Plant blur

[Connie Mier]

Don posted a very nice, bold blur image, thought I'd go with one of softer quality. This is a technique I have never used, so I hope to get Denise's expert critique on it.

Sony a700, Sigma 180mm macro
1/2 sec, f29, ISO100
Post processing included lots of dust spot removal, some work in curves and a bit of saturation on the reds.

Thanks for looking
Connie

[denise ippolito]

Connie, Right away I love the softness and the colors. I can see the leaves of the plant in a very subtle way. I like your placement of the main leaf in the frame and the amount of blur looks great to me. Just lovely! Aren't those dust spots a pain!:)

[Connie Mier]

Denise, why do the dust spots show up so well? Is it the slow shutter speed allowing that to happen?

[denise ippolito]

Connie, To get a slow shutter speed you are usually stopping down to a small aperture like an f/22 or f/29. When you shoot with an f/5.6 or f/8 they aren't usually visible. If you use a polarizer or nuetral density filter you won't need to stop down as much to slow your shutter speed. Hope that helps:)

[Cheryl Slechta]

Connie, I love the colors and the amount of blur. Nicely done.

[Connie Mier]

Thanks Cheryl

Denise, OK so it is the really narrow aperture opening that is causing that to happen. No wonder I never see them with the bird shots.:) The filter is a great idea and I never thought of that. On some of the brighter subjects we played with, I was stopped down as far as the camera would let me and I was still blowing out the highlights. Gave up on it as there was nothing more that could be done. Thanks for the great tip!

I have a question that came up in conversation with Don. Does IS (mine is in camera) affect these images? Do you turn yours off?

[denise ippolito]

Connie, I leave mine ON all the time if my lens has IS. My 100mm Macro does not (unless of course I buy the new one:)) and I use it often for my flower blurs. To tell you the truth I never noticed a difference.

[Kerry Perkins]

Beautiful blur Connie. I love the soft colors and organic feel. An 8X neutral density filter gives you three stops of light throttle. Comes in very handy. :cool: