Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Av mode
1/8"
F16
ISO:400
Tripod
Canon 430EX w/bounce card attached: On, Fired (comp -2)
LR and CS3
We had our first heavy frost and freeze Friday night. The flowers looked lovely early Saturday but by late afternoon, most were shriveled and brown. :(
I did some extra blurring on the BG and painted over some of the darker areas with a soft brush at 25% opacity.
Ken, I like this idea! I hope to be able to get a similar image, so am looking forward to seeing what others have to say. I would like to see more detail in the white frost areas, but don't know how.
Why did you use the bounce card on the flash, if you were outside?
Cheryl, the bounce card helps redirect the light from the flash. I've mentioned before that I do a lot of DIY stuff for my camera equipment. These are shots of my extended bounce card that's made out of a sheet of glossy photo paper. It may not look like much but since I'm shooting mostly at home, I don't have to worry about strange looks from bystanders. :D
Cool shot. I agree with Cheryl on the sharpening. I did USM on it and the frost just popped out.
I think it works as is..............though, since the flower is oval you might consider a horizontal crop on this with the flower lower right in the frame. I tried it and liked it a tad better.....................personal preference.
I really like what you have achieved with the soft background. The colors are great and agree with the comments on more detail in the frost. I might even try a bit of ccw rotation to get the stem a bit closer to the corner. These are just personal taste thoughts of course.
Thanks for the comments. I backed off on the sharpening because IMO, it ended up looking way oversharpened. Based on the comments, maybe I backed off too much. :o
Hi Ken. Very cool (no pun intended). :) This image has a lot of mood which I like. I also like the soft lighting, the background, the muted colors, and of course, all the frost is (dare I say it?) frosting on the cake. :D I'm not bothered by the relative sharpness of the frost crystals, though you might experiment a little with some other sharpening settings. In my experience, it is very easy for an image like this to look oversharpened. Well done.
Thanks for sharing the images of your flash setup.
You got a heavy frost before we did! Ours came last night.
Great job on this image. I love the look of the frost covering and muting the colors of this Zinnia. Nice lighting and bg. I'm with you regarding sharpening. In this case, less is more.
You did a nice job with blurring and evening out the bg. The neutral color makes the flower stand out, but I'm not fond of the color of the bg. A personal preference.
I never know how to crop images like this one. I probably would have gone with the same crop you did, though I think a more interesting one would benefit the flower, but i don't know what that would be.
I really like the get-up you created for your flash. I would not be ashamed to go out in public with it. You are modeling ingenuity and how to save money--values much needed.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you photograph during the winter months. :-)
Bye bye flowers
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
