Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Hobden
Some of your waterlilly photos look strange to me, do you sometimes use a
colour filter?
If so I can't see the point if you want to use the photo as a reference, as
an art work fine, but not as a reference.
Seen lots of such photos in shops selling plants which only leads to
customer disappointment.
Regards
Bob Hobden
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Hi Bob,
No colour filters, or polarising lenses. Straightforward fine grain kodachrome film usually, with Nikkor lens. I tend to shoot around midday in 80's and 90's full sun under blue skies, with f16 depth of field and a tad of reflected light bounced in to the shadows, film tends to capture the blooms well, though, the shadows can be too dark
Some exceptions are made for interesting or difficult light, those you notice as different perhaps. For example, James Brydon scorches easy midday, so I shot it just after dawn, the sky was an exceptional deep blue and James Brydons bloom was particularly striking in that light. Thats what it does, at that time and light of day
Sometimes I try twilight exposures or shots in dappled shade for night bloomers and delicate varieties with a hint of electronic flash to perk up the shadows and details. Editing is done to reduce discrepancies between the scan and the transparency. Yellow stamen tend to be paler than the original, easy enough to colour correct
So you might say with the priority being accuracy and having a transparency for checking, the images I post are probably among the most accurate, with the caveat that film has its limitations, blue violets are affected by the Ageretum effect
Being in a climate with relentless heat, humidity and blue skies will grow a plant that does different things to what folk may be used to in cool, cloudier Northerly climates. I shoot in the heat of summer, and the cool of October and get to compare the difference
My main motive photographing waterlilies is to sit down in Winter with the photo's and double check their identities, think about planting them different, to have an accurate reference to show to folk who are interested in trying waterlilies. I do swaps with folk who have collections of interest and compare notes
A bloom has a brief time at its peak, I quite like the challenge of capturing that and the ephemeral effects, shimmering reflections, sparkles, that make a water garden an eye catching feature
Regards, andy
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/adavisus/
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