Fairy Wings

[Julie Kenward]

Out of boredom for the winter I have been purchasing a few flowers each week when I stop by the grocery store. Last week I picked up this lily and played around with it for awhile. I amazed me how many different angles and images one can create from a single flower!

This one reminds me of a pair of fairy wings. ;) I set the bloom in a short bud vase and waited for the petals to fully open so I could get in close without the stamen being in the way.

Canon 40D, EF 100mm f/2.8 macro
f4.5 @ 1/200th, ISO 400
Manual mode, pattern metering, handheld, natural light
Processed in ACR & CS4; small adjustments to lighting, small crop off top, a few small clones to clean up along the edges, sharpening.

[Julie Brown]

That is a good way to stay creative until spring comes! Nice composition and colors Jules. I like this.

[Dave Woeller]

Julie, I've been following all of your grocery store floral shots, both here and OOTB. What a great series, and a great way to stay fresh and creative. The colors and composition in each is outstanding. Might be time for me to follow suit and get that energy flowing also.

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful shot. I like the light and colors. The diagonal lines and the shallow DOF are great.

Markus

[Aidan Briggs]

I love the diagonal lines and the spots here. The lighting and colors are excellent too. And of course the shallow DOF :)

[Allen Sparks]

beautiful shot and I am kind of jealous of your creativity (in which I am somwhat lacking!). Love the focus on the back of the flower with the "wings" coming at you with increasing blur. Nice.

[Julie Kenward]

Allen (and anyone else who cares to listen) the "creativity" you speak of can be easily learned. Here's what you need to do:

Get a macro lens. Get a flower in a vase. Get a piece of posterboard or a plain colored wall to act as the non-distracting background. Make sure you have some good natural light coming in.

Set the flower so it is about even with you while you are sitting in a chair. Sometimes a table works...other times you have to improvise. I'm pretty short so I usually end up with it on a big tote in the middle of the floor. Now, sit down pretty close to the flower and put the camera in manual mode with a pretty shallow focal range. Set your shutter speed to at least 1/60th (the higher the better but at LEAST 1/60th since you are hand holding) and open up the ISO a bit - maybe to 200 or 400 if you have good light. You'll be amazed at how the colors change with a higher ISO.

Set the aperture to one of the widest open apertures your lens has (I often use 2.8 or 4 with my 100mm f2.8 macro lens.) Now lean in and slowly move closer to - and further from - the flower. Move the focus ring if you need to but try to let your body's movements determine when the flower's parts are in focus. Turn the vase, look at the back, look at the front, go underneath, stand up over top of it - just keep moving in and out, back and forth, and let the flower show you where the photographs are.

I promise you if you try this a few times you will get to the point where you can sit down, switch the camera to manual mode and bam! There comes the images! Once you try this, you will NEVER look at a flower quite the same. It suddenly becomes about textures, colors, creases, & slivers of light...it's an amazing thing to discover! You'll also be amazed at how many images you throw away when you're all done but the ones you keep will knock your socks off.

[Julie Brown]

Great tutorial Jules!

[Anita Bower]

Very beautiful. Calm and cheery at the same time. The colors are stunning. Great composition. Have been enjoying your winter flower series. Just wonderful work!! :)

Great tutorial on flower macros. I never hand hold. I'm not very steady. But, you are encouraging me to try. I'm interested in higher ISOs changing the colors. I will have to experiment and see.