Posts in Category: flowers
4/10/2009
Crocus Impression
Interesting story. I took some shots of these newly opened Crocus for a test of two compact HD video cameras I did for P&S Landscape (here) and posted them to Flickr for convenience in placing them in my blog. On Flickr they immediately began to draw comments. So I had to go out, end of the day, with my real camera and take some shots. Clearly.
In pushing for greatest depth of field, I used Program Shift to move the auto exposure to smallest possible aperture, and ended up with some pretty slow shutter speeds. Anyway, I took some really close ups of the insides of the flowers, as in leading petals touching the lens. They did not work for me as straight on photographs so I tried some Lightroom magic to enhance the strangeness of them. I will reshoot some this morning without touching the Program Shift and see what I get. In the meantime, this slightly unreal, manipulated image stands on its own as what it is: an impression of Crocus.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.0 @ 1/30th @ ISO 100. Program Shifted for smallest aperture.
In Lightroom, some Recovery, and more than usual amounts of Clarity and especially Vibrance to push the look over the edge of reality. Landscape sharpen preset. But then I went in with the color selective HSL (hue, saturation, and luminance) controls and altered the luminance of specific colors. In Lightroom you have a color selection tool that you can place over the image. Clicking the mouse and dragging up or down over a specific color in the image changes the HSL (whichever you have set, luminance in this case) values on the fly, as you watch. Lightroom does all the calculations and changes whatever color bands it needs, multiple bands most generally, to change just the color that was under your tool when you clicked the mouse. It is magical. By selecting the orange of the stamens and sliding the mouse up, I brightened just that orange, making the stamens pop out of the image. Then I selected the purple of the petal veins and slid the mouse down to darken that color and increase the contrast between it and the rest of the petals. The result is a striking, if somewhat unreal, image.
From Around Home.
Here is a more straight on image of the same flowers.
A bit more real...but better?
4/9/2009
Pioneers of Spring
On my way out to do some new product testing yesterday I discovered these little guys springing up in the yard. At last. We still have isolated patches of snow around.
I took a very low angle, with the camera resting on my hands and my hands on the ground, using the flip out LCD of the H50. The problem was eliminating distractions in the background, and, even so, the background was already in sun, while the flowers were shade, lit by a stray shaft of extreme side light. Tricky.
I like the way the light on the flowers picks up the texture of the folded petals, and of course the shapes and colors of these brave spring pioneers.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro mode (almost touching the forward flower). F4.0 @ 1/200 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I had to deal with the bright background. Recovery helped but not enough. I used a Graduated Filter drawn in from the upper left toward the flowers at an angle, and then the Adjustment Brush to mask an area behind the flowers on the right. For both I reduced exposure. That made the blue of the sky way too intense, so I also reduced saturation for both the Graduated Filter and the Adjustment Brush mask. Then the usual Vibrance and Clarity settings, and the Sharpen portrait preset.
From Around Home.
4/6/2009
Primrose in the Morning
This shot will benefit from being viewed at a larger size. Click on it and choose your size from the settings across the top of the viewing page on SmugMug.
This is one of those shots where I wish I could say I took it because its best feature…but honestly I did not even see the dew drops on the petals until I was processing the image in Lightroom. I was out birding for a very few moments before work, hurrying around my first visit to a new location in a Galveston (I am in Galveston only once a year for a few days) and I was almost back to the car. I had taken several flower shots along the way, since the birds were pretty thin, and I saw the primrose by the path, flipped the LCD out, bent over, took three shots, and was back in the car in less than a minute. Hours later, when I downloaded the photos and loaded them into Lightroom, I picked the best of the three by the thumbnail and opened it in the Develop mode. Then I saw the dew drops. Surprise!
I know from my own experience that I am often surprised by what I see in my own best images…after I have taken them (sometimes weeks or years after).
Sony DSC H50 at full wide in macro mode (about 1/2 inch from the flower). F5.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I applied just a touch of Recovery to make the water drops pop out a bit more, some Clarity and Vibrance, and the Sharpen portrait preset.
From Galveston 2009.
3/30/2009
Ben More with Thistles (so Scotish!)
I looked for this shot every day in Scotland. Thistles with view. A few days I even found it. Ben More, with its cap of clouds was an irresistible subject anyway. This was taken at the same stop as 3/21/2009. and under the same circumstances, right over top of the rubbish tip. For this one I used Program Shift to select the smallest aperture I could (smallest the camera allows, F8) for maximum depth of field and shot form further back from the thistles, so I do have both the foreground interest and the mountain pretty much in focus. Post processing is the rest of the story. See below.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F8.0 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto with Program Shift.
In Lightroom, I applied some Fill Light and Recovery…Recovery for the sky and clouds, Fill Light for the foreground, but even with my usual Presence boost (Vibrance and Clarity) it left the foreground flat (the foreground was cloud shadowed anyway). Even moving the black point right did not give it the pop I was after. I tried a Graduated filter effect from the bottom but that looked unnatural, so I went in with the Adjustment brush and masked the foreground. Using the mask I boosted exposure, added even more Clarity, and increased contrast for an almost HDR effect.
From Scotland.
3/21/2009
Loch View
A little loch on South Uist. The mountain dominated the skyline to the east, and we spent some time looking for a spot to get off the road. (Roads on the Hebrides are one lane with passing pullouts every 1/4 mile or so. Casual stopping is not possible.) We finally found a little dirt road that lead up a hill sharply and pulled in. Scrambling out of the car and up to the brow of the hill there was the loch, totally hidden from the road, and making a wonderful foreground for the mountain.
Now you do need to understand that the road lead to what amounted to an unofficial rubbish tip (as my UK friends would say), and immediately behind and below the flowers in the foreground a landscape of broken furniture and discarded household implements, various car parts, etc. took up the immediate view. I was squatting in a discarded tire to take this shot, kind of balanced on the lip of the tip, so to speak, in a vary precarious and unstable location. I had to work fast. I got off three shots from low down, trying to frame the mountain, get a bit of the loch for effect, maintain sufficient (barely) depth of field, and not get any rubbish in the view. Not easy.
For this shot I used Program Shift on the H50, which allowed me to shift to my smallest aperture (only F8, unfortunately) without losing automation. As I say, the depth of field could have been a bit more, but we do what we can, and it is still a satisfying image. I gave up perfect focus on the mountain to keep the flowers sharp.
Sony DSC H50 at at full wide (31mm equivalent). F8.0 @ 1/160th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto with program shift.
In Lightroom, I used a graduated filter to decrease exposure and add sharpen in the sky and the upper reaches of the mountain. Fill Light pulled up the foreground. Vibrance and Clarity overall, and the global Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
3/19/9009
Flowers of the Machair
The Machair is the region just behind the dunes on the Hebrides: traditionally the richest farming land, and site of the original permanent settlements in the islands. In season it is an amazing spread of wildflowers.
I cropped this shot in tight, to capture just the mass of the display of sunflowers. You can just see Ben More through them along the skyline. Shot low to the ground, using the swing out LCD on the H50, and close in, using the mid range of the zoom to compress the scene slightly.
Sony DSC H50 at about 80mm equivalent. F5.0 @ 1/250 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, besides the cropping (necessary both for effect and to eliminate some distracting weeds in the bottom of the frame), I used my standard Presence settings (added Vibrance and Clarity) and Landscape sharpen.
From Scotland.
And one bonus shot. Another Machair flower view.
On the Machair
(You might note the change in venue here: all my sites are migrating to my lightshedder.com address. Your older links will continue to work.)
3/13/2009
Pepper Tree
Pepper trees, though a non-native, are a prominent feature of the landscape in and around San Diego in the spring. They grow tall and the spectacular display of bright red flowers in February and March is something to see. It certainly adds to the semi-tropical look. Pepper trees above and Bird of Paradise plants (of all sizes) below.
This cluster of late blooms hung just in reach of the longest zoom setting on my H50. Because of the long zoom, however, the bokeh is almost as interesting as the flowers themselves: certainly it sets off the massed red well.
In Lightroom, I used my normal Vibrance and Clarity boost, but also some fill light (the flowers were on the shaded side of the tree). Portrait sharpen preset. I also cropped in a bit tighter, eliminating most of a distracting branch on the left.
Sony DSC H50 at full tel (465mm equivalent). F4.5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
From San Diego 2009.
3/11/2009
California Poppy (click image for larger views)
Still at Sunset Cliffs Park on Point Loma in San Diego California. The poppies were in full glory along the rough trails of the park, along with a variety of other wild and semi-wild flowers.
For this shot I used about a 200mm equivalent to isolate a small patch of particularly well lit poppies. The strong side, almost back light, made the flowers appear to glow with a light of their own against the dark green backdrop. Then in Lightroom, I cropped in even tighter, to emphasize the diagonal of the flowers, and to eliminate deep shadows on the left and right. This kind of shot is difficult because there is no one center of interest, but I feel that here, the rough line of flowers across the diagonal pulls the image together.
Sony DCS H50 at 200mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/400 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, besides the cropping, I used a little recovery to pull the orange highlights back, and my usual bit of Clarity and less Vibrance than normal in the Presence panel. Vibrance favors yellows and oranges, and too much would have burned out the orange highlights. Portrait sharpen preset.
From San Diego 2009.
And as a bonas: a few more wild and semi-wild flowers from Sunset Cliffs.
3/5/2009
Heather Road
Most roads on the Hebrides (at least on the Uists, and Benbecula where we spent out time) are one-lane, with pull outs every 1/4 mile or so for meeting cars. It works surprisingly well. This is a local road that runs down the middle of North Uist, and it very definitely off the beaten path. We drove the length of it and did not meet more than one or two cars.
And, of course, Heather is Scotland. And so too are the plantations. We saw them all through the highlands, and here they from the green triangle on the right horizon.
I love the play of the light across the landscape in this shot, taken about 10 AM, when the Hebrides summer sun was still about as low as we get it in Maine at 6 AM.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I applied quite a bit of Recovery for the sky, added some Fill Light for the foreground, as well as Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. I also boosted the luminance of the magenta, purple, and green channels to make the landscape and the heather, in particular, more vibrant.
From the Scotland gallery.
Close up
2/27/2009
Sheep's Bit
Taken at my feet right after the shot from yesterday. I was standing in wildflowers (another reason I was not eager to move around much). This is Sheep Bit, which we saw all through the Highlands, and on the Hebrides.
The H50, with its tip-out, articulated LCD panel, allows for extreme low shots, and the 2 cm close focus makes for interesting macros. With shots like this, you have to pay attention to what is in the background. I have a wider shot of the same flower which I like, but I will have to go back and edit out some tallish weed behind the flower, breaking the skyline, to be completely happy with it. This works for me. The fence pulls the eye a bit, but the flower is a strong subject, and placed right at the upper left powerpoint of the image, so that it holds focus. I find the bokeh interesting as well, with what amounts to a swirl of pink clover caused by the shape of the hill.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent), at about closest focus (2 cm from the flower). F4.0 @ 1/250 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I used the Recovery slider to put some drama back into the sky, and some Fill Light to pick up the purples in the flower. I moved the black point to the right to add intensity, and used both Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.