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Roman Kurywczak
08-08-2010, 11:56 AM
Hot here in NJ....but went outside for a walk with my macro. This weed is prolific in my yard! Upon closer examination.....these tiny flowers are quite beautiful! Took it indoors to stay cool in the AC......and looked for a few angles using white mat board as the BG.....natural diffused window light.....silver reflector.....a a powerful blast of flash to make it go to almost a watecolor look. I love exploring this technique with other flowers.....doesn't always work.....but fun experimenting!
Canon 1D Mark lll with the Sigma 180mm macro set to ISO 1600 at f32 for 1/80 sec. HH and the MT24 twin lights at +2 &2/3

Anita Bower
08-08-2010, 12:18 PM
You know by now that I love high key images. This one included. I like the simplicity and seeing this tiny flower fill the frame. Beautiful shapes. Wish the blue were more even on the left petal. Lovely work!

Ken Childs
08-08-2010, 12:22 PM
I think this works really well with the white BG. I like the stem coming from the LR and the colors look good. I might crop a small amount from the left.

You've got a species of dayflower, possibly a Slender Dayflower. They're small but really cool if you don't mind getting down to ground level to enjoy them.

I've been recently chastised for calling some of my white BG'd flower shots high-key, even the ones that are relatively light and a bit overexposed. After doing some research, I've found that I was rightfully chastised so technically speaking, this isn't a high-key shot. I really don't care what it's called, I just know that I like it. :)

Julie Kenward
08-08-2010, 05:36 PM
Hey Ken, tell us what you found to be the difference - what qualifies as "high key" and what doesn't? I'd love to hear what you found.

Roman, excellent image. I also might crop a bit from the left side but I do see where the balance of this crop came in.

Only problem I have with this is the left blue petal - it seems a bit OOF compared to all the other wonderful pieces of this floral puzzle. Any idea why it's not as crisp as the rest? Was it leaning away more than the other one or did it just upload a little soft?

This reminds me of a botanical book's photograph but one done by someone with a whole lot of artistic flair. Your positioning and angle of this really shows off its full beauty!

Roman Kurywczak
08-08-2010, 05:44 PM
Hey All,
Thanks! Yes....the left petal was very far away as far as DOF was concerned.....so until I get more.....(i can focus stack this as I brought it indoors)....best at the angle. I actually pumped up some of the color....they were much softer....guess I'm just in a bolder color mood right now....and I softened the greens on the right. I'm actually contemplating this as a shallow dof image....yeah scary for me......but since it is a weed.....not a real issue!
Thanks again all and I will definitely revisit this one!

Ken Childs
08-08-2010, 06:38 PM
Hey Ken, tell us what you found to be the difference - what qualifies as "high key" and what doesn't? I'd love to hear what you found.
It's hard to find an exact definition but here is some of what I found. The best way is to do your own Googling so you you can see some examples. I think if I lightened up the pinks and that muddy area on my Zinnia shot it could be considered high-key.

"Term describing a photograph which contains large areas of light tones, with few mid-tones or shadows."

"image with the majority of the pixels to the right of center of the graph ..."

"Term describing a photograph which contains large areas of light tones, with few mid-tones or shadows."

"Describes an image consisting of light and delicate tones. Highlights: Brightest and lightest parts of a subject."

"High key photos are ones in which there's a predominance of high values. The confusion arises because some people think that high key images are ones taken against a light background, or overexposed images with blown highlights."

Julie Kenward
08-08-2010, 07:05 PM
Ken, the descriptions you have are what I always thought a high key image was also. It's really not just an image with an all-white BG although that is a good place to start! Thanks for the clarification!

Paul Lagasi
08-08-2010, 07:23 PM
I wish we had some of these weeds up here...nice image, I can almost see a face in the left blue petal....beauty..nice capture

Nick Palmieri
08-09-2010, 06:48 AM
Nice one Roman. The composition is very nice. The soft colors are so "Un-Roamanesesque" but sure do work on this one.

Adrian David
08-09-2010, 10:18 AM
Beautiful presentation on a white BG. I like it very much.There are so many tiny little flowers, that we are not aware off, until we get a very close look...

Steve Maxson
08-09-2010, 03:07 PM
I don't think I've ever seen this species, Roman. It's a very interesting looking flower and you did an excellent job of showing it off - and had fun in the process from the sound of it. :)

Jonathan Ashton
08-09-2010, 03:59 PM
I like the image very much and the more I look the more I like it. i wouldn't be too concerned about the left hand petal, if you looked at this with the naked eye I don't think you would see all points of the plant equally sharply in any event, I like the natural appearance of the flower.