Fern

[brendanm]

As I have mentioned in other posts, I am currently undertaking a basic digital photography course. As part of the course I need to submit various pictures with nature being one of the topics. This is one of my possible submissions.



Camera Nikon D80
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/5.0
Focal Length 18 mm
Focal Length 18.3 mm
ISO Speed 400

So my thoughts.
The picture is too dark, I've not done any touch up to it. Should/could I have used a flash?
It's also too green, perhaps a few more of the yellowy coloured leaves may have added some variation, however this is how I found the plant.
Perhaps it's a little boring. The picture doesn't really tell any story although I do think it's an interesting picture.
Looking forward to your comments.

[chicagojohn]

Originally Posted by brendanm

As I have mentioned in other posts, I am currently undertaking a basic digital photography course. As part of the course I need to submit various pictures with nature being one of the topics. This is one of my possible submissions.

Camera Nikon D80
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/5.0
Focal Length 18 mm
Focal Length 18.3 mm
ISO Speed 400

So my thoughts.
The picture is too dark, I've not done any touch up to it. Should/could I have used a flash?
It's also too green, perhaps a few more of the yellowy coloured leaves may have added some variation, however this is how I found the plant.
Perhaps it's a little boring. The picture doesn't really tell any story although I do think it's an interesting picture.
Looking forward to your comments.

Hi brendanm,

First, as for the image itself, I like it from a pure geometry perspective, and it is a perfect illustration of the rule-of-thirds. Imagine it if you had centered the composition. Then it would likely have been much less interesting.

On my monitor, this does appear too dark as you say. That could be fixed easily enough by a levels adjustment in any post processing software (or by adjusting the luminescence of my monitor), and since your camera is capable of RAW format, that would allow a lot more adjustment options after the fact during software conversion to a format such as JPG or TIFF. Your camera's sensor is capable of capturing 12 bit resolution in RAW, but only 8 bit in JPG. RAW gives you considerably more post processing choices, including exposure and white balance.

But for the sake of argument, let's say you are only interested here in in-camera results. In this situation, bracketing the exposure value (EV) would be a good idea. Then you can sort through the images later and select the best one, and in so doing learn. (Each increase of 1 EV doubles the amount of light captured by the sensor.)

With your 10 MP camera, I don't think noise at higher ISO would be too much of a factor. So you could pick up 1 EV (1 stop) by going from ISO 400 to ISO 800 since amplification of the sensor is doubled. Also, DPS had an interesting tip this weekend on how to shoot hand-held down to 1/20. While at my advanced age, I'd not attempt that, especially after a cup of coffee, certainly 1/60 is realistic hand-held and especially with anti-shake camera features. So that would have given you another 1 EV, approximately since the exposure time is almost twice as long, capturing almost twice as much light.

While you don't say what the maximum aperture diameter of your lens is, I'm guessing it might be something like f/4 if it is an 18 -55 kit zoom lens, so you wouldn't pick up much EV there. However, let's say you had an f/2.8 prime lens. That would have gotten you yet another 1-2 EV units; 1 EV from 2.8 to 4.0 and another one from 4.0 to 5.6. (Area of the aperture changes with the square of diameter; so, for example 2.8 X 2.8 = 7.54 and 4 X 4 = 16, about twice as much area and therefore light, and about 1 EV.)

The possible problem there would be that the lower you go in f/number, the narrower the range of depth of field of focus. In this case, however, where the subject is essentially on one plane, it probably would not have made a lot of difference with the orientation you have selected.

Anyway, as a fellow student, what I often do when I find a subject like this that is worth capturing, is to try a number of experiments bracketing exposure value, balancing that with trying to maximize or minimize aperture as the depth of field requirements dictate, and then carefully examine the results later to try to determine the effects my changes have made.

Thanks for posting your image. I look forward to seeing more of your work.