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- Dave
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Stepping right out of my comfort zone here! Over the last few months I've been buying flash equipment and modifiers to add to the two speedlights I used to use for macro when I thought I was a wildlife photographer. I soon gave up that lark as it's too easy to do boringly and too time consuming to do interestingly - as in no birds or insects with smooth backgrounds! The reason for the purchases was to take better 'product shots' for my business. having got stuck and been stymied with other projects I thought I'd put the gear to use and get to grips with it.
Wildflowers on a white background aren't a new idea. Nothing original here. It's just been a fun exercise for a few days. I had an idea how to do it having read an article on it ages ago. It looked easy enough. And it is!
For anyone who thinks picking wildflowers is wrong everything I've cut has come from myovergrown back wildlife garden!
First attempt.
With the set up sussed it's just been a case of finding flowers and moving one light around, sometimes using a piece of white paper as a reflector.
As these pics are more in the line of illustration or 'art' I'm happy to ignore the usual processing and cropping constraints I try to stick to with more documentary pics.
Something which has been confirmed is that it's not 'all about the light'. If the subject doesn't make the right kind of shapes it doesn't matter what the light is like. Slight repositioning of a flower can make all the difference. As I've done more of these I've got increasingly critical and picky.
I've even been using a tripod, remote release and taking a white balance reference shot. What hasn't changed is using the same lens I've been using pretty much all the time this year. I'm now wishing I hadn't sold a macro lens to help pay for it.
Each time I've had a play around, and this really is playing, I've made some improvement or worked something out.
I doubt this project will continue for long. Like the wildlife thing it could easily become a check list project, ticking off flowers as they come in season. But it has been an interesting learning process as was photographing dragonflies.
The trickiest thing has been finding a way to hold the flowers in place. This is my solution cobbled together from bits and bobs I already had. It's highly adjustable and does the job.
I would have posted this in the lighting forum but apart from being a good place to get gear advice it mostly makes me annoyed when I look in there. As it did yet again five minutes ago.
That's it.
I'll no doubt take more flower pics when I'm at a loose end. The trouble I have is that as soon as I've got a handle on a technique I lose interest because what interested me was the learning bit. Once I have the fundamentals sussed it's soon time to find something fresh. It was the same with dragonflies. The technique was easy to work out, getting close to the insects was the hard part. But I guess that's photography, the technical stuff is a piece of cake, finding a subject that resonates and having a story or message to get across is where the stumbling blocks lie. Is that why the internet is full of technical how-to information?
Thanks for looking.
Wildflowers on a white background aren't a new idea. Nothing original here. It's just been a fun exercise for a few days. I had an idea how to do it having read an article on it ages ago. It looked easy enough. And it is!
For anyone who thinks picking wildflowers is wrong everything I've cut has come from my
First attempt.
With the set up sussed it's just been a case of finding flowers and moving one light around, sometimes using a piece of white paper as a reflector.
As these pics are more in the line of illustration or 'art' I'm happy to ignore the usual processing and cropping constraints I try to stick to with more documentary pics.
Something which has been confirmed is that it's not 'all about the light'. If the subject doesn't make the right kind of shapes it doesn't matter what the light is like. Slight repositioning of a flower can make all the difference. As I've done more of these I've got increasingly critical and picky.
I've even been using a tripod, remote release and taking a white balance reference shot. What hasn't changed is using the same lens I've been using pretty much all the time this year. I'm now wishing I hadn't sold a macro lens to help pay for it.
Each time I've had a play around, and this really is playing, I've made some improvement or worked something out.
I doubt this project will continue for long. Like the wildlife thing it could easily become a check list project, ticking off flowers as they come in season. But it has been an interesting learning process as was photographing dragonflies.
The trickiest thing has been finding a way to hold the flowers in place. This is my solution cobbled together from bits and bobs I already had. It's highly adjustable and does the job.
I would have posted this in the lighting forum but apart from being a good place to get gear advice it mostly makes me annoyed when I look in there. As it did yet again five minutes ago.
That's it.
I'll no doubt take more flower pics when I'm at a loose end. The trouble I have is that as soon as I've got a handle on a technique I lose interest because what interested me was the learning bit. Once I have the fundamentals sussed it's soon time to find something fresh. It was the same with dragonflies. The technique was easy to work out, getting close to the insects was the hard part. But I guess that's photography, the technical stuff is a piece of cake, finding a subject that resonates and having a story or message to get across is where the stumbling blocks lie. Is that why the internet is full of technical how-to information?
Thanks for looking.
