Flowers 2010

[Birma]

Sury, a lovely spread of fuschia .

Yildiz, some very different plants in your series. The first looks a bit like something we call Bindweed (not a nice name for such a pretty flower). Your Blackberries are ahead of ours (see pictures below) which are still flowering. The pink spikey globes are great - no idea what they are . All your in your usual crisp, vibrant type of pictures.

Gio67, nice roses. They look bug free. I have to resort to 'farming' to get my roses looking like that .

[Birma]

We had a couple of very pleasant walks in the local woods over the weekend. Inspired by KB's recent Beercan shots I decided to take mine out. All of these are with the A700 + Beercan. Not critically sharp which is down to me not being used to hand holding the Beercan - I shall have to practice more .

I am not sure about this one. Either Bellflower or Willowherb familiy.


This one was identifiable by scent alone, Meadowsweet - there were great swathes of it which smelt great in the sunshine.


I had to suffer for my 'art' with this Teasel. While I was carefully lining up the shot I was 'gotten' by a Horse-fly - ouch!

[Birma]

There were certainly plenty of insects around (not just the ones feeding on me!).

Blackberry bramble.


Bramble again, with possibly a White Admiral? Difficult to keep those reflective white patches from being blown .


Teasel and Ladybird. I almost posted this in the "photographer in the picture" thread as I thought that may be my silhouette in the shiney ladybird wing casing, but I'm not convined .


C&C welcome as always.

[aster]

Teasel and Ladybird. I almost posted this in the "photographer in the picture" thread as I thought that may be my silhouette in the shiney ladybird wing casing, but I'm not convined .

Let me start with the last post if you don't mind, Birma.

One magnifying glass and we probably would identify the camera and the silhouette behind it. Your head and torso is definitely outlined in this shot! : )) The photo could enter Bakubo's 'evidence of the photographer' thread with some detective work..

Never saw a ladybird with such a reflective shell on its back before; this one is exraordinarily shiny, almost like a convex mirror.

The bugs and the butterfly on the blackberries have great angles and bokeh. : ) Maybe a shift in your position could defer those burnt parts. But I like the composition with the butterfly shot all the same.

The first three are 'sweet' shots of some sweet flowers; nice bokeh behind interesting flower structures.

Thanks for sharing,


Yildiz

[aster]

Hi Gio67,

A lovely set of three flower shots there. They have great natural colour under an even available light.

The first has very fine details on the leaves and the blossom. : )) Very sharp!

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[gio67]

top stuff again birma,what lens did you use

[Birma]

Thanks Yildiz . I'm glad you think it is a reflection of the photographer as well.

Thanks Gio67 . I was using the Minolta AF 70-210 f/4 aka the 'Beercan'. It does do great bokeh. I need to practice my steady hand technique with this (for me) heavier lens though. My only disappointment with it is the rather miserly manual focus ring. I suppose that one day I may get a 'proper' 70-200/2.8, but it would also be nice to have the alternative of a Sony plastic (and light!) 70-200 f/4. (Internal zooming is cool as well!)

[gio67]

nice birma, it looked the same bokeh as my cz 16-80, i got a sigma 70-200 2.8 but i really never use it ,it,s too heavy (shaky hands here too), i might unload it on e bay or something.

i took this one with a little compact



and this cheeky we sparrow happenned along as a bonus

[aster]

Cute shots, Gio67.

Yildiz

A couple from today with CZ 16-80mm and A100.

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[Birma]

Gio67 - I like the compact's flower shot and you did well to cpature the sparrow so still.

Yildiz - the first is superb - very interesting detail of the flower's rear - beautifully sharp, and I love the mottled oof background. The third is a lovely pink which seem to be coming out of the screen with that great 3d effect you get. The second is an interesting plant with the flower stem looping out, but it doesn't quite work overall for me.

[jbtaylor]

Yep Yildiz, the first one is a bullseye.

[aster]

Yildiz - the first is superb - very interesting detail of the flower's rear - beautifully sharp, and I love the mottled oof background. The third is a lovely pink which seem to be coming out of the screen with that great 3d effect you get. The second is an interesting plant with the flower stem looping out, but it doesn't quite work overall for me.

Thanks, Birma.

Some flowers have beautiful details and colour at their rear parts, sometimes competing with their front elements. Single Flowered Dahlia is of that kind and very inspirational structure and colour combination too; the transition is very intricate.

We should start a thread for interesting rear parts that are more spectacular than the front parts.

The second flower is very tiny, being only half a centimeter in diameter. It looked very private among the grass and the weeds right before the gardener mowed their extra heights. This flower requires a macro lens for better composition and details.

Thank you for the critiques. The are always most welcome!

Yep Yildiz, the first one is a bullseye.

Thank you, Jbtaylor. : )

Such praise coming from a master is very lifting, thanks a lot! Missed your flower shots with smooth bokeh... : )


Yildiz

Not in the same league as the Dahlia shots but here's my first dandelion seed head photo right before it lost its head to a mower and two more that I'll add the names later. : )

Crape myrtle "Catawba purple"

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[Dr. Harout]

Wonderful, very brilliant and astonishingly beautiful pictures we have here.
Yildiz, your pictures are really standing out. May I guess you're using new techniques in PP?

[aster]

Wonderful, very brilliant and astonishingly beautiful pictures we have here.
Yildiz, your pictures are really standing out. May I guess you're using new techniques in PP?

Thank you, Dr. Harout. Very kind of you!

I try to keep my workflow very simple and try to leave very little to post-processing. If the shot is not good out of the camera, all the adjustments made can look very unnatural on the end-product.

Here's my shooting mentality:
* Find a subject that's worthy of shooting.
* Study the subject and the light conditions and the angles it can provide.
* Decide how much DoF I prefer for that certain frame to isolate it from the background.
* Leave the ISO at 100 except for welcome intruders like bees, ants. i.e. moving little subjects.
* I make sure the photo is underexposed by -0.7 or -1, because I use all the data registered in the raw file to regain as much of the photo as I prefer for exposure rate. It's easier than overexposing and risking losing valuable details and depths.
* I use IDC as my main RAW converter and for the final look of my photo, then I crop or resize the photo in Photoshop, apply sharpening, rename it and save.

When the subject is good and the in-camera settings are well-adjusted, the PP takes mere seconds.
If a subject is not good or the exposures went wrong, sometimes I don't even try to PP because it never looks right.

I hope I was able to get my thinking across. : )

Thank you profusely for the complements.

Yildiz

The EXIF of the Dahlia shot.

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[Birma]

Three further beautiful shots Yildiz, bravo ! I have seen many Dandelion seed head shots and I think yours is superb. As with all three shots, the background is also complementary in form and colour. Thank you for sharing your approach - it is always useful to know how others go about creating the final image.