Sagitar Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 A miserable wet day, but I took my camera outdoors for a little while (at about 2:30 p.m.) to get this picture of a rose in the rain. We are being visited regularly by Muntjac and they have eaten almost all our roses. This one came into flower this morning and I thought I had better get a pic before they gobble it up tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janey Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 Thats a wonderful photo, just love the way the rain drops are caught glistening perfectly on the leaves. Glad you caught it before it became deer food Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tango Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 Maybe you ought to be shooting with a different instrument, something with a bit more calibre perhaps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janey Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 Maybe you ought to be shooting with a different instrument, something with a bit more calibre perhaps mmmmm Venison on the menu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tango Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 mmmmm Venison on the menu You know I'm only joking Janey the only wildlife at risk in my garden is the grey squirrel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 Stunning image..... absolutly stunning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 1, 2010 Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 That is stunning, the more I see shots like this the more I'm longing for a DSLR! How do Muntjac get into your garden then or is this out the front? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted June 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2010 How do Muntjac get into your garden then or is this out the front? This particular rose is in the front garden, but they get into the back garden too. The house is surrounded by garden and has no front fence or side gates. There is a wood close by and I guess they come from there. We don't often see them, but their barking wakens me during the night sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 That is a stunning photo, how do you actually take photos like that? I have a decent DSLR (Nikon D90) but have no idea how to use it so can never get awesome photos like that........really should take some sort of photography course or something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phipck Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 i think thats why they very kindly started this photography forum within WIM, which i have to say a big thank you for! just start a new thread with the questions you want asking and im sure you will get answers, both from novice users like myself through to quite expert photographers. I think its proof that time, patience and over all a willingness to learn is what makes someone good at something. Sagitar your photography is beautiful, i know you have said before that you are just an amateur photographer but your skill far exceeds the lable you have given yourself. beautiful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Sagitar your photography is beautiful, i know you have said before that you are just an amateur photographer but your skill far exceeds the lable you have given yourself. Can't disagree with that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted June 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 You are all very kind. I have been a photographer for a long time - my Dad gave me my first camera in 1939, when I was going away from home with all the other evacuees. If you do something long enough and often enough, you do tend to develop a certain familiarity with the process . . . . . My real purpose in posting was to let you know that the rose survived another night. The poppies are just coming into bloom and I am hoping that the Muntjac will leave them alone. They don't have the saturated colour of the roses, but they look quite good with the setting sun behind them. In fact the whole garden is beginning to show some colour after the welcome rain that we have had recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 2, 2010 Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Those photos are just stunning! How do you get the colour of the flower to be so vibrant yet the background is quite dull? Have to admit your garden is gorgeous too, it's clear a lot of work must go into keeping it looking like that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted June 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2010 Those photos are just stunning! How do you get the colour of the flower to be so vibrant yet the background is quite dull? Have to admit your garden is gorgeous too, it's clear a lot of work must go into keeping it looking like that! My wife looks after the garden. I do some of the labouring, but she does most of the work. There are probably not many on this site who remember Fred Streeter. He was my favourite gardening expert and I particularly liked his saying "Never have a garden that is too big for your wife to look after". The contrasting brightness of flowers is all about lighting them and getting the exposure right. The poppy was taken close to sunset and I waited until the flower head was the only object still in the sun. By facing the sun, I could ensure that none of the background was sunlit. It is spot metered for the brightest part of the flower. I use the histogram in the information function on the camera to check exposure and fiddle with the manual settings until I get it exactly right. The 5D is pretty sophisticated in this regard; it allows you to look at each colour channel separately so you can ensure that the colour in which you are interested is not lost in the background information. It also allows you to decide which focusing point to use, so you are not forced to meter only on the centre of the image. Occasionally I cannot get what I want from the metering on the camera and then I use a Gossen Starlite meter that will spot meter down to an included angle of one degree. Automatic exposure metering will often get it wrong when there is such a huge range of brightness and tones as in these pictures. It will tend to average out the readings, lift the dark parts and burn out the brightest parts. When taking digital pictures it is always better to under-expose than to over-expose. Burned out areas can not be recovered. Under-exposed areas usually have plenty of information that can be recovered. I always work in RAW so that exposure can still be adjusted a often bit even after the picture has been taken but before I translate into tif or jpeg. The tonal/brightness range in the rose picture is not quite as great as for the poppy, but the same principles were applied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 Wow that garden is brilliant, I bet you spend your summer evenings sitting outside? I am really enjoying your photos though, the colour you capture is amazing. You were giving your age away there but I think it's safe to say you have a few years of experience then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted June 3, 2010 Report Share Posted June 3, 2010 The contrasting brightness of flowers is all about lighting them and getting the exposure right. The poppy was taken close to sunset and I waited until the flower head was the only object still in the sun. By facing the sun, I could ensure that none of the background was sunlit. It is spot metered for the brightest part of the flower. I use the histogram in the information function on the camera to check exposure and fiddle with the manual settings until I get it exactly right. The 5D is pretty sophisticated in this regard; it allows you to look at each colour channel separately so you can ensure that the colour in which you are interested is not lost in the background information. It also allows you to decide which focusing point to use, so you are not forced to meter only on the centre of the image. Occasionally I cannot get what I want from the metering on the camera and then I use a Gossen Starlite meter that will spot meter down to an included angle of one degree. Automatic exposure metering will often get it wrong when there is such a huge range of brightness and tones as in these pictures. It will tend to average out the readings, lift the dark parts and burn out the brightest parts. When taking digital pictures it is always better to under-expose than to over-expose. Burned out areas can not be recovered. Under-exposed areas usually have plenty of information that can be recovered. I always work in RAW so that exposure can still be adjusted a often bit even after the picture has been taken but before I translate into tif or jpeg. The tonal/brightness range in the rose picture is not quite as great as for the poppy, but the same principles were applied. Thanks for the explanation, have to admit I've never even looked at the histogram on the camera to see what was going on, looks like I'm going to have to delve a bit deeper into the features available to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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