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Flower Photography

Hipstamatic Photography – Fun With the iPhone 4

 Abstracts, Black and White, Flower Photography, Flowers, Hipstamatic, iPhone Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Tools  2 Responses »
Apr 142011
 

Daffodils No. 1. Shot with an iPhone 4 and the Hipstamatic iPhone App with Claunch 72 Monochrome Film and the Lucifer IV Lens.

Daffodils No. 2. Shot with an iPhone 4 and the Hipstamatic iPhone App with Claunch 72 Monochrome Film and the Lucifer IV Lens.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Well, I have fallen under the spell of my new iPhone 4 and my digital life may never be the same. Ok, that may be over stated but I have thoroughly enjoyed my iPad and found it quite a useful device for checking into my Facebook and Blog sites as well as housing my digital portfolio and providing hours of entertainment while on the road. So I did not think I could have much use for an iPhone. Well I am wrong. I really like it and I can do many of the things I do on my iPad but in a more portable fashion. And then there is the photography aspect.

I downloaded the Hipstamatic App for the iPhone and have a great time experimenting with all the film, lens, and flash options available through a variety of upgradeable Film Paks. The basic dowload comes with a few rolls of “film type” and lens and flash combinations. But you do not want to stop there. Just go on and buy all the Film Pak options to get all the various combinations. There are Black and White films, Infrared, Color, and Tonal Colorized Film options and most come with a lens or flash. The fun comes in trying out the various options. The camera looks like an old range finder and there are simple controls for setting the image quality, which affects the output size, selecting the film, and the flash. You can change lenses by swiping your finger across the iPhone screen. When you are ready to shoot you touch the screen and the camera flips over and you can compose through the viewfinder. It is a bit like looking through an old Box Camera. You can only see a portion of your composition which is part of the fun. All the compositions are square and come with various borders depending on the film type selected. My favorite combination so far is the Claunch 72 Monochrome with the Lucifer IV Lens. The two images above were shot in my garden this evening using that combination. The files are stored on the iPhone and can be downloaded into iPhoto. You can also share the files straight into Facebook or e-mail out to your friends. I shot each image in the highest quality mode and each .jpg was imported into Photoshop for a little curve work. Simple and fun. In fact its just liberating. Give it a try.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Coneflowers – Lensbaby Photography

 Flower Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Photograph, Lensbaby Photography, Photography Technique, Photoshop Technique, Photoshop Workflow, Sony α900, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Jul 192010
 

Image 1: Coneflowers - Final Image Processed in Photoshop. Image shot with a Sony α900 and a Lensbaby Composer at f4.0 at 1/250 of a second.

Hi everyone. I thought I would leave the slot canyons for awhile and post another Lensbaby image from my garden flower series. I am showing three stages in this image; the RAW capture, the Lightroom processed image, and the final composition completed in Photoshop. The image was shot in the early morning with the sun rising just off the image’s right hand side. The beautiful sidelight gave the flowers some nice illumination and added depth to the shot. The image was shot hand held with the focus on the two flowers in the center of the image. I used the f4.0 insert on my Lensbaby Composer and the camera white balance was set to 5200K. I composed the shot in a way that would give me cropping room for the final composition. The quality of light is what makes the shot beautiful but it also contributed to an exposure issue-that of balancing the white of the petals with the shadowed areas within the green leaves. Watching the histogram and the “blinkies” I had to clip the white highlights and the shadows just a fraction which pushed the majority of the mid-tones just to the left. I knew I could recover these in the RAW processor. Not optimum but pushing the histogram more to the right would have seriously clipped the highlights and I may not have been able to recover them.

Image 2, below shows the RAW file before processing. Not too bad but it can certainly be improved, especially in the shadows and mid-tones. And while I do like the hint of magenta colors in the top I thought the overall image could be improved by cropping in to eliminate some of the darker parts at the bottom of the shot. In looking at the image, right away I loved the quality of the light. The coneflowers really stood out and I liked the light striking the vertical stems which added a nice dynamic line that played against the curve of the flowers. With all that in mind my plan was to crop in on the shot and bring out the mid-tones for more depth. I also needed to recover a small bit of the highlights in the petal and add just a bit of fill recovery for the clipped shadows.

Image 2: Coneflowers, RAW capture before processing.

Image 3: below shows the image as processed in Lightroom before exporting to Photoshops. Here you can see the subtle recovery of highlights and shadows and the final crop. Additionally some small adjustments were made in the overall color with the sliders. Not a lot however as I prefer to use the selective color controls in Photoshop for final tweaking.

Image 3: Coneflowes, image after processing in Lightroom.

So lets take a look at all three images side by side: The first image is the RAW file, the second image is the Lightroom File, and the third image is the final Photoshop File. The results at first glance may appear subtle. The overall crop helped to eliminate the dark dead space at the bottom of the shot. But keep in mind that I shot this with an eye towards cropping in on the flowers. The Lensbaby Composer is not a zoom lens and though I might have moved in to the shot just a bit it would have altered the focus point. The second image also shows the slight recovery of the shadows with the Fill Slider and the highlights on the petals through the Recovery Slider. The third image is the final rendering from Photoshop. Here the shadows and mid-tones have been adjusted through a luminosity curve mask.

The shot below shows a screen capture of the layers I used in Photoshop. The Background Layer was duplicated and a Gaussian Blur at a 20 pixel radius was made. Though the Lensbaby at the f4.0 aperture insert already produces a nice selective focus blur I wanted to add just a bit more. From there, three separate luminosity curve masks were made for the mid-tones and shadows. The luminosity masks isolate certain tonal and value ranges in the image and from there I apply the curve adjustments through the mask. I won’t go into how these are made but if you are interested please visit Tony Kuyper’s website where you can download his tutorial’s on the masks. They are an excellent way to apply curve adjustments to a targeted tonal range. After the curves I applied a mid-tone contrast mask and then added my Dodge and Burn, Color Balance, and a Final Color Layer. This is a fairly typical Layer Stack for my work. I always do global curve work first followed by selective adjustments. I almost always use a Dodge and Burn Layer. This is an Overlay Layer with a 50% Grey Fill set to an opacity of 66%. You can paint on the mask using the Brush set to a large feathered radius. Painting with Black darkens and painting with white lightens. You should set the Brush to a low opacity and build up the effect.

Coneflower Photoshop Layers

Well, this was quite a bit to go through. Hopefully you followed along and got a glimpse of how I process some of my shots. If you have any questions or comments just drop me a note. Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Coneflower – Abstract with Midtone Contrast Mask

 Abstracts, Flower Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Sony α900, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Jun 252010
 

Coneflower Abstract. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 55mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f5.6 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone. Here is another abstract impressionist shot from the garden. This image of purple and white coneflowers was shot and processed using the same techniques described in my last post. For me this is the most painterly of the images I have posted. The soft light and complimentary colors really add to the effect. One thing I want to add is that even though the image is blurred by the motion I do apply a little sharpening. This is to help with the image contrast and it can actually tweak out some details and provide a 3-D quality to the final result. The way I do this is through a mid-tone contrast mask which is essentially a high pass filter on a merged layer of the image. I set the layer to softlight at 60% and adjust the “Blend If” sliders to 25 and 70 for shadows and 200 and 225 for the highlights. This applies the majority of the effect to the mid-tone areas and fades it into the shadows and highlights. Once the layer is set I apply a high pass filter at a radius of about 10. It really helps tweak out some detail.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Daylily Abstracts

 Abstracts, Flower Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Sony α900, Zeiss Lenses  No Responses »
Jun 242010
 

Daylily Abstract Number 1. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 50mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at 5.6 for 4 seconds.

Daylily Abstract Number 2. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 50mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at 5.6 for 4 seconds.

Hi everyone. Todays post features some experimental shots exploring image capture coupled with camera movement. I have always had a soft spot for abstract impressionist paintings with the beautiful blending of color and form. This is a fairly easy idea to explore with a digital camera. The technique employs a long shutter speed of 2 to 4 seconds with a slight vertical up and down movement of the camera during the exposure. The movement need only be slight to capture the effect. It usually takes a lot of shots changing the camera angle and amount of movement to capture a composition I am happy with. Abstract Number 1 shows the effect of a vertical movement with a slight side to side shake. In Abstract Number 2 the camera was moved up, then down and held until the end of the exposure. This resulted in more definition to the lily pods. This is a wonderful technique for creating abstract images and simply “painting” with the camera.

The images were processed in Adobe Lightroom and final finishing in Photoshop. In general the shots only need the white and black point set and a little subtle curve work and adjustment to the color saturation.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Tree Peony – Lensbaby Composer

 Flower Photography, Flowers, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Photograph, Sony α900  No Responses »
May 062010
 

Tree Peony. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Lensbaby Composer. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f4 for 1/60 of a second.

Hi everyone. Todays post is a continuation of my spring flower Lensbaby images. This image is of one of my tree peonies. I have been waiting for the blooms to pop for almost two weeks. The tree peony is arguably one of my favorite plants producing magnificent blooms in the first weeks of May. I counted over 60 buds on this particular plant. The image was shot with my Lensbaby Composer and the wide angle attachment. I like to do these shots in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid harsh highlights and shadows. Processing was done in Lightroom with final finishing in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Purple Iris No. 2 – Lensbaby Photography

 Flower Photography, Flowers, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Photograph, Photography Technique, Sony α900  No Responses »
Apr 192010
 

Purple Iris. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Lensbaby Composer with the wide angle attachment. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f4 for 1/90 of a second.

Hi everyone. Just a quick follow up post to the purple iris shots I posted yesterday. Here is another shot from the same shooting session where I used the Lensbaby Composer and wide angle attachment to focus in close to the inside of the flower. I remain amazed at the internal structure inside the iris and the incredible colors. Only in nature can we find such wonderful combinations of complementary colors.

Thanks again to all for visiting my site. May spring reveal its mysteries to you.

Bob

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 Posted by at 11:21 pm

Purple Iris – Lensbaby Photography

 Flower Photography, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Photograph, Photography Technique, Sony α900  No Responses »
Apr 182010
 

Purple Iris. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Lensbaby Composer with the wide angle attachment. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f4 for 1/90 of a second.

Purple Iris Number 2. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Lensbaby Composer. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f4 for 1/90 of a second.

Hi everyone. The weather here in West Virginia is causing some confusion. It is actually quite chilly and we may see the temperature drop into the 40′s tonight. But despite the chill we have enjoyed some remarkable and beautiful days here in the panhandle. With this post I am continuing with the flower theme that I began when the first cherry blossums emerged several weeks ago. I am creating a series of Lensbaby photographs of the many flowers found in my garden. Several days ago my purple iris opened up with a stunning display of color. The light today was slightly subdued which made for a nice even illumination on the flowers. I had to battle a little wind today but my patience paid off.

The first image was shot with the Lensbaby and the wide angle attachment. The wide angle lens allows me to work in very close to the my main subject. In this case I am literally inches away. My focus was on the new bud. I love the way the petals of the flower seem to wrap around and frame the new bud. I also like the flower in the background which is an almost mirror opposite of the main subject. There is a beautiful 3-dimensional quality to this image. Part of this is achieved by the selective focus capabilities of the Lensbaby and the other part is due to the way I processed the image. I employed several light and dark curve adjustments in Photoshop to help separate the flower from the background.

The second image was shot with the Lensbaby Composer without the wide angle attachment. The effective focal length is equivalent to a 50mm. The focus here was just past the first petals. I really love the vertical, spikey leaves pointing up to the main flowers. And I love the intense colors. I have talked about this in past posts but I continue to sing the virtues of the Lensbaby. The power of the lens’ selective focus allows you to create images that go from sharp focus to blur. And it does so with a beautiful, natural transition. Additionally the blur and the effect changes based on where you decide to focus. Look for more images as spring continues. I am still waiting for the rhododendrons, clematis, and my tree peonies.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Wildflowers – Lensbaby Photography

 Black and White, Flower Photography, Flowers, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lensbaby Photograph, Photography Technique, Sony α900  No Responses »
Apr 122010
 

Wildflowers Along the C & O Canal. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Lensbaby Composer with a wide angle attachment. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f4 for 1/60 of a second.

Hi everyone. The weather has been so nice along the Potomac River in recent days. So I took off on an early morning ramble along the C & O Canal. The morning light was dappled and soft and the river flowed still and quiet. Near the rivers banks I came across this grouping of wildflowers. The beautiful white flowers stood out in contrast to the green grass. The final image was processed in Lightroom and Photoshop. In my original vision for the shot I was struck by the color but once in Photoshop I realized that it would make a very nice black and white due in part by the contrast between the green grass and the white flowers.

The image has two adjustment layers. The first is an overall darkening layer. To do this I simply pull down from the mid tone point till I get an “over darkening” of the image. I then fill the layer mask with black. from there I go in to the layer with a wide, soft brush at around 10% opacity, and paint white into the corners of the image. This brings out the darkening effect. I build this up slowly around the corners of the image until I am satisfied with the tone. This darkening tones down the edges and helps the flowers stand out.

The second layer is an overall lightening where I pull up on the mid tone point. After filling the mask with black I go in with the soft brush and paint in areas I want to lighten including leaves and some of the flowers. It is a simple and effective method for painting in light and dark contrast.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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Dogwood Flowers – Lensbaby Photography

 Flower Photography, Flowers, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lensbaby, Photography Technique, Sony α900  2 Responses »
Apr 112010
 

Dogwood Flower. Shote with a Sony α900 and a Lensbaby Composer with a wide angle attachment. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f4 for 1/125 of a second

Hi everyone. Todays post continues a theme I started several weeks ago to photograph a series of flowers and blooming trees utilizing my Lensbaby Composer. Todays flower is from one of my dogwood trees. It was shot with the Lensbaby and a Lensbaby wide angle lens attachment. The wide angle lens allows me to work in very tight to the flower, in this case I was literally inches from the main bud. In fact I was so tight I was enveloped by dogwood branches. The flower was backlit by the setting sun and I used a small reflective disk to throw some light on the petals. Stay tuned as I am waiting for my peonies and rhododendrons to open.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

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