cereus improvement

[peeperita]

in this thread on sunday, i mentioned that my buds were close to bloom....i wanted to improve over last year's shoot and i feel i hit a higher mark....





i'm an early to bed sort of woman, so this tested both my learning curve and my stamina.....this shot was taken toward the end of my session around 11:30 at night.....the set up was 2 incandescent lights.....a 300 watt and a 150 watt both placed at a 45 degree angle from my subject and my camera....elevated to the same plane as my blooms....i tried my new speedlight in a couple of shots but it blew out my whites and i thought i'd that i'd best leave my flash schooling until another day.....

last year's shots taught me that i needed to drape my pot with a black cloth to isolate the blossoms and to choose individual blooms as opposed to showing as many as possible....

i also changed my focusing to manual and a larger depth of field to get sharper details.....

i am pleased with the results enough that i didn't stay up all night the next night to get shots of the rest of the blooms.....well, that and i felt so sleep deprived from the night before i was drooling on the couch by 9.....

thanks

peeper

[KodiakStar]

Wonderful outcome! Glad you didn't sleep through it!

How were your lights set up? I may have to try that as well. And great idea for the black cloth, didn't think of that!

[R lake]

Awesome shots!!!

[peeperita]

Originally Posted by KodiakStar

Wonderful outcome! Glad you didn't sleep through it!

How were your lights set up? I may have to try that as well. And great idea for the black cloth, didn't think of that!

i made a crude diagram of the set up....


the camera was approximately four feet from the bloom....the lights were inexpensive hardware store clamp relectors set on stools the same heigth as the flower.....the light was fairly harsh and taught me that next year i will come up with a way to soften the shadows...

umbrella reflectors if santa deems me a good girl this year.....

thanks for your interest....

peeper

[KodiakStar]

Thanks for the diagram! I have about the same wattage lights, I will have to try this with some of my moonflowers and morning glories. Maybe I will attempt to grow one of each indoors to take shots like yours! And a Cereus if I can find some seeds.

Would draping a cheap white sheet over it work? Similar to how a light-tent is? I did that with my hot lights on portrait attempts and it did seem to help some.

I'm guessing the lights were about as far away as your camera?

[peeperita]

Originally Posted by KodiakStar

Thanks for the diagram! I have about the same wattage lights, I will have to try this with some of my moonflowers and morning glories. Maybe I will attempt to grow one of each indoors to take shots like yours! And a Cereus if I can find some seeds.

Would draping a cheap white sheet over it work? Similar to how a light-tent is? I did that with my hot lights on portrait attempts and it did seem to help some.

I'm guessing the lights were about as far away as your camera?

they were indeed about as far away....in fact, i had to fight with seeing the led on the back of my camera beacuse they bled into my line of vision...the sheet thought of yours would have worked.....but, i had my set up completed before the sun stole from the sky and any improvositions came on the fly....

if santa won't then bed bath and beyond will.....

i got a couple of leaves of cereus on ebay at a reasonable price last year.....i would look there first.....your neighbors second.....and your local nursery last......they're far from rare....but, not an everyday find....

thanks again....

peeper

by the way...you have some seriously nice shots on your flickr account.....good work!

[KodiakStar]

Thanks for all the tips (and the compliments). I know everyone in the world takes flower shots, but I hope to get close to perfection like some of your shots

[southernbelle]

Fabulous shots, Peeper. Thanks for the diagram!

[dlaf]

Congratulations, peeper, on some beautiful shots of these unique blossoms. What treasures your photos are!

[stefanie_s]

Sadly, mine died before it got any buds on it. For some reason it started withering and I couldn't stop the damage. Very nice pics of the blooms. They make me sad I missed mine and miss the plant I had.