A Hint of Green

When thinking of a sunflower you usually think yellow leaves with a darker, brown or black, center. But that’s because most sunflower photos look like that. There are a few that show the sunflower in the state before it starts to get ready and grow its seeds. During this stage of its life there’s a green center which can be very appealing.

Now to throw another photo into the mix for a little quiz.

Both of these photos look very similar and that’s because they are of the same sunflower. Now for a question. One of these were taken with the Nikon 20mm f/1.8 lens and the other with the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Macro lens. Can you tell which is which? It’s very difficult to tell just by looking at them. But if you look close enough you can see the little differences that just might tell you the answer. And for those who are wondering, yes I did crop the photo taken with the 20mm lens. But not by much and to give it the same frame as the macro shot. I also did this just to show how such a big difference in focal length doesn’t always mean a big difference in the final outcome.

Looking Up

It seems like it’s been forever since my last post. Somehow I was able to squeeze in a few minutes to take a few photos and then edit them a couple weeks later. When I went outside to do something I noticed the sky was perfect for a photo I wanted to get so instead of letting the opportunity pass by I went and grabbed my camera to take a few photos. And here is one of them.

 

Although it almost seems like this photo was taken as a long exposure but it wasn’t. The clouds were the wispy type so that worked out really well for the look I was going for. The sun was right behind the flower to help with back lighting and it was still bright enough out that I was able to pull the details out of the shadows for the flower itself without needing to use a flash. This photo was taken with the Nikon 20mm f/1.8 lens. I still like how close I’m able to get to the subject and am still really happy with the sharpness with this lens.

I am also happy to announce that we have our house sold now and just got an accepted offer on a new house. It will be exciting to get this process moving forward and done so I can get back to what I love to do in my free time. The new house has high speed internet access so I will be able to keep up with my blog. I’m also looking forward to the additional free time once things start to settle down a bit.

Frosted with Pollen

Click on the image to view a high res version.

Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/20
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100

I really enjoyed shooting this flower. I couldn’t seem to get enough shots of it but had to stop at some point. I’ve still got a lot of photos to edit but having a hard time finding the time to do so. The pollen on this flower almost looks like frosting. The flowers have since died and are now gone though so I think it may be time to pick up a new batch and give them a go.

Monochrome Madness – Pollen Covered

Click on the image to view a high res version.

Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/29
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100

 

Surrounded by Purple

Click on the image to view a high res version.

Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/29
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100

I know in the past I have said that in order to get a black background I have used LR and turned the exposure all the way down for the areas I wanted to be black, but for this shot I used a different approach. I used a flash. I made sure that the camera wasn’t picking up any ambient light from the background and also made sure to position the flower where no other objects would show up. The only thing I ‘edited’ out was the stem of the flower, otherwise the rest was from the use of the flash.

Inspiration with Water

A photo of a flower can be great when shot under the right light and composition. But add some water and you add another element to the photo, one that can create an even better scene. I think it is the drops of water than can bring the photo to life more than it was than just having something wet, but a lot of water might work as well as long as you have a vision you are trying to achieve.

I didn’t get any shots of this flower from a christmas cactus without any water, but I did get many different shots with water drops. While shooting I decided to press the shutter as I was spraying the water on the flower to see what I could catch and here’s what I came up with.

As you can see now there are not only water droplets on the flower itself, but also caught in mid-air around the flower both behind and in front of the focus point. Below I have included a gallery of some shots of a flower with and without water in different compositions so you can see the difference it can make. I like the shots without the water but I think the water does bring another element to the photo to make it look more interesting. What do you think? I also think this flower makes a nice photo in B&W. Will probably post one next week.

ONE FOUR CHALLENGE – March WEEK 4

It is now time for the final post for March’s One Four Challenge. We are also on break next month which is somewhat of a relief because I have no idea what photo I would use. That will give me a month to prepare for May when it returns which is nice because I’ll be away for the first week. Having some extra time to prepare is always nice. Some have responded that they like the look of the original photo so I decided for my final edit to work on that look a little. I decided to only crop a little from the bottom then worked next on bringing out the details and colors of the remaining elements. I think I liked the red look more than the original so I made the rose more red. I also wanted to bring the green out a bit more in the leaves in the background that complimented the red color of the roses instead of the more flat green look of the original. To me this version gives a bit more of a natural look and feel to it vs. more of a photographic art look like the other ones. For reference I have also included the original RAW and previous weeks photos below.

RAW

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Overlapping

Click on the image to view a high res version.

Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/18
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO: 100

I know I missed last Thursday’s post but it was a busy week so was unable to prepare one. But this week I have another low key photo for you. Hope you enjoy and have a great weekend!

I would also like to say that winter has ended in my area which to me is a disappointment because it is my favorite season to photograph. There were some nice ice formations I wish I could have made it to but could not find the time. Now I just hope that next year will bring more and hopefully I’ll have some time. But in the mean time I’ll be working on my low key photography with more plants and flowers.

ONE FOUR CHALLENGE – March WEEK 3

It is now time for week 3 in this month’s One Four Challenge. I’ll state the obvious right away that I did crop this version down to get rid of the reflection. I knew I was going to do a version like this in the beginning but just wasn’t quite sure on exactly what I was going to do with it. For this version I wanted to make it a bit more low key so I darkened it up a bit and pronounced the shadows. I also wanted to make a change to the color to make it look like a completely different photo from the original but still make it look natural. If you look at the original you will notice that the rose has more of a purplish red color to it. For this version I wanted to make it more on the red side. I can’t say exactly how I made this happen as the edit was done across multiple days just slowly changing different settings within LR. Still not sure what I want to do for the final week but we’ll see!

This photo also made it on Explore on Flickr! 🙂

For reference I have also included the original RAW and previous weeks photos below.

RAW

Week 1

Week 2

 

ONE FOUR CHALLENGE – March WEEK 2

Week two is now here for March and here’s my submission for the One Four Challenge. This is the version I wanted to do for the first week but with posting 5 B&W photos in a row I decided to just start out with the B&W version. I’ve been too busy to even think about what I’m going to do for the next two weeks but for this one it is basically the same as the B&W as far as the editing goes except that it’s color.

For reference I have also included the original RAW and previous weeks photos below.

RAW

Week 1

Decay

Click on the image to view a high res version.

Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/18
Shutter Speed: 1/6
ISO: 100

I should just start calling my Thursday posts Low Key Thursday. I wish I could but am running low on low key photos. I may have enough to last until spring when I can get more though so we’ll see how long I can hang out. Anyways, I thought this flower was interesting as the stamen looked a bit odd compared to the other flowers that were doing much better. I’m not sure if it was normal as the flower began to decay and die but think it helped with making an interesting photo. I really like this one and can’t really place why but it just draws me in. Possibly the crispness of the red flower or the mixture of yellow in with the red and purple? I’m not really sure but those me be parts of it I also think the blackness really helps too.

Pods of Life

Click on the image to view a high res version.

Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100

I’ve been getting good at learning how to make a black background in LR. Originally I wasn’t expecting to process this photo anything like it turned out but after doing some experimenting I ended up liking it more with the black background.

For those of you who are wondering how to create a black background in LR, it’s actually quite simple. The adjustment brush is the one I used. What I do is highlight the areas I want to black out then shift the Exposure slider all the way to the left to underexpose. If your photo is too bright then you may need to do this multiple times until it gets black. The Graduated Filter tool is also something you could use if you wanted the background to transition into black as well. I would think by moving the Exposure slider all the way to the right would be a good way to make your background all white as well if you wanted to go that route. It’s a great little trick when you can’t work with layers though!

ONE FOUR CHALLENGE – DECEMBER Final Results

The results are in for December’s One Four Challenge and the winner is Week 4! Now onward to January’s One Four Challenge next week! Hope you all are enjoying your holidays. 🙂

Week 3 Processing

Week 2 Processing

Week 1 Processing

RAW

 

ONE FOUR CHALLENGE – DECEMBER WEEK 4

Here is the final post for December’s One Four Challenge. I know this one may be a bit more high contrast B&W that some people like, but I like the effect that it gives. I want to work more on the high contrast photos where you get more bright areas and dark areas. What I did with this version was slightly crop it in from the right to get the edge of the flower closer to the edge of the frame. I then made sure that the background was completely under exposed so it was completely black. Then I wanted to up the brightness of the petals on the flowers to give them a sort of glowing/light effect as though they are providing light themselves.

I was able to get this look with just LR alone and did not need to export to Silver Efex at all. I was talking to another photographer and mentioned that I wasn’t able to get what I wanted out of LR for my B&W photos and explained what I wanted and he mentioned to play around with the white balance and colors and it would get me what I wanted. I took this into consideration for this photo and found out that it does work. As you know from last weeks post, I mostly got where that photo was by doing this technique then switching back to color to see what it would look like.

I’ve since been trying this technique with other photos when converting and I have to say that it is a good way of going about getting specific looks when converting to B&W. I hope you all have enjoyed the photos this month and like the previous weeks I have included the previous photos below and a poll at the bottom so you can vote for which version you like the most. I have also decided to link each photo to it’s original post so you can see them a little bigger with just a click if you want. Now off to look forward to Christmas and look for next month’s photo to use for this challenge!

Week 3 Processing

Week 2 Processing

Week 1 Processing

RAW

 

ONE FOUR CHALLENGE – DECEMBER WEEK 3

Here is my third entry for the One Four Challenge. I went with a completely different approach on this one. Lately I’ve been noticing that I can get a higher light/dark contrast ratio when I start to change the white balance, tint, and some of the color elements on a photo when it is in B&W. Sometimes I like to switch it back to color just to see what it looks like based on what I did. When doing the B&W conversion I didn’t quite end up with this version but it was somewhat close and I wondered what it would look like if it made the red petals look more green to go more with the background.

Usually I don’t like to alter the color of something so this probably won’t happen very often. But I don’t think it really hurts the quality of the photo as it looks natural in this state. It looks more like it could be green clover rather than a red one.

I will also include the previous photos for comparison as well. Look forward to showing the B&W version next week!

Week 2 Processing

 

Week 1 Processing

 

RAW Photo