It does not look like full sun to me. The light is coming from the left and is not above the flower as it would be in full sun. It is balancing act to get details in the shadows and not have burn out in the bright areas. Too bad he did not post a bigger picture.
hmmm, my first answer here seems to have disappeared into the ether. As I was saying, yes, the lens is semi-translucent, you can see shadows through it. And yes, the other lenses are silver, gold, black and I forget what the 5th one is. I don't know how to use those.
Lovely, lovely Easter photos of beautiful young girls! I miss the days of Easter dresses and colored eggs ...my youngest turns 30 in 3 weeks.
Been busy making up Easter bouquets to sell...sales picking up a bit today. I am using Japanese quince, Flowering red or pink current, star magnolia, Daffodils, Grape Hyacinths, an occasional viola pansy, or pink and blue pulmonaria or red and yellow Primroses...its what I have this year. Its hard with not being able to bend and pick but hopefully I will be better by Mother's Day when the next big flower sales happen. I used to have Clematis armandi, FLowering Ornamental cherry and plum but they have succombed to changing weather patterns like Ice storms. MY Clematis Armandi is slowlygrowing back from a single vine last season. One never knows from year to year what will bloom when I need it.
CCvacation Mar 30, 2013 8:53 AM PDT
Name: CC PA
Islander wrote:yes, the lens is semi-translucent, you can see shadows through it. And yes, the other lenses are silver, gold, black and I forget what the 5th one is. I don't know how to use those.
We use silver and gold reflectors in the studio to reflect light in the shadow areas of a subject's face. Normally, we prefer the gold reflector for a nice rich warm tone under the chin and nose, reducing double chins and 'hawk nose' effect. For dramatic closeup images with a black background, we'll reflect silver light into face away from the main softbox light, so that there is extreme lighting on one side of the face with more subdued lighting with detail on the opposite side. The most important task of a reflector, other then gently adding supplemental lighting, is to provide a catchlight in the eye that is turned away from the main light. That catchlight provides the three demensional look to the eye, which otherwise looks like a rather scary hole in the face.
The black flag is normally used to block unwanted light on the subject, reducing reflections or glare (especially on shiny objects like jewelry), or to block the sun from the camera lense to avoid lens flare.
Sounds like the semi-translucent one is a scrim, or filter. That one sounds like the best for flowers, as you've figured out! If the fifth one you have is a metallic neutral flag, that would be good to bounce light into the side of the flower while the scrim is overhead blocking sun. (Then you need a tripod and assistant to traipse through your garden with you, or grow three more hands!)
Hope this helps explain a studio's use of your tools.
teddahlia Mar 30, 2013 10:30 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I need to buy some of these. Keep the photo tips coming folks. Even some pictures that came out well with the reasons why would be great.
MaryNZ Mar 30, 2013 12:46 PM PDT
Name: Mary St George New Zealand
Yes, most informative. Thank you.
teddahlia Apr 2, 2013 10:28 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I have taken some nice pictures of brightly colored flowers by positioning the sun behind the bloom. The light seems to shine through the petals and the center petals have some definition.
Hollyhill Buttercup WL Y that should be released next year.
tgarland Apr 5, 2013 12:16 PM PDT
Name: Tim Garland Boise, Idaho
I have begun to really watch the backgrounds. I had some really nice dahlia photos just to see the neighbors car in the background. Now I make sure what is there and I even try to learn what backgrounds help out the flowers colors.
MaryNZ Apr 5, 2013 12:47 PM PDT
Name: Mary St George New Zealand
Backgrounds are hard! My camera seems to have a fairly wide angle, so takes in all kinds of superfluous background stuff. Its optical zoom is underwhelming, so there is a limited extent to which I can back up and zoom in to narrow the view.
teddahlia Apr 5, 2013 12:52 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Bokeh is the term for a picture where the subject is in focus and the background is blurred on purpose. Wayne Holland of Hy Dahlias like this method. I am not an expert but by using a telephoto lens and shooting from several feet away you get a lot of the flower in focus and the background is blurred quite a bit.
RedmondPhyllis Apr 7, 2013 11:23 AM PDT
Name: Phyllis Stengl Sequim, WA Deer are beautiful if they don't e
I saw that Swan made the front cover of Sunset! There's an article with 51 dahlias (with pictures) to drool over. But . . . why would anyone take a picture of the backside of Cheyenne? It's a lovely bloom that has a much better side. http://www.sunset.com/garden/flowers-plants/gorgeous-dahlias...
Interesting...its like a choice of 40 of the ones that would be and are, my last picks from SI, along with 10 that I like. Now there are pleny of SI's that I do like but not these! Maybe they were looking for variety. I still wouldn't have picked these out. Guess I will have to read it and see.
teddahlia Apr 7, 2013 1:12 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I saw the Sunset magazine at the grocery checkout stand and sneaked a look. Nick Gitt's Jr. has his picture in there. I have been at Swan Island Dahlias when a national magazine photo crew shows up. They have exotic photo equipment and are all business. I saw that they preview the pictures on a monitor while they are there.
Nick Gitt's Jr deals with television remote telecasts every year. Our local news stations love to have a crew working at 6:00AM shooting from Swan Island. Also, garden TV shows are filming there every year. He must answer the same questions hundreds of times per year.
RedmondPhyllis Apr 7, 2013 1:26 PM PDT
Name: Phyllis Stengl Sequim, WA Deer are beautiful if they don't e
Have to say, I've seen better pictures of the majority of those dahlias.
I splurged and bought a macro zoom lense for my camera. Being very frugal, since Pentax SLR cameras can use lenses from old SLR film cameras, I found a 1994 macro lense on Ebay for only about $35.00 including shipping. It is only half automatic in that you have to focus the lense but the camera selects the proper shutter speed. And I took my first pictures today. Here is a close up of a pom that blew it's center a day or so ago. And here is a first year seedling , mb lavender:
And here is a picture of garden today. It even has a blue sky
DahliaGardener Jul 13, 2013 7:29 PM PDT
Name: Cynthia BG, KY USDA Zone 6b Sanity = Dirt under your nails...
Nice, Ted! Garden looks really good! It looks like the macro/zoom lens was an excellent purchase.
C DG
MaryNZ Jul 15, 2013 5:11 AM PDT
Name: Mary St George New Zealand
I like it when you splurge, Ted! We all get to enjoy the results.
I'm going to be peering down at Oregon from a plane on my way home, and if I see anything colourful, I am going to decide that it is your Dahlias, right or wrong!
http://www.sunset.com/garden/flowers-plants/gorgeous-dahlias...
