Dahlias and Echinaceas, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Briefly noted: An arrangement of Dahlias and Echniaceas from my garden. I love photographing flowers—and it is great that I don’t need model releases!
Rose, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
This is a grab shot of a backlit rose, found along the street—as much as anything with a 200mm telephoto macro mounted via collar on a tripod can be a grab shot.
Cycle of Life, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Spring turns to summer, the precise demarcation of the season change lost for me in a haze of books to write, photography in the studio, new Photoshop features to play with, and family matters. Not to mention the oddities of the Pacific weather system in coastal California, where July can easily be chillier with more fog than March or October. In my garden, my beloved poppies are no longer the prime attraction, being swiftly surpassed in sheer gaudiness of coloration by the Dahlias and Echinaceas.
The world moves to a rhythm of its own, and our society has us on a treadmill that only seems to increase in velocity. With four kids, there’s always something to take care of: a doctor to visit, playdate to arrange, or mandatory school affair to show the parental flag at.
But it’s important for me to take the time to sample the tempo of the growing things in my garden. They have a cycle of life that is all their own, as seen in this Papaver Rhoeas photo from early June. The Poppy in the center of the photo is mature, but the one to the upper right has just bloomed, shedding its delicate pod cover onto the petals of the more mature flower. The entire life cycle is compressed into a matter of hours, but seems somehow languid and dreamy if I take the time to observe it closely.
Dahlia Flutes Purple, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger
Two recent macro shots of a Dahlia reveal the structure and mystery of this flower viewed extremely close-up. Both were taken with my 50mm macro lens augmented with an extension tube.
As you can see, the light was quite different for the two photos even though they were taken over a fairly short time span. This is a feature (or bug) of the sunlight studio, particularly when capturing as the sun sets.
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Dahlia, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
I found this nearly perfect Dahlia growing my garden, in one of the protected side-yard raised beds that I use for growing flowers. To make this image, I positioned the flower in a vase in front of a west-facing window.
My plan was to use the strong late afternoon sun as my sole light source. I hung a piece of translucent white tracing paper to act as a diffuser between the window and the flower. Papaver Rhoeas Portrait and Light of the Poppy were shot the same way.
Since this Dahlia is relatively opaque, the front of the flower was in deep shadow because the backlighting from the sun didn’t reach it. I used a small piece of white cardboard as a reflector to add a touch of fill light to the front of the flower.
To make the background appear truly white, I shot a series of images at bracketed exposures, all biased to the high key (or over exposed). All other variables were the same for each capture, with exposure times ranging from 10 seconds to 1/30 of a second. I used a 200mm telephoto macro, at f/32 and ISO 100, tripod mounted. I made sure that neither camera nor flower moved between exposures.
In Photoshop, I started with the lightest exposure (10 seconds). In this version, the background was completely white and you could hardly see the flower. Using darker versions, layers, masks, and the Paint Brush Tool I layered in the details in the flower.
After merging down the layers in Photoshop, to enhance the color rendition, I selectively blended the flower with a monochromatic version of itself. I know this sounds paradoxical—but sometimes color can be improved by taking color out.
Papaver and Campanula, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
This is an image of Papaver Rhoeas and Campanula—or, to use common names, Poppy and Bellflower—both kinds of flowers from my garden.
I place the flowers on a flourescent light box to create a back lit effect and photographed straight down. There’s very little light coming from the front of these flowers. To increase the transparent effect, I sprayed them with water, brushed the water around for even coverage, and pressed the ensemble gently down with a large piece of 1/2 inch plate glass. I removed the glass before taking the photos used to create this composite image.
My technique with this kind of transparent, high-key image is to bracket exposures, all of them biased to the over-exposed side. In this case, I used my Sigma 50mm macro lens. I set the aperture to f/11 and the ISO to 100. Then I made ten exposures, ranging in shutter speeds from 2 seconds to 1/50 of a second.
I started by processing the lightest and brightest exposure (the 2 second one) in Photoshop. Then I gradually layered in detail from the darker versions, using layers and the Paint Brush Tool in Photoshop.
The resulting composite produced the effect I was looking for: the transulence and brightness of a water color with light apparently shining through the partially transparent flowers.
Light of the Poppy, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Briefly noted: I photographed this poppy from my garden using late afternoon sunlight startegically beamed through a sheet of translucent paper to backlight the back of the flower.
Exposure data: Nikon D300, 200mm f/4 macro plus 36mm extension tube, 3/10 of a second at f/36 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.
Papaver Rhoeas Portrait, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
I’ve been photographing people lately—and writing, thinking, eating and breathing portraits, people photography, and lighting people for my new upcoming book Creative Portraits: Digital Tips & Techniques. So perhaps it’s not surprising that this poppy portrait looks a little like a headshot. A headshot, that is, of a one-eyed floral cyclops.
To make this image I took advantage of the strong, California late afternoon sunlight coming in through my western window. I suspended some translucent tracing paper between two stands, and used the sunlight projected onto the paper as my back light source for the flower. I shot a number of exposures, with the plan of manually combining these different versions in Photoshop. Each exposure biased to the high key, overexposed side.
Exposure data: 200mm macro, six exposures combined in Photoshop at shutter speeds from 1/13 of a second to 3/5 of a second, each exposure at f/36 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.
Orbit, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Head down and hard at work on a new book project, it was fun this morning to take a break. My break coincided with a break in the weather—so I got to photograph these beautiful water drops orbiting in the space around the flower that is their sun.
A couple of related stories with images of flowers reflected and refracting in inidividual water drops: Gaillardia Drop; Passion in a Drop.
Briefly noted: My book Creative Black & White: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques is number one in the black and white photography book category on Amazon. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible.
Fourth of July Roses, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
This is the bouquet of Fourth of July roses that I’ve previously shown shot through the panes of a glass door. In this image, I placed the flowers on a black background and combined several exposures for extended dynamic range using Hand HDR.
Stay tuned. I’ve found another use for this shot—which I’ll show to you after I’ve blogged the other parts.
Rule of Thirds, photo by Harold Davis. http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4599159601_13e6d48e62_b.jpg
I photographed this bouquet of Fourth of July roses through the divided lights of a glass door, using natural light and a black backdrop.
Exposure data: 112mm, 3 seconds and f/36 at ISO 100, tripod mounted.
Gaillardia Drop, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
The day was moist with sudden rain squalls followed by brief, intermittent periods of sunshine. In one of the times without rain I went out into the strangely moist world of my garden.
Staring down at the spider web strategically located above a Gaillardia bud, I saw the blossom perfactly framed in water drop. I ran inside to get my tripod and macro lens. Kit in hand, I framed the photo, locked my mirror up, and snapped the shot.
Next thing, it was raining again and I retreated inside before the incoming Pacific squall.
Related story: Passion in a Drop.
Passion in a Drop, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Small rain drops caught in a spider web suspended over flower buds were among my subjects on an exciting day of intermittent sunshine, clouds and heavy rain.
The Passiflora (shown above) is seen in its entirety within tiny drops, while the outline of the whole colorful flower is shown out-of-focus as a backdrop. The Gazania (below) in only partially seen in the background—the bud is minature but entire within the water drop.
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Rainy Day Ranunculus, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
Briefly noted: Photographed in my garden in an intermission in the rain, this is the same plant I used as a model in this studio Ranunculus shot.
Take your pick: au naturel versus handsome artifice. Personally, I like my flowers both ways. Thank you very much.
Iris, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
I photographed this Iris in my garden straight down using a telephoto macro len during a lull in the violent but brief rains we’ve been having over the last couple of weeks.
The wind and weather bent and contorted the flower petals; when the bright sun emerged—and I made this photo—there were water drops on the underside of some transparent petals. These water drops display as their negative, a shadow surrounded by a bright ring of light. The most noticeable of these is about one third of the way up the photo, and a little to the right.
