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Archive 2016 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis

  
 
Bruce n Philly
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


What do most folks do during a snow storm? Make babies! Or at least practice. What did I do? Something better than that... I set up a home studio and took pictures of an Amaryllis!! Oh yea, it gets hot.

Yep, I am a flaming amateur....

Canon 5DSr
Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS
Blue blankie
Cheapo outdoor floodlights

Peace
Bruce in Philly
www.TravelThroughPictures.com
1.
http://travelthroughpictures.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/1R6A6967TTP-960x640.jpg
2.
http://travelthroughpictures.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/1R6A6995TTP-960x640.jpg
3.
http://travelthroughpictures.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0847TTP-960x640.jpg



Jan 26, 2016 at 11:13 PM
ox0312
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


Nice captures and setup


Jan 26, 2016 at 11:18 PM
surfnron
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


First Bruce - you did well with the mixed light sources.
For the first - You shot at 1/400 and f4.5 which resulted in a shallow dof. If that was what you intended, you did well. I would have preferred more dof, and shooting off a tripod, you could have easily used a much slower shutter speed and stopped down the fstop.
For the second - It's my pick. However, the lighting is a bit uneven. I would have preferred a little more light on the right flower although I do like the rim light. Either moving the light a little closer or aiming it at the flower might have helped. When using a cloth bg, it helps to either iron the cloth or move the subject further from the bg so that the wrinkles don't show.

I do like 2 and am nitpicking to offer a little advice. Don't just take my advice -see what others have to say ~ Ron



Jan 27, 2016 at 08:27 AM
Bruce n Philly
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


surfnron wrote:
First Bruce - you did well with the mixed light sources.
For the first - You shot at 1/400 and f4.5 which resulted in a shallow dof. If that was what you intended, you did well. I would have preferred more dof, and shooting off a tripod, you could have easily used a much slower shutter speed and stopped down the fstop.
For the second - It's my pick. However, the lighting is a bit uneven. I would have preferred a little more light on the right flower although I do like the rim light. Either moving the light a
...Show more

Thanx for the feedback.

Regarding the first DOF... that is exactly what I wanted... I was trying to blurr out the petal but leave the pistol and stamens in focus. I tried f/2.8 but too many of the stamens were out of focus so f/4.5 worked best for me. Maybe I should crop a bit more to draw more attention on these parts and not the greater flower?

Regarding the uneven lighting. Yep. I had my attention on the left blossom... it is all in attention to details isn't it? However a real problem was from back lighting where the flowers can cast shadows on itself and with a complex flower(s), this is an issue. I needed another light. But I may have done better by moving the two I had around a bit more. I also had the lights too close which made the ambient light less effective... but this is in my living room. Thanx for noticing the rim light... I put quite a bit of effort in that.

I set up one of these jury rigged 'studios" every once in a while and I will say I am getting better. Obviously a long way to go, but getting better.

Peace
Bruce in Philly



Jan 27, 2016 at 09:05 AM
Karl Witt
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


Hey Bruce nice way to spend the day!

I think #1 is wonderful, nice way to comp the 'tenders' of this flower and good focus and details.
#2 this is where it gets tricky IMO with flowers, dealing with multiples. This can be a tedious adventure in trying to find a way to kind of make one of the flowers the focal point. Selective focus, or directing light more on one than others etc can help.
For me another color for the BG might work, the blue to me feels 'cold'. Black would give a lot of snap to colors. Maybe even something like some rough barn siding would work? Experiment The combo's are endless!

Enjoy..............nice job!
Karl



Jan 27, 2016 at 10:45 AM
birdied
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


Nice set. The first is my pick as I like the selective focus.

Birdie



Jan 28, 2016 at 09:13 AM
morris
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


The first is my pick Bruce. Is purple a complementary color for the reddish orange?

Morris



Jan 28, 2016 at 09:25 AM
travelair
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


It is fun to play with little setups like this, particularly if the subjects aren't moving. I often capture small experimental setups, for documentation and future publication, with similar, simple arrangements.

Might I also suggest, before adding more lights, to play around with three simple light modifiers, reflectors, flags and scrims. While there are professional versions of all available, home brew is just fine.

For reflectors, try pieces of white foamcore, or aluminum foil (try both shiny and satic sides) wrapped corrugated. For warm fill, some of the fold up products have a gold surface. I've even used makeup mirrors to paint light where I want it. Try aiming a bit past the subject, into the fill on the far side. Most of my setups are single light, with multiple fill cards arranged as needed.

Scrims, are simply any translucent material between you light and subject. Can soften a small, focused beam into something much larger and more diffuse.

Flags, are anything to block the light. I've used everything from long, thin strips of corrugated, to half-dollar sized, black mat board glued to flat-black painted coat wire. For my setups, I bring these in play to kill distracting reflections and hot spots.



Jan 28, 2016 at 10:16 AM
Bruce n Philly
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


morris wrote:
The first is my pick Bruce. Is purple a complementary color for the reddish orange?

Morris


Two answers:

1 - It is purple because my color is off (should be royal blue). Wasn't my intent... but honestly I was getting tired and lazy from editing. I spent a good three of four hours on the full set of pics, that I whittled down to about 5 or six and then cropped and tweaked. I find my 5DSr, like all my other Canon cameras, not good at getting color correct. I shot a ColorChecker in a few scenes, but I move the lights all around that the color always changed.... these were not photo lights, but real Home Depot floodlights. Regarding my application of color theory... um.. well... yes it is just a theory.

2 - I used my royal blue blankie because I have no other that hides creases well. It is a fluffy thing. All my other blankets and bed sheets have giraffes or airplanes on them. I lie to myself and say it is like the sky. This weekend I am heading into the city and will stop and B&H to look at some real backdrops.

Any suggestions for a few "must have" colors and patterns?

Peace
Bruce in Philly



Jan 28, 2016 at 12:28 PM
morris
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Cheesy home studio - Amaryillis


Black is the color (shade) to get if only one. If you shoot portraits then a nice set of scenes are good. You could shoot them your self and project or print or even add later. Green is a good background if you want to do the equivalent of color key replacement like they do on TV.

Bruce n Philly wrote:
Two answers:

1 - It is purple because my color is off (should be royal blue). Wasn't my intent... but honestly I was getting tired and lazy from editing. I spent a good three of four hours on the full set of pics, that I whittled down to about 5 or six and then cropped and tweaked. I find my 5DSr, like all my other Canon cameras, not good at getting color correct. I shot a ColorChecker in a few scenes, but I move the lights all around that the color always changed.... these were not photo lights, but
...Show more




Jan 28, 2016 at 12:41 PM





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