A few cactus flowers from this weekend

[Yandros]

Botanical studies rather than anything desperately creative, but I think they're pretty, so I'm posting 'em anyway

Growing on my rockery...

Switched to the good old 50 1.8 for this rather spectacular Echinopsis. Sadly it'll be faded by the morning

[Biscuit761]

Nice flowers, I love cacti !

Bill

[horribleman]

Wow! I love that last one. Did you use a background or did you darken it in PP?



Fantastic. I saw a funny cactus in homebase tonight - barrel cactus or something. Was £60 though

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by horribleman

Wow! I love that last one. Did you use a background or did you darken it in PP?



Fantastic. I saw a funny cactus in homebase tonight - barrel cactus or something. Was £60 though

That was just a sheet of black foamcore, held about 6 inches behind the flower. This was taken on a shaded patio, in natural light. The trick of course is to use spot metering. With a pure white flower you're going to get a jet black background very easily. For darker subjects you need to help it out by making sure the board is in heavy shadow, and also darkening it later in PP (I use a black control point in Capture NX, then finish the job with a 'darken' brush in Paint Shop Pro.)

Here's the original. All I had to do was raise the levels on the flower and boost the colour a tad.

[horribleman]

The original is a lovely shot on its own.

Thanks for that - I'm going to 'steal' some of your tips

Are you using the 105 Macro lens?

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by horribleman

The original is a lovely shot on its own.

Thanks for that - I'm going to 'steal' some of your tips

Are you using the 105 Macro lens?

Thanks

Actually, that's taken with the Nikon 50mm 1.8. I could've used the 105VR, but that's quite a big flower, so the 50 had a more convenient working distance.

[BananaTiger]

Wow, those cactus flowers are huge! The flowers on mine haven't even bloomed

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by BananaTiger

Wow, those cactus flowers are huge! The flowers on mine haven't even bloomed

(going off-topic onto gardening)

The first is a Lobivia zecheri - flowers are about 1.5 inches across. The second is a Rebutia flavistyla, flowers an inch across (same as the plant!). The last is an Echinopsis obrepanda and has a flower funnel about 8 inches long, and 4 about inches wide.

The trick to getting them to flower is firstly to buy species that flower readily (Rebutias will flower without fail for example). Most won't ever flower on a windowsill though as they need a cold winter rest period and lots of UV light. They need to be kept cool, completely dry but frost free (about 40-45F is good for most) in winter, and in as much sun as you can give them in summer.

[Brammers]

Quick tip it looks like you might not be aware of Yandros. When metering, your camera looks at the light levels assuming that everything is grey (the colour most things in nature would be if you converted to B&W). Your flower, however, is white. The camera therefore sets the light level that would cause a white object to appear grey - that's underexposure.

You've sorted it quite nicely in PP, and underexposure may even have been the intention to isolate it, but that might come in handy sometime in the future.

The other 2 are nice as well, good effort

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by Brammers

Quick tip it looks like you might not be aware of Yandros. When metering, your camera looks at the light levels assuming that everything is grey (the colour most things in nature would be if you converted to B&W). Your flower, however, is white. The camera therefore sets the light level that would cause a white object to appear grey - that's underexposure.

You've sorted it quite nicely in PP, and underexposure may even have been the intention to isolate it, but that might come in handy sometime in the future.

The other 2 are nice as well, good effort

That hadn't occurred to me - thanks I assume this is will be more of a problem when spot/centre metering than matrix. You're right though, I did want to keep the exposure slighly under, as it makes the black background easier to fix and I didn't have a single blown highlight The great thing about RAW+Capture NX is that you seem to have a lot of leeway with exposure, so I tend to be pretty cavalier these days.

[ksten]

Botanical studies or otherwise, these all look great to me. Great colours in the first two and I really like the dark background in the last one. You've also managed to balance sharpness with the softness of the petals.