Am I trying to hard or what?

[dslrchat]

Now I am aware this is not an interesting subject, and even though it is not raining tonight, I decided to take another stab at this flower to see if I could improve.

I turned a light n inside the house and partially opened the door.

Manual
Speed 30 sec
F 9.0
ISO 100
Focal legnth 300mm
WB Auto

Did I improve at all?
(the reason I turned on an inside light, was and light outside gave me a shadow.

(oh, and I zoomed in on just one cluster this time)

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

hmm well first, I'd try shooting during the day. your, again, choosing situations that warrent advanced photography techniques and advanced lighting (when shooting at night)

Try some day shots, and learn your histogram. You don't need to be going for 30 sec exposures

 

[dslrchat]

The reason I was 30 second exposure, as at F9 that was the setting that had exposure meter at 0

I am reading manual (XTI) and looking look setting, trying to see where to find histogram and how to turn it on, so far the only setting I have found for histogram is
Brightness
or
RGB
?

Oh, the only reason I had decided to try again at dark was to see if I could improve on the earlier photos

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

ah, don't bother (IMO). Improve by getting natural ambient light in your corner. You will have won half the battle (and hence get rid of 30 sec exposures).

Your histogram should be gotten (if its the same as my plain ol rebel) just hit the "info" button while viewing a picture. First, it will just display your exposure on the picture, press it one more time and it will display your histogram. hope that helped..

 

[dslrchat]

OK, So you see the histogram after taking a Photo and then adjust?

(now I have to learn how to read and interpret it Lol )

 

[kellylindseyphotography]

Your picture will come up, as well as the histogram when you take it.

The histogram will show up on the right, and your picture on the left. You will see blinking parts of your picture that are either too dark and have lost detail, or too bright and have lost detail.

If you see that, you then need to adjust your settings accordingly.

EG- you shoot and your settings are f5, SS 125. Your histogram pops up and you have white spots flashing everywhere. You are clearly overexposing the picture.

Bump your shutter up to 250 (or whathaveyou) and take the picture again.

Your histogram should not have one side crowded, (either side), it hsould have an evenly diplayed range of tones (meaning it will look like hills across the total plane).

This is very basic understanding of it.. read up on it though, it's interesting stuff!

 

[dslrchat]

Thank you, I will practice and read up on it!!!

 

[dab_20]

I would definitely avoid using direct flash as in your first ones, the lighting is much to harsh for your subject. I like to use a reflector, especially if the flowers are in the shade. Just using a simple white board and reflecting sunlight off of it onto your subject will create some softer lighting. Keep shooting and experimenting with different things.

 

[MarcusM]

With that last shot it's way out of focus...I'm guessing with the 30 sec. exposure there was probably a little subject movement from wind or whatever.

I second the others' advice to not shoot these at night, it's completely unnecessary and your lighting just doesn't look good.

I think you will be amazed at the difference shooting these during the day with way shorter exposures.

 

[Overread38 1]

Firstly I think in your last shot you did get focus, but missed the middle of the flower and hit the petels closest to the camera - also though you were at f9 the depth of field was still very shallow. This might be plant movement which moved the plant much closer so we can't see the greater depth or you were closer this time around and now need to think of f16.
Keep practising

 

[Bifurcator]

Thank you, I will practice and read up on it!!!

That was a good exchange with Kelly. I think the histogram is one of the most important features in a DC - even though when they first started appearing a little over 15 years ago I went "Histograms? HISTOGRAMS!?! We don't need no stinking histograms!". I like live histogram overlays allot too!

 

[LaFoto]

Weeeelll... I must admit I haven't read through all the replies.
The first thing I noticed is the use of flash in flower photography, which I think is a kind of no-no (when it is on-camera flash). But I have seen as much in the other members' replies as to know that that aspect has been pointed to already.

But I came to this thread for a more general answer, less specific with regards to the photos of these particular flowers. And I just mean to share that it may, indeed, happen that we try too hard, that we get the feeling "I haven't touched the camera in days (weeks, months, whatever), I must go produce a good photo again at last", and the first of those photos are almost bound to not make it! (That has been my own experience).

And it may just happen that we wish we were in "photography mode" but aren't. Like when the TPF meet-up was on right here where I live last week. I can tell from everyone else's photos appearing in the thread just now that many were well into "photo mode" and produced some amazing work. But try as I might, I seem to have been in "host mode" instead, and my photography visibly, noticeably, suffered from that. My photos are plain, uninspired, straightforward, but certainly not very interesting.

So it also much depends on the general mood we are in if taking photos will "work", i.e. lead to something that will also capture someone else's (a neutral viewer's) eye, or if it will be "one pic out of many" that only means something to us because we were there and happen to be the authors of said photo.

What I have found out is that once you realise you're not precisely in "photographer mode", but in some other, and still force it, it will show! I get the feeling that it DOES show in all of my meet-up pics... :roll:

Back to the flowers, all I have to state is: no on-camera flash ... if the light is too low, wait for better light. And non-centred compositions usually work best, unless you go for a very symmetrical photo of a flower.

 

[Overread38 1]

someone just droped me a tip on another site with using onboard flash - he gets some toilet paper and folds it a few times and then puts this infront of his flash - holding it in place with elastic bands. He says to keep it a small distance from the flash - so I expect bending it outwards a little. Its cheap and might help.