the right" means is to try to get the histogram shifted to the right as far as possible without blowing the whites.

That is correct.

Then you can increase contrast and brightening without increasing the noise to unacceptable levels. Is that close?

Close. You do not always want to increase contrast. What you want to do is make Level and Curves adjustments so that your image looks the way you want it too. My point was that in your ORIG post the image was overall too dark (as the repost by Gus showed).

By having part of the flower in sunlight, I knew I was creating difficulties at both ends of the histogram.

That is my second point: when working in filtered light you are creating difficulties that are often impossible to overcome...

So I tried to expose to the right, but couldn't avoid some overexposure on the whites. So the best I could do was to minimize the overexposure.The plant was in deep shade. I knew that the light was problematic, but that it might be dramatic.

Well, in the end Gus made it look pretty good.

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks guys for the comments and thanks Art for the discussion about the exposure. Most helpful.

Gail

[Alfred Forns]

Great thread guys !!!!!


Gail got one more suggestion for you !!! Those flowers are usually in the shade and not very well lit .... you can use a reflector and light it up !!!! Same way we use diffusers to cut down the light we can use a reflector illuminate. They are not expensive at all and are easy to carry since they fold. Can even have the reflectors with different colors !!!!

Making flower images its always good to work with another person in tandem so you can help each other.

[Harold Davis]

great base image gail!!! i too have enjoyed this thread. i like the repost by mr cobos!!

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks to all for their comments. It has been a good learning experience for me. Al I like the idea of a reflector to get some fill light.
Gail

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great image Gail, and excellent repost by Gus.
Congrats

[Alice Meronek]

The note about the reflector is good. If you get one of those 5 in 1 discs, you can use the disfusser for smoothing out the spotty light and the silver or gold to reflect light back onto the flowers. It does not take much reflected light to really punch it up without creating heavy shadows or too bright highlights. Of course that is when you need a third and fourth hand.

[Gail Spitler]

The note about the reflector is good. If you get one of those 5 in 1 discs, you can use the disfusser for smoothing out the spotty light and the silver or gold to reflect light back onto the flowers. It does not take much reflected light to really punch it up without creating heavy shadows or too bright highlights. Of course that is when you need a third and fourth hand.

Alice
Give me a clue as to where you might purchase said items
Thanks
Gail

[Harold Davis]

check this out

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/482499-REG/Hensel_3000220_22_5_in_1_Reflector.html

[Nonda Surratt]

Gail,

Hosta flowers are tough and you got lots in that image, like Gus's repost!

[Alice Meronek]

Adray Camera, Adorama Camera and B&H all have reflector disks for sale in different sizes and some in the 5 in 1 combos.
Reflectors can also be used to block the breeze.

Also try lighting with flashlights. Most people carry a small flashlight in their bag in case they stay a bit late getting that last great photo so they can see the trail back. Using the flashlight during the day gives you an extra light source that can be immediately seen what the effect will be. Watch out for the yellow cast and use it to your benefit. Some flashlights are more yellow that others.