Working a Subject

[Roman Kurywczak]

I want to tie this post into Jules August Macro discussion; http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?70422-August-Discussion-My-Love-for-Macro
to share with you how I work my subjects! I bought these flowers at a local nursery for my wife to plant in our outside gardens. I used one of the subjects for over 6 hours......taking a few breaks now and them but always thinking about the way the light hit it and different angles. The 1st post is what I had first envisioned when I saw it at the nursery. The 2nd post was a direction I took as I have a new fondness for the illustrated or hihg key look. The 3rd shows what I saw when the flower was backlit in my kithen when I walked by......and decided to do something creative! Same flower......a whole days worth of vision. Super brownie points with the wife!
I'll share the techs in each. This one: Canon 1D Mark lll with the Sigma 180mm macro at f32 1/80 sec. and ISO 800 Backlit sunlight, HH and the MT 24 twin lights at minus 1 &2/3 and silver reflector.

[Roman Kurywczak]

version 2....same camera and lens except; f22 and ISO 1600 for 1/60 sec. HH and the twin lights a +1. Cloudy sky as BG.

[Roman Kurywczak]

number 3....same camera and lens but; indoors at night, ISO 800 at f8 and 0.5 sec HH, moved during exposure.....mini mag light directly behind flower.
Same flower.....3 very different results all in one day! That's why I love macro!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Roman, all look good, but I prefer the second high key shot. It has a very nice painted feel, for me I like tight crops so I would have croped some off the left and top. It's nice seeing a comp from a different angle rather then shooting the front all the time.

[Norm Dulak]

Roman:

Very informative and interesting! All of the images are very well done, although the second one would be my favorite. That's because it shows more of that beautiful flower, at a pleasing angle and against what I think is a more complementary background.

I understand your love for macro and am rapidly arriving at that point myself. But perhaps because this interest of mine is new, I have not yet learned to appreciate more abstract interpretations such as your third, blurred example. Along the same line are the more artistic efforts of Tony Sweet, who in photographing fields of flowers has created multiple-exposure images in which his camera was progressively rotated, or moved vertically or horizontally, to produce a blurred abstraction. My camera is easily capable of doing that, but I am not quite there yet.

Still, scientist and experimenter that I am, I will try that in the future to see what results!:)

Norm

[kostas nianiopoulos]

verry good i'll go with 2 :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

.........I understand your love for macro and am rapidly arriving at that point myself. But perhaps because this interest of mine is new, I have not yet learned to appreciate more abstract interpretations such as your third, blurred example. Along the same line are the more artistic efforts of Tony Sweet, who in photographing fields of flowers has created multiple-exposure images in which his camera was progressively rotated, or moved vertically or horizontally, to produce a blurred abstraction. My camera is easily capable of doing that, but I am not quite there yet.

Still, scientist and experimenter that I am, I will try that in the future to see what results!:)

Norm
Hey Norm,
I still struggle with this myself! I've got to give credit to Denise and Jules.....as well as Anita to opening my eyes here on the forums to soft/selective focus as well as abstracts. I will confess that I take 100.....to get 1 I like. I tease Denise that it must be a guy thing!!! I can almost guarantee that the soft focus and abstracts will appeal to a wider base than my f32's........but fortunately.....I shoot macro's for myself! Good news is that experimenting in digital is now much cheaper.....so why not?!!!!

[Steve Maxson]

An interesting writeup and very cool images, Roman. I prefer #2 closely followed by #1. :)

[Desmond Chan]

Personally I would go with #1 and #3 :) I guess I prefer a photograph to look like a photograph rather than a painting or a drawing. A personal thing of course.:p I have had some shots taken with flash and look similar to #2. I always wonder what went wrong :D

[Nancy Bell]

I am also playing around with the macro lens this summer, and I give this forum and out-of-the-box all the credit for enlightening me and pushing my comfort zone. I really like #1. To me all those radiating lines of highly detailed green sepals to the more delicate looking yellow petals with a perfect pattern of red bases make this my choice. My eye just starts with the green and explodes outward.

[Nick Palmieri]

Oh my... you got to stop hanging out with the girls dude! f/32 or bust... (LOL).. I like all all three. BTW I think your wife is on to the idea that the flowers are not primarily for her...

[Ken Childs]

Roman, all 3 are very nice. I think I'd like #3 better if you lightened up those dark areas in the LRC. In my feeble brain, dark and soft just don't work well together. :confused:

[Jonathan Ashton]

2, then 1, beautiful images Roman.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good lesson in how to work a subject.

The first has a very explosive feel to it...reminds me of watching the fireworks on Parliament Hill as a kid - lying down on the ground staring up into the fireworks display when all of a sudden a bigger, brighter, louder one would invade the sky and seemingly come down onto us.

The second is my favorite. I don't know how to descirbe it, but I have a good peaceful feeling looking at it. The first and second have very opposing feels to them and create some sort of tension when viewed together. I say this in a good way!

The third, well, I'm still trying to get used to these types of images. As a series alongside the others it looks great to show the many variations on can find with a single subject. On its own I'm not sure I dig it much - but there is a market and an audience for these Besides, there are things I like that others don't. That's what makes our hobby a great one!

Cool stuff!!

[Anita Bower]

Excellent example of how to get three totally different images from the same flower I especially like the second--it takes my breath away! But, each image is strong, especially when viewed independently. They are each so very different from each other. Very well done. I would like to see the last one less muddy in LRC. Thanks.