Posts in Category: bokeh
3/21/2010
Bright as Copper
Happy Sunday!
I keep going out looking for spring and only finding stuff held over from fall. This vine started out dark red, but the winter sun and cold has bleached it to this bright copper. I had to touch it, when I first saw it, to convince myself it was not a tangle of wire somehow blown up into the bushes. I took many shots at close range before it occurred to me to back off and use the tele end of the Canon SX20IS’ macro to isolate the vine against an out of focus background. Being able to shoot at ~500mm from under 4 feet is one of the more interesting features of the Canon, and I am just beginning to explore the possibilities it provides.
Canon SX20IS at about 475mm equivalent. F5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto.
Some Recovery for the background. A touch of Fill Light. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Around Home 2010.
3/11/2010
Bird of Paradise against the Boats
An alternative view of the Bird of Paradise bloom, this time framed against boats in the marina, taken at a longer focal length from further back to isolate the bloom and turn the boats into interesting bokeh. Late afternoon light on the plant brought out the orange of the petals in particular.
Canon SX20IS at 250mm equivalent. F5 at 1/250th @ ISO 80. Programmed auto.
Added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance in Lightroom. Blackpoint slightly right. Sharpen landscape preset.
From San Diego 2010.
And here is an image taken from the same spot, using a wider lens setting (95mm equivalent @ f4). As you can see, the boats become more sharply focused and battle a bit with the blooms in the foreground, but I still see it as an interesting shot, and as a contrast to the longer/closer shot above. Processing similar to above.
2/20/2010
Sweet Gum Burrs in Early Morning Light
Low sun on the moss, and these Sweet Gum seed pods. The flip out, rotating LCD on the Canon SX20 works just as well as the flip up display on the Sony H50 for these low angle shots. An articulated display was one of my major requirements in a new camera, and kept me from purchasing cameras that I might otherwise have considered (like the new 30x zoom models coming out in the next month or so). I am addicted to the low view…or at least the possibility of capturing it when I see the potential. As here.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Programmed auto.
Blackpoint slightly right, added Clarity and Vibrance (much less Vibrance than I was in the habit of adding with H50 shots…added Vibrance turns the Canon images yellow very fast). Sharpen landscape preset. Cropped at the bottom to eliminate out of focus foreground.
From First Canon VA.
12/9/2009
Rose by Any Other Name
Rugosa Rose, beach rose, Japanese rose, Ramanas rose, introduced from Asia to North America many generations ago as an ornamental landscape rose, escaped, and now lives rampant on the dunes of New England. The hips are sometimes made into jelly. In this first snow of the season they certainly stand out, still only slightly shrunken from their fall glory, and still very red. The early light only emphasizes the color.
I took quite a few exposures of different clumps with snow cover. I shot in very close with wide-angle and macro, and I used the macro setting with full telephoto to isolate clusters of hips. Once more, the flip out LCD made shots like this one, where I had to hold the camera well below waist level to get the angle, possible…even easy. I look at the new entry level DSLRs and wonder…but until I see one with as flexible an LCD. I will have to stick with my little Sony P&S!
Sony DSC H50 at full tel (465mm equivalent) macro. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Just your (my) basic added Clarity and Vibrance in Lightroom. Sharpen landscapes preset.
From First Snow 12/09.
10/23/2009
Anhinga: Green Cay Wetlands
There were several birds in this tree. A Red-shouldered Hawk at the top. White Ibis lower, and this Anhinga in the lowest branches. And it is such a great tree! You can see from the abundance of white-wash that the birds really really like it. The tree and the background are as important in the image, for me, as the bird itself.
The challenge of the Anhinga is the range of contrast between the silvery white of the wing patterns, through jet black, to the gold of the throat. The fur-like feathers on the upper breast and throat provide a real test for the resolution of your system.
Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL at 40x (field of view of a 1600mm lens on a full frame DSLR). 1/380th @ ISO 100. Metered at about f5.0.
Just my basic added Clarity and the Sharpen landscapes preset in Lightroom. Only a touch of Vibrance.
From Green Cay, FL.
9/20/2009
Web
Happy Sunday!
Lakeside Ohio sustains three amazing populations. The most abundant are the Fox Squirrels. Big as the largest Gray, and fox red. Impressive animals. The second population is feral cats. They are everywhere. And finally there are more spiders in Likeside than I have seen in a long time. Their webs drape street signs and fill any open architectural gap. This one adorns a trellis gate. Late afternoon light picked it out against the shadowed wing of the house behind and the shapes of the trellis made for an interesting composition. It is cropped slightly from the left to eliminate the whiter portion of the support post.
Sony DSC H50 at about 410mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/125 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the white highlights. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Lakeside OH.
8/10/2009
Feather and Rock
This caught my eye in passing, and I literally walked right on by. I was after the grand landscape and could formations image I was envisioning from further down the beach. Then I thought, “the big view is not going anywhere, I have time,” and turned back to circle around and find this one rock in a beach full of rocks. And here it is. I like the curves the waves have made of the feather on the rock. The sun was coming in behind me low, and the only way to take this shot without getting the shadow of the camera in it was to use my body to create an open shadow big enough to contain the whole rock.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro (31mm equivalent). F4.0 @ 1/100th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped slightly in Lightroom at the top to eliminate some bright area where my shadow did not reach. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint slightly to the right. Landscape sharpen preset.
7/29/2009
Elephant Head?
I don’t actually know if Elephant’s Head is what these tiny flowers are called. Tiny? The open blossom is less then 1/4 inch across. This is another shot from Rachel Carson NWR, taken along the mile loop of trail…a loop that rarely disappoints photographically.
I took this shot from ground level, using the flip out LCD of the H50 and pointing the camera up under the blooms. From above the large pistol of the plant is not obvious, but from this angle it dominates.
Of course the bokeh is almost as interesting as the plant itself.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro. F2.7 @ 1/40th @ ISO 160. Programed auto.
Cropped from the right in Lightroom for composition. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape sharpen. I used some Recovery for the background.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
7/24/2001
Jack
A small stand of Jack in the Pulpit at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden. Getting late in the afternoon. Plants in shadow but with sun on the ground and plants behind them. Not an easy shot. Also they were deep in a bed with a boarder, so I could not get very close.
This shot was taken right down on ground level with the LCD flipped out and at full zoom to frame the single bloom. This had the advantage of throwing the background well out of focus and creating some interesting bokeh. A shot like this is only possible hand held due to the H50s excellent image stabalization. It is not that the shutter speed was too slow for hand holding…it is that with the long zoom and bending low for the shot…I am just not that stable.
Sony DSC H50 at full zoom (465mm equivalent). F4.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Clearly a shot like this with high dynamic range and the light behind the subject is going to take both careful exposure and some post processing. I have come to trust the H50’s auto exposure system to the extent that I rarely second guess it…and then too, I know what I can do in Lightroom. I used heavy Recovery for the highlights behind the flower, and added Fill Light to bring up color and detail in the bloom itself. Blackpoint to the right to bring out the intensity. I had already used the Punch preset which adds Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape sharpen preset.
The result is even better than I envisioned at the time. I think anyway.
7/17/2009
Pretty as a Prince (and not bothered at all)
Just catching some rays beside the forest pool at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Maine. Not bothered at all by the photographer down on his knees beside him…or by the camera inches away. Prince of his domain and confident with it.
As you can see, I utilized the swing-out LCD on the H50 to get right down on the ground for this shot. Who could resist?
Another visitor to the Botanical Gardens saw me down there, and commented to my wife who was also watching me, “You folks must be from the city.” I guess she assumed only a city-folk would be that interested in an old frog! I missed the opportunity to educate her on the wonder to be found in the common sights of home, the creatures and plants of her backyard, since she was gone by the time I levered myself back to my feet and turned. Ah well.
The Coastal Maine Botanical Garden by the way, is a world-class facility tucked away (way away) in a corner of the Maine coast, pretty literally out…if not exactly in the middle of no where…at least at no where’s inner edge. If you have an interest in plants and gardens, it should be part of any planned trip to Maine. You will see a few more shots (maybe quite a few 🙂 from there over the next few days.
Sony DCS H50 at full wide and macro. F5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped slightly from the top for composition in Lightroom. Added Vibrance and Clarity, and Landscape sharpen preset.
From Coastal Maine Botanical Garden.
And a second view of his Captain of the Guards.
Captain of the Guards