I took a few flower photos in Death Valley, and I'm kinda undecided on how to show what I saw then. The camera captures something different than what I saw.
Dan, I think you are on the right road to taking great flower shots. One thing to remember is about the stem, if there is one leading towards your main subject, it should be sharp and in your picture, it is not. I would have underexposed the main subject as you have no detail in the highlights. As others may have said, you could have bracketed this shot and merged them together for one image. If you did not do that and did shoot in raw, you can use the same image and in one, expose for the shadows and in the second expose for the highlights and then merge them together. For basic HDR, you do not need to purchase another program, CS4 does a much better job than previous versions.
I know the effect you are after. You do not say in your post whether your file is a raw or jpeg. If it is a jpeg your options are limited. If it is raw you can try to bring the image around with some of the suggestions already made. What you have encountered here is the harsh reality of desert shooting, light that falls beyond the 5-6 stops dynamic range of your sensor.
Two things I carry in my kit are a homemade reflector, tin foil on one side and black on the other, and also a pop out diffuser . With these I can work with the natural light to bring it into range as well as control lighting ratios. Flash is another option that I use sparingly and usually with some kind of diffusion.
I think you succeeded in making the flower appear as a lantern. If it were a lantern, I think, the buds to the right might pick up some of the purple color, on the side facing the lantern.. Perhaps to play with that thought might get you to where you want to be.
Yes I did shoot raw. I did some minor post processing on the photos posted, but I think I'll try to merge the 2 somehow (I might not need HDR technique per say to do that). I'll want just to re-add some details in the blown highlight.
I'll look into photomatics, however the many shots I took were handheld. And no I didn't use liveview. The main reason is I did rely on autofocus. In liveview you can't prefocus (you can go manual though). The other issue is screen brightness. The body position also makes all that awkward.
Tim, now that you mention it, I see what you mean about the stem. I did not notice that when I shot. I could've increased the aperture to f8 easilly but did not then.
A lot of people mentionned reflectors. I might look into that, but these photos are day hike photos (into canyons with scome scrambling/climbing involved).
I tend to be disappointed by flash photos, also my lens is too big for the built in flash.
When I shot the photo I was actually blown away by the fact the flower seemed to be lit from inside then, as when I looked on the other side of it, it looked normal. I didn't realize at first that what I saw had such a dynamic range. I did bracket then when the result felt overexposed.
Discussion
6 repliesFlora post
Both have interesting impact.
I think that you have achieved your goal.
There is a 15 % discount on Photomatix through the Naturescapes store.
I think that an HDR of the same image would be very interesting.
I'm assuming that you use live view when you take your macro images ???
I know the effect you are after. You do not say in your post whether your file is a raw or jpeg. If it is a jpeg your options are limited. If it is raw you can try to bring the image around with some of the suggestions already made. What you have encountered here is the harsh reality of desert shooting, light that falls beyond the 5-6 stops dynamic range of your sensor.
Two things I carry in my kit are a homemade reflector, tin foil on one side and black on the other, and also a pop out diffuser . With these I can work with the natural light to bring it into range as well as control lighting ratios. Flash is another option that I use sparingly and usually with some kind of diffusion.
Paul
Yes I did shoot raw. I did some minor post processing on the photos posted, but I think I'll try to merge the 2 somehow (I might not need HDR technique per say to do that). I'll want just to re-add some details in the blown highlight.
I'll look into photomatics, however the many shots I took were handheld. And no I didn't use liveview. The main reason is I did rely on autofocus. In liveview you can't prefocus (you can go manual though). The other issue is screen brightness. The body position also makes all that awkward.
Tim, now that you mention it, I see what you mean about the stem. I did not notice that when I shot. I could've increased the aperture to f8 easilly but did not then.
A lot of people mentionned reflectors. I might look into that, but these photos are day hike photos (into canyons with scome scrambling/climbing involved).
I tend to be disappointed by flash photos, also my lens is too big for the built in flash.
When I shot the photo I was actually blown away by the fact the flower seemed to be lit from inside then, as when I looked on the other side of it, it looked normal. I didn't realize at first that what I saw had such a dynamic range. I did bracket then when the result felt overexposed.