Studio Flower Excercise 2; Color

[jcdeboever]

Same gray backdrop. Taking many notes on DOF. No software edit except crop and quality export size to post on here. All picked from wild. Thanks to @Tim Tucker for encouraging me to explore my ignorance. My cat may be throwing up a few times in the next few days.

1.

2.

3.

 

[jcdeboever]

one didn't upload

 

[zombiesniper]

Very nice.

 

[tirediron]

Nicely done.

 

[jcdeboever]

Very nice.

Thanks

 

[jcdeboever]

Nicely done.

Thanks.

 

[smoke665]

Very nice JC. They're all great but #1 is my favorite. In your notes you refer to suggestions made by another. Would you mind elaborating a little more on your technique? Background? Lighting method?

Edit: I finally found thread on background. And think I understand the theory behind the suggestion. Like you I need to experiment hands on. I'm still not clear on your lighting setup as you mention a single 100 watt 5200k bulb/reflector, but also mention speed lights.

Thank you for the updates to your progress, it means a lot to those of us wanting to learn.

 

[jcdeboever]

Very nice JC. They're all great but #1 is my favorite. In your notes you refer to suggestions made by another. Would you mind elaborating a little more on your technique? Background? Lighting method?

Thanks. Sure, it was suggested to go with a gray background so I went to fabric store and bought a few yards of gray denim to replace the black velvet blanket. D3300 with 35mm 1.8 prime. Lighting is a single 100w 55k natural light bulb in a aluminum reflector that has a clamp and placed over the subject around 4ft away. Smaller flowers I use white poster board to bounce a little light on faces or edges, didn't do that here though. I have a preset profile for sharpen, EC, standard color profile with slight tweaks to brightness, contrast, etc. These were setup on Windows PC / Nikon software and uploaded to camera so I don't have to edit after. I have been experimenting with DOF and have concluded I prefer the sharpness over the background rendering. However, I think the wider apeture settings and a macro lens in the future will produce what I am eventually going for, a dreamier look. I have also been experimenting with the Holga medium format and bulb settings. I am not ready to show those yet, much more work ahead there as I am in the hunt for a enlarger and still fiddling with the camera insides, sanding and painting. Hard to simulate flocking with liquid paint. Also sanding to force subtle light leaks, pretty much there. They look pretty cool though just not a finished vision. I think darkroom technique will be the final piece.

I have made 12 different profiles for various events ranging from monochrome to sporting events in order to get things close in camera so I spend minimal time in editing software. Currently, not into spending a lot of time in software but will dive into it more down the road, I am just trying to get proficient with hardware.

 

[Tim Tucker]

Very nice indeed. I particularly like the third image.

I can only encourage you to explore your imagination further.

BTW Ignorance has nothing to do with it. You only need to convince the viewer that the image is real, or as you intended it to be to which observation is the key, (I'm going off at a tangent again ). Now in a purely abstract (and slightly ludicrous) example: Let's say one person has spent a life standing in the bright world looking at the shadows, and another in a darkened cell looking at the bright world through a hole in the wall. The person looking at the shadows' entire experience tell him that black is always in the background and the person in the cells' experience tells him it's always been in the foreground.
We, on the other hand, have no problem in visualising both situations, because we have experience of both. The trick to creating a 2D image of either is in understanding the subtleties that make us see things as being one way or the other, and not in making the broad assumption that because we see it one way around everybody else will.

 

[smoke665]

Hard to simulate flocking with liquid paint.

Not sure if this what your talking about but I've used this in some some high end custom furniture pieces I've built -http://www.woodcraft.com/category/su106-04/flocking.aspx

I absolutely love the sharp detail. Not sure about the "dreamy" aspect if it results in any loss of the detail you've achieved.

I am also experimenting with the profile settings on my Pentax. It came preloaded with several, but allows you to tweak those and generate completely new customs on the fly in camera. It's a whole new world!

 

[jcdeboever]

Hard to simulate flocking with liquid paint.

Not sure if this what your talking about but I've used this in some some high end custom furniture pieces I've built -http://www.woodcraft.com/category/su106-04/flocking.aspx

I absolutely love the sharp detail. Not sure about the "dreamy" aspect if it results in any loss of the detail you've achieved.

I am also experimenting with the profile settings on my Pentax. It came preloaded with several, but allows you to tweak those and generate completely new customs on the fly in camera. It's a whole new world!

Yes, that is the stuff.

Nikon has what is called picture control. Pretty neat that you can edit on PC and upload profile, pretty useful for me at this stage.

 

[smoke665]

Hard to simulate flocking with liquid paint.

Not sure if this what your talking about but I've used this in some some high end custom furniture pieces I've built -http://www.woodcraft.com/category/su106-04/flocking.aspx

I absolutely love the sharp detail. Not sure about the "dreamy" aspect if it results in any loss of the detail you've achieved.

I am also experimenting with the profile settings on my Pentax. It came preloaded with several, but allows you to tweak those and generate completely new customs on the fly in camera. It's a whole new world!

Yes, that is the stuff.

Nikon has what is called picture control. Pretty neat that you can edit on PC and upload profile, pretty useful for me at this stage.

So are saving as raw or jpeg. I'm having difficulty understanding just how much control those profiles have on a raw image. With the latest K3II I was having a lot of weird things going on especially on WB and detail in highly saturated colors. When I started processing through Pentax proprietary software, everything comes out fine.

 

[jcdeboever]

Raw + jpeg