For some reason, I did not realize that I had been posting so many black and white photographs. I must admit, I like black and white. I think trying to make a good black and white photograph is sometimes very difficult since we see in color and a lot of images really need the color.
So, after my black and white marathon, I decided to give you a little splash of color today. OK, a BIG splash of color!
In the past, I have not submitted too many photographs to contest or outside websites. However, I am starting to submit more things to various outside sources. In the March 2009 issue of Shutterbug, they announced that the photograph contest for April 2009 is "Bokeh: Painterly Backgrounds." I like bokeh. I have lots of photographs that include what I think is very good examples of bokeh. But, I want to make a photograph specifically for the April contest. I want to approach this similar to a monthly assignment at Bay Area Photo Club.
I set this shot up to test my various lenses for bokeh. I figured that I should really know which ones of my lenses produce what type and how much of bokeh at various f-stop and various distances to the subject and the background. After testing my 50mm f/1.4 and my 70-200mm f/2.8 (two lenses that I think have very good bokeh), I tried my 105mm f/2.8 macro. About the time that I got ready to take the shot, the bee landed on the flower. It's sometimes better to be lucky than good. I liked what the bee added to the image. I also like the amount of bokeh I got in relation with the sharpness of the flower and bee.
What do you think?
Camera Settings: Nikon D3, 105mm f/2.8, ISO 200, at f/8 and 1/60 of a second.
Post Processing:
Lightroom--set black and white points, increased saturation of different colors.
Photoshop--used nik Silver Efex Pro tonal contrast filter and sharpened the flower and bee using high pass filter method in the hard light mode.
I think it would look better in black and white! :-)
ReplyDeleteJust kidding! Nice shot and the bokeh is indeed very pleasing.
So which lens did you decide produced the best bokeh?
Regards,
Barry
Barry,
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, they all produce a little different effect. My 50mm f/1.4 produces a lot of the circles that you often associate with bokeh; my 70-200mm seems to make the circles more elongated; and the 105mm macro mostly blurs the background. I was really surprised at the differences. I now need to decide what my shot is going to be and then decide which lens will produce the effect that I want. Decisions, decisions and more decisions. Such is the life of a photographer.
You made up for your lack of color over the past week. WOW. This photo has the color. I do like the totally in focus and the totally out of focus aspect of the photo. Your eye knows where to go.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Knockout color, wow! Did you use a flash?
ReplyDeleteSteve et al,
ReplyDeleteYes, I did use flash. I bounced the flash off a piece of white board that I placed about 15" to the right of the flower. I tried a couple different positions and diffusers, but I found the simple bouncing off the white board gave me the softest light on the flower. I had my camera set to -.5 EV and the flash set to 1/128 power. I just wanted to make sure that all of the flower was properly exposed.
I love the vibrance of the image. I want to reach out and touch it. The colors blend very well together. Good image.
ReplyDeleteAnne