Flowers

YourName

Thirdfox wrote: »

The contrast is rather low - you should adjust the levels to eek out a greater range between light and dark. Either by curves/levels control in photoshop or even just the levels adjustment in Picasa.

Nice bokeh, for me though there's not enough empty space and chopping of the top of the second flower is just a distracting.

Nice picture overall

Thanks mate, well it is one of my first pics, I am only starting off, I have photoshop but I am still learning how to use it.

But thanks for your comments, there very much appreciated

Anouilh

mcgowaner wrote: »

...took it on Friday in the Botanic Gardens, Dublin. What do yous think???

I really love the colours. Yellow against grey or gry-blue is very vivid, and the Bokeh is lively.

Anouilh

af_thefragile wrote: »

One of the first few pictures i took with my slr. Took it with the 18-55 kit lens and well they're not great, but i'm just starting out!

The second photo, with the foreground blur, is my favourite. The effect is very 1930's, which seeing some of the clothes in shops at the moment, is cutting edge.

Anouilh

[IMG][/img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1428/3352662569_4247dbea16.jpg

cnocbui

Anouilh wrote: »

I would appreciate any guidance on a good lens to buy if I should want to go into the centre of flowers and pick out finer details, which when, cropped and enlarged in a photo editor, will not lose sharpness.

Since you use a Canon, you can make use of some of the very good Olympus Zuiko lenses with OM mount, using an adapter, that were made for their film camera system. Macro photography was an Olympus specialty.

The downside is you won't get autofocus and will have to manually stop down. And then of course, the good lenses are still sought after and are not necessarily easy to find or cheap.

I think the most versatile focal length for flower photography is in the range 80-100mm.

A lens I could not recommend highly enough is the Zuiko 90mm f2 macro. It is sharp and has the most wonderful bokeh. It goes to 0.5x magnification

A terrific lens for all other purposes as well, particularly portraiture.

Another and much cheaper lens you could look at is the Tamron SP 90mm f2.5 macro adaptall-2 mount lens. Again, this is a MF lens made for 35mm film bodies and will go to 1:1. The adaptall lenses would fit almost any brand 35mm camera through use of an adapter ring for each brand, giving full aperture functionality, so finding one with a Canon adapter ring included already would be a bonus. Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.ie/Tamron-SP-MACRO-1-2-90mm-F2-5-Canon-FD-Adaptall-2_W0QQitemZ120391423519QQcmdZViewItemQQptZDE_Elektronik_Computer_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive_PM?hash=item120391423519&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

kevo2009

I agree

DutchGuy

Or if you want to do it really cheaply - you can get cheap extension tubes and any old lens (I use a 50mm prime from my very old yashica fx-2)). You can get very good magnification that way without losing sharpness but you do end up losing quite a bit of light.

Example photo:

Anouilh

Thank you for all the good advice.

In the meantime, my Sigma apo macro zoom continues to be adequate, though I had to work hard to capture this hyper-active butterfly.[IMG][/img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1428/3352662569_4247dbea16.jpg

cnocbui

Olympus Zuiko 90mm f2

Lady_North

A couple from Newbridge House in Donabate last Sunday. Beautiful day with lots of daffodils to photograph.

Anouilh

Flowers everywhere...

4sb

This might not be in the spirit of the thread. It's the only recent flower I've taken.

SBPhoto

Anouilh

Anouilh

I shall be documenting Spring flowers for the next few weeks. This might be an opportunity to share where the best sightings of magnolias, tulips and rhododendrons are.[IMG][/img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3626/3400608989_664f102452.jpg

spav

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clickyfish/3353980320/in/photostream/
I've yet to take a really decent flower shot, but I find it a great way to practice macro photography.

af_thefragile

one i took today...



Ya think the colors in the pic are okay or did i saturate it a little too much?

sNarah

don't really like flowers in general, once in a while one get's my attention, mainly if they are peculiar looking :rolleyes:

Anouilh

Catkins are very good and full of texture. Well done!

bullpost

Recent one

SBPhoto

DaireQuinlan

Some lush spring flowers.
Unfortunately they're from LAST spring but what can ya do ...



Ektar 100. Helios 44-2

Anouilh

[IMG][/img]

SBPhoto

Anouilh

melekalikimaka wrote: »

flowers and swans....two area i hope never to need go into.....shudder

This set me thinking.

Is it essential to make crowd pleasing photos in order to get established?

I have met artists whose horror of pretty objects is understandable. They find it hard to find a wide audience, however.

It's worth sharing the Hivemind system again.
Here are some Spring Flowers, easily categorised in the search engine:

http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/tags/photographedublin,%20springflowers

JM MARCONI

DMax

Cherry

jao

car

Anouilh

That is such a cheerful and uplifting photo of a daffodil.

Without wishing to quote photos, I noticed that you had tried to first upload the Photobucket version, using the full code.

The Boards system has an image upload feature (the symbol in the bar looks like a postcard with a stamp and two mountains on it and is the 8th symbol from the left).

I mention this because it took several weeks for me to work it out and this is the result:

PaulieC

DMax

Rose.

pft

Some heather flowers.

More at http://pix.ie/ptaylor/album/341147

democrates

Can anyone identify these please?

They're growing on the lawn and I've taken to mowing around them, I think posters in this thread will understand why.

pft

democrates wrote: »

Can anyone identify these please?

Looks like a cow-slip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primula_veris

Mycroft H

democrates wrote: »

Can anyone identify these please?

They're growing on the lawn and I've taken to mowing around them, I think posters in this thread will understand why.

I know them as a cowslip, but to what there proper name is I have no idea

Anouilh

Primula veris, as Pft says:

http://books.google.ie/books?id=2MNBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=cowslip+flora+genus&source=bl&ots=ZDuW5dbUKy&sig=HHDjd8BohnCwXjKwPZpV4aOYfNw&hl=en&ei=WNX1ScG3LM-w-AbtxJW0Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2

I love them, though in fields they became weeds and have been much removed from the countryside.

democrates

Boards delivers
Thanks for that all, by the wiki pic cowslips are a spot on match, and special mention Anouilh - that book you linked to says you can make wine from cowslips!

Apologies for the over-exposure on the first one, here's another effort hopefully not bringing the thread into disrepute so badly:

I totally cheated by using a water sprayer for effect, if I were out in the field without it another measure springs to mind but at the risk of being pulled in by the fuzz.:D

car

Anouilh- Thanks very much for ur comment, Its after making my evening.
I dont know how I made the mistake uploading the photo, it was the 3rd time Ive uploaded a photo to Boards, it must have been the jet lag setting in.

Mycroft H

First time for flowers. Three for c&c.

1. Dandelion with a bug on it




2. A white flower with another bug on it (anyone know what it is?)




I was running out of flowers to shoot in the garden so a nettle caught my eye

DaireQuinlan

Hydrangea

Slidinginfinity

DMax

More tulips.

Anouilh

[IMG][/img][URL="[IMG]http://www.flickr.com/photos/anouilh/3462411886/[/IMG]"]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3621/3462411886_af7d43fe6d.jpg[/URL]

l pearse

PaulieC

bernard0368

sNarah

and Hanging Around:

democrates

cambo_gueno those are an inspiration. It really jumps out there how you can take full advantage of a very shallow dof which I usually find problematic and a trade-off. They've a great dreamy effect like a long exposure of moving water, and the pattern reminds me of fireworks. Well done!

smash

my fav flower photo