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Archive 2016 · Death Valley Superbloom

  
 
nnachappa64
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Death Valley Superbloom


Hello,

I was recently in Death Valley for the long weekend.

I had the chance to photograph the super bloom. I wanted your thoughts on this and to know how I can improve composition mostly.

From what I can see, I wish I had more depth of field in the photo. But, that was difficult because I was using a Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens.

f/11.0 @ 70mm, 1/160, ISO 100.

The lens and camera was hand held. I have a few questions:
1. Do you think I should have used a tripod? Would it be advisable to go over f/11 in that lens?
2. Use a wider angle lens so that I can get higher depth of field?

Any other suggestions as to how I could've made it better?

Thank you for your feedback!



© nnachappa64 2015

Death Valley Superbloom




Mar 31, 2016 at 02:09 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Death Valley Superbloom


I want to see at least all the flowers in focus, hard to do at 70mm, even stopped down, this would probably require focus stacking or a TSE lens.

Second best is to get the front and as far back into the flowers in focus.

I normally use a wide angle for these kinds of shots and can often get it all in focus, but the background will be much less prominent.

It would also be better with the sun at your back at sunset or sundown, depending on the location.



Mar 31, 2016 at 03:03 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Death Valley Superbloom


A few tweaks.

I'm not sure why you chose to go +EC ... but it seems a bit overexposed to me, particularly noting the blown red channel @ the flowers. That warm (light) on warm (subject) scenario is almost always a tricky proposition as most meters are evaluating the aggregate of the RGB channels rather than safeguarding a particular one.

As to the comp, Ben's points regarding DOF, etc. are meritable, but I wouldn't rule out using the longer FL as you have. I agree that the diff between f11 and f16 probably won't make a ton of diff, but in STRONG lighting (on a longer than normal lens), I wouldn't be afraid of diffraction effects nearly as much as I would in a lesser lighting scenario, or with a WA / UWA. Diffraction starts to show up (pixel peeping) on my TS-E 24 around f11, but even there I'll shoot it at f/16 if the situation warrants.

I might suggest moving back from the flowers to adjust the DOF relationship between camera / foreground / background for a lesser diff in dof between FG/BG, but if you want both "tack sharp" from the lens, then focus stacking is viable. I've used a little bit of variable sharpening to try and bridge the gap a bit. The structure / mass diff between the FG / BG affords some opportunities to work with @ how much weighting / draw we can adjust a bit. Needs better refinement, but hopefully it presents the concept.






Edited on Apr 01, 2016 at 09:03 AM · View previous versions



Apr 01, 2016 at 08:24 AM
lighthound
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Death Valley Superbloom


Silly question and I don't mean to be harsh (not my intent) but why are you shooting landscapes with that lens? Especially in a fantastically iconic location with such a rare event? I would never even consider long glass in such a place. But then again I don't use long glass much for any landscapes but is something I'm going to try this year. From my failed attempts already this year I have learned that you want as little radiant (ground) heat as possible, low humidity or atmospheric haze, a rock solid tripod and your composition has to be such that your target(s) are a long ways off.


Composition wise I don't see any obvious ways to improve what you have.


1. Yes, should have used a tripod. Especially with long lens for a shot like this.
2. Yes, should have used a WA lens IMHO.

"Any other suggestions as to how I could've made it better?"

I don't see anything in focus but from what I can see it looks like you attempted to focus on the very closest tall flowers in the FG. With a WA lens you would typically want to focus about 1/3 the way into your scene. I'm not sure how that works with long glass but I would assume the same and you would have to stop down much more.

And +1 @ Ben's comments of golden hours and WA lenses making distant object much less prominent.

Hope you had a great time out there and enjoyed witnessing such a great event!

Dave








Apr 01, 2016 at 08:50 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Death Valley Superbloom


Examples of my comments

The first is 17mm with deep dof. This works best when the mountain is close. (I did not use tilt)

The second is a practice shot using focus stack. Not artistic, but at 100mm it has pretty decent DOF. The very foreground is soft, but you will see the brush is sharp just behind that and the mountain is in focus because one of the stacks was focused on the mountain.














Apr 01, 2016 at 10:10 AM
nnachappa64
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Death Valley Superbloom


Hello All,

I am sorry for the late response. I had no idea this thread blew up and weirdly enough I did not receive notifications for posts.

@ben egbert: Thank you for your comments and pictures. I should've had the presence of mind to do those things. But, I was preoccupied with stopping on the side of the road and cops coming up to move me away.

@RustyBug: Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I have corrected the exposure and sharpened the image as well. I get what you were going for.

@lighthound: I understand your concern I have photos with a wide angle lens as well. But, those mountains in the back are pretty far away from where I'm standing. To make it look more substantial in the frame, I decided to use the 70-200mm lens. Out in the field, I hoped for more DOF but back home, I see this as a huge failure on my part.

Ideally, I would use a TSE 45mm or 90mm to do this photo.

Going back, I would have liked to focus stack and get everything sharp in the photo. That was the biggest failure on my part. OR I would have left the flowers blurry and focused on the mountain at least (not ideal). I'm beating myself over it now. But, hopefully I learned a lesson the hard way.

You're welcome to check out the album in my Flickr page.



Apr 08, 2016 at 09:25 AM





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