This is a technique question as much as a gear question. We've had some rain recently here in San Diego and the Paperwhite bulbs are blooming profusely in my back yard. So I was trying to photograph them using an old screw mount 135 lens on my 5D. I found it to be quite a soft lens compared to my Canon lenses but that yielded some interesting effects. I then went back with my 100L which was (surprise) much sharper. I was doing shallow depth of field and trying for interesting bokeh.
So my question is, how would you approach this situation? What lens would you use? Would you use a 35 and get close? Would you use a macro? Would you use the 135 f2 and frame it just right? Would you use something else entirely like say a 300 from a distance. There are a bunch of them and some backgrounds are floral and some are sky. Distance, angle, and elevation are all available.
Here are two variants I took one with the alt lens and one with the macro. I'm not saying these are great but trying to show what I was attempting. What would you do and use?
Instead of a direct reply to your inquiry, let me just say that I have shot flowers with 15mm FE, 800L and most Canon lenses in between. Each lens opens up a rather unique view and perhaps an opportunity for something out of ordinary once in a while.
Yea, I guess there is no best method as that long running flower thread demonstrated. I've even used my 100-400 on occasion for flowers in a pond or up in a tree. Mostly I'm curious how the talented folks here would approach this.
Reno, I like your image with the two in focus flowers echoed by those in the background.
I like shooting flowers with a tele myself. My go-to for flowers is the 135L, in particular because it has very good smooth bokeh, though I have shot some with my 500/4
PetKal wrote:
Instead of a direct reply to your inquiry, let me just say that I have shot flowers with 15mm FE, 800L and most Canon lenses in between. Each lens opens up a rather unique view and perhaps an opportunity for something out of ordinary once in a while.
Bingo. I think our prodigious bird dude is right. Depends on vision and mood. Only thing I add, looking at your trial paperwhite, is get a collapsible translucent diffusion panel to shade the scene. That way white petals can retain all their detail without the wide variation in exposure from background or leaves. Or shade them somehow to reduce exposure difference on the white versus other parts of scene.
I'm actually still a bit mad at the death of the Flower thread.
I tend to favour a 70-200mm with tubes, and a 50mm with tubes for really close up. I also had some fun with my Samyang 85mm f/1.4 with tubes. Really short DOF on that wide open.
I should really buy a proper macro, but the tubes do a good job for now.
I agree with most folks here - almost anything can work, I'm shooting florals with all my lenses, ranging from 14mm to 600mm. My current favourites are the 100L and the new Sigma 150mm OS since those can be used hand-held, with a great keeper rate down to ridiculous shutter speeds. Here are a couple of samples.
Jeff, I like your moody December florals, reminds me of a couple of similar shots from this time of the year, all with the previous Sigma 150mm f2.8 macro (non-OS):
Geert Koning wrote:
we could start a new flower thread
Sounds good to me but we could make it a blurry background thread or a dead (winter) flower thread just to change it up a bit. I enjoy seeing what equipment people use to photograph these frequent subjects.
