Flowers and a Beast

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Archive 2008 · Flowers and a Beast

Dalantech
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p.1 #1 · Flowers and a Beast

Every time I see these flowers I try to pull a composition out of them. Shot at 3x.

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Shot at four times life size with a Canon MPE-65mm macro lens. This critter was literally scraping out the pollen with its proboscis.

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Nov 19, 2008 at 04:08 PM

Kenj8246
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p.1 #2 · Flowers and a Beast

Like these, John, especially the fly. What time of day were these shot? I assume they're your usual f8-11, 1/250, iso 100-200? Are you still using the CTO and 'pale' diffusion on your heads?

Kenny

Nov 19, 2008 at 04:34 PM

Dalantech
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p.1 #3 · Flowers and a Beast

Kenj8246 wrote:
...What time of day were these shot? I assume they're your usual f8-11, 1/250, iso 100-200? Are you still using the CTO and 'pale' diffusion on your heads?

Kenny

I do most of my shooting in brutal sunlight -not by choice, just happens to work out that way.

Yes to the rest of your questions

I'm gonna give you one of the keys to the candy store: Even though there isn't enough natural light in those shots to get a decent exposure there is enough to cause a problem for the red channel. There are two advantages to making the light from your flash "warm":

The natural light and the flash light won't be the same temperature, so their effect on the red channel will not be the same. When added together they won't completely blow out the reds in the scene...

In post if I need to scale back the temperature to deal with a red channel that's a little hot I can easily do it and still have an image that's more warm than cold. The 1/8 CTO + the Sto-Fen plastic usually gives me a white balance in the 6100 degree range and I can scale that back about 4100 if necessary.

Nov 19, 2008 at 05:09 PM

LordV
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p.1 #4 · Flowers and a Beast

LIke both shots

Brian V.

Nov 19, 2008 at 05:15 PM

Kenj8246
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p.1 #5 · Flowers and a Beast

I could probably find out the answer to this myself, but what is the temp difference between harsh sunlight and flash?

I've noticed that when I pull my raw images into the raw converter in Elements since diffusing the light 'your way', my white balance is in the 6100 range, usually 6150--I shoot with my WB set to flash. My point is that I like the light in most of my images now (except for those I mangle horribly from the get-go, of course). If anything, it's just a small tad too warm--orange, I guess.

Nov 19, 2008 at 05:21 PM

Dalantech
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p.1 #6 · Flowers and a Beast

Thanks Brian

Kenj8246 wrote:
I could probably find out the answer to this myself, but what is the temp difference between harsh sunlight and flash?

Bare flash with no diffusion is the same temp as mid day sun: 5500K.

Kenj8246 wrote:
I've noticed that when I pull my raw images into the raw converter in Elements since diffusing the light 'your way', my white balance is in the 6100 range, usually 6150--I shoot with my WB set to flash. My point is that I like the light in most of my images now (except for those I mangle horribly from the get-go, of course). If anything, it's just a small tad too warm--orange, I guess.

I get the same with my WB set to auto. I like it as well, it just depends on how much of a shift I get when the sun is added to the mix.

Check out this page -it's a pretty good right up on the different effects of white balance.

Nov 19, 2008 at 05:33 PM

Igor Shuryak
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p.1 #7 · Flowers and a Beast

Great fly shot!

Nov 19, 2008 at 06:11 PM

MichAg92
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p.1 #8 · Flowers and a Beast

ugggh on the beast - great, detailed shot of one gross fly!

Nov 19, 2008 at 10:15 PM

LMT1972
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p.1 #9 · Flowers and a Beast

The fly is awesome.

Cheers
Leigh

Nov 19, 2008 at 10:19 PM

Karen41
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p.1 #10 · Flowers and a Beast

Great shots John, can't believe how much detail you manage to get all the time...Karen

Nov 20, 2008 at 03:37 AM

michael kilner
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p.1 #11 · Flowers and a Beast

great fly shot

Nov 20, 2008 at 04:06 PM

Henry Hawk
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p.1 #12 · Flowers and a Beast

MichAg92 wrote:
ugggh on the beast - great, detailed shot of one gross fly!

Agree with Amy on the uggh but really nice capture! Not super sure what you were trying to get with the comp on #1?

Nov 21, 2008 at 06:27 AM

Dalantech
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p.1 #13 · Flowers and a Beast

Thanks folks

Henry Hawk wrote:
Agree with Amy on the uggh but really nice capture! Not super sure what you were trying to get with the comp on #1?

Those flowers are in a tight, rounded bunch and I was trying to get the lead flower in focus and to show the curve in the OOF background. To do that, and to keep the leading petal on the first flower from standing out, I shot at a low angle and tried to get just the edge of that leading petal to "hide" it. Not sure how well it worked though. I often see a lot of flowers that I think would look great but they totally suck when I get them on the PC -makes me think that shooting them is an art in and of itself...

Nov 21, 2008 at 06:32 AM

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