Floral fireworks

[pgriz]

Well, that's what these blooms looked like to me. This came from a sequence in which I was experimenting with a slow shutter and OC flash to try to get both sharpness and blur. It kinda works, but something's not quite right... Any suggestions?

 

[sleist]

Well, you've got the blur part down ...

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do, but from your description I'm thinking more along the lines of the effect you get using rear curtain sync flash.
I wouldn't normally choose a flower as a subject for that though, so maybe I'm wrong about your intentions.

 

[PlanetStarbucks]

I think the problem is that the effect of blur is laid over the detail of the flower. I dig the idea, but it's surely a bit off right now. I don't think the effect you're going for could be caught with the camera alone. What I think might work is taking a photo that is clear and then fake the blur in photoshop. Basically, two layers...the background motion blurred, and then a detail layer laid on top.

 

[pgriz]

Sleist, PlanetStarbucks – thanks for the comments. While shooting this sequence, I’ve tried front-curtain sync, rear-curtain sync, very slow shutter speeds (down to 1 sec), faster shutter speeds (up to 1/30 sec), different ratios of flash to ambient, etc.

In another series, I’ve used camera motion blur as a deliberate creative strategy and have a few that are quite appealing (at least to me). However, this method does not have a clear “subject”, and I was experimenting with flash to get an image of the subject together with the blur. This was partly inspired by Mishele’s florals, and partly by some deliberately-blurred images that some in my photo club were experimenting with.

In this particular image, the blur motion along the axis of the stem is almost invisible (stem of upper right flower), whereas it is quite apparent across the stem (lower two flower stems). The blur motion effect on the flowers was good, and I’m happy with the way the lower and upper flowers were captured. The middle and largest flower,however, appears to be over-exposed, and I think I missed the focus on it somewhat.

For those who care about such things, 100mm, 1/5 sec, f/8, second curtain sync, manual flash at 1/32 power off-camera, manual focusing.

My purpose in sharing this is to show a step on the road to better images. Sometimes the fork I take is a dead-end, and sometimes it leads to a new (at least to me) area. This approach has potential. Now to figure out what combination of subject/background/exposure method gives pleasing results...

 

[KenC]

It's an interesting effect and I like the lighting and composition. I think it would work better against a much darker background.

 

[Frequency]

I liked the effect

 

[pgriz]

@ KenC: yeah, that's part of the exloration - to see whether lighter or darker background works better. Not sure yet.
@ Frequency, Thank you. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. And there are times when I'm inclined to say it works, just because I invested the time and effort, and the reality may be a little different. But that's OK. If someone tells me it's crap and gives good reasons, then it's a learning exercise.