Placed single flower on a wire held in place with a clothes pen and placed the flower in front of a black backboard with natural daylight and shot from a tripod. Used “lensbaby sol 45” but afraid the shot does not reflect the lens capability.
Any considering a “lensbaby sol 45” was used.
Is this a composite: No
Canon 5d Mk. III, lens baby 45 at 1/500 sec., and iso of 1250 on a tripod and natural light. Used Topaz DeNoise and Photoshop.
I love the idea of this. About a decade ago I did a year-long lifecycle project on lily of the valley. They’re such photogenic flowers. You’ve got a perfect sprig of them here, but I don’t think the fixed-aperture nature of the lens has done you any favors. There’s a lot of noise in the flowers that detracts from the subtle beauty. Not sure if you exposed for the white, but it seems weird that they would be so underexposed to produce this noise, especially on the 5D. Hm…can you redo? It’s got such potential. The light is gorgeous.
Hi Kristen, Thanks for the suggestions. I have taken down my setup for this shot so I will have to try again later. This shot was with the “lensbaby 45” which was recently obtained. It’s not a close-up lens so a heavy crop was done. Not sure what properties the lensbaby 45 produces exactly so I might stick with my 180 macro or even my 65macto.
Wayne
Hi John,
Heavy crops will magnify the effects of noise. Run DeNoise first before cropping works best. If you are using a newer version of photoshop, try the Enhance feature of Camera Raw which increases the size of the image while conserving the features of the photo. You need to load camera raw from Bridge to be able to use Enhance. For the shot, raise the shutter and use a longer exposure with a smaller ISO which should improve the image quality. Overall, a pleasing composition that will be improved with slight modifications in technique…Jim
Jim, Your suggestions are really appreciated. Thank you and thank you. I just applied the Photoshop Raw file “Enhance” feature to a Cardinal and its amazing how the clarity improved… I hope to employ your other suggestions . If possible could you expand on what you mean in your post, “raise the shutter.” Your help is invaluable to me and I’m so glad you have given me your time to assist my understanding. Everyone on NPN have been wonderful. It has been especially rewarding for me to be affiliated with NPN.
Wayne
Hi, raise the mirror not shutter. I was typing on autopilot. Mirror slap can reduce crispness in macro shots so you can find how to do that in your camera’s manual. During normal picture taking, mirror slap is negligible for fast shutter speeds. Using the raise mirror option, the mirror flips out of the way and stays up before the shutter snaps open during picture taking. Works perfectly for flower shots and eliminates a lot of vibration. Live view is another way to get around the problem of mirror slap. Mirrorless cameras have solved this issue by using an electronic viewfinder with no mirror.
Thanks Jim, I understand, as I use the mirror lockup when doing macro work on very small objects.
