What’s Your Preference?

ELAY · #1 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 06:48 PM

Speezer9999 posted some great shots of some daisies here, taken from "a bug's perspective" with an explanation of the technique.

I tried the suggestions out (I would have used another flower, so as to avoid so totally cribbing the concept, except I have nothing else with stalks in bloom at the moment -- purple coneflowers still a few days away.)

I decided to use a circular polarizer on these shots, which meant that there is a little less translucency to the flowers maybe. This is one of about 120 shots -- it was tougher than it sounded to get things right -- also, a bunch of mine were compromised by utility lines and I was getting frustrated trying to clone them out (the sky is basically a blue gradient because of the polarizer, making for cloning nightmares).

I think I like the house in the background but would be interested in your thoughts.

Thanks for the idea Speezer.

EL

mfhurst · #2 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 06:59 PM

Love the picture, but don't like the house, I wish it was all ski..... Nice perspective thought, very creative. Reminds me of Jack and the Bean Stalk, those look like really giant flowers........

ELAY · #3 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfhurst

I wish it was all ski.....

I have some of those too.

mfhurst · #4 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 07:13 PM

Now that is a fairy tale. Beautiful.......

Wow, you can even see the little hair like filiments on the stalks.....

clockdoc · #5 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 08:13 PM

I like the technique and effect very much. Nicely done! What caught my attention was your comment about using a circular polarizer ( I am assuming you are using a dSLR?). I never thought about how the use of a polarizer might affect the translucency of a flower. Do you think it is because the sky as a whole has been darkened? One would think that the flower would cause the light rays to scatter and thus not have any effect when shot with a polarizer. I have much to learn about polarized light. Thanks for posting this photo and the narrative. It has me scratching my head about what has taken place with respect to the light. 8-)

ELAY · #6 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 09:19 PM

Quote:

What caught my attention was your comment about using a circular polarizer ( I am assuming you are using a dSLR?)

Yes, sorry for not saying so, D40.

I had figured that the reason that the translucency is reduced was because of the general darkening effect of the filter -- but on reflection I am not sure that makes sense.

EL

clockdoc · #7 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 09:23 PM

EL,
Thanks for clarifying the camera used. This is a very interesting point you have brought up. Perhaps others much smarter than I am can shed some light on this result.

rikkersc · #8 (**permalink**) 07-14-2007, 02:10 AM

Very nice effect. I'm not so sure about the house, but I understand what you mean about cloning nightmares with gradients.
Maybe retry the shot from a different angle?
Also, the base of the flowers seems just a tad too dark, could it maybe be lightened up just a bit? (Not the whole photo, just the bottoms of the flowers.)

ELAY · #9 (**permalink**) 07-14-2007, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Maybe retry the shot from a different angle?
Also, the base of the flowers seems just a tad too dark, could it maybe be lightened up just a bit? (Not the whole photo, just the bottoms of the flowers.)

Thanks for your thoughts. The combination of the angle and the polarizing made for an almost silhouette effect on the base of the flowers (compare to the shots in the thread I link to, where the base of the flower is lit up and you can see a very nice and fine pattern there).

I think I can live with the silhouettes in these shots, as I think it provides a nice contrast to the translucency of the petals. I will take some with the polarizer off though, and see what kind of results I get.

EL