Spring Means JD’s Garden #7

I like two things about this photo:  the strong contrast in colors and the very narrow shallow depth of field.  Both make the subject come forward in the photo.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4 with a 1.7x teleconverter (effectively a 500mm lens), ISO 1,600, f/6.7 and 1/180^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast, adjusted hue and saturation of green, yellows and orange and added vignette and cropped image into a square.

Spring Means JD’s Garden #3

I found this little guy when I was trying to adjust my flash for a photo of a flower.  I immediately turned and tried to get as close as possible to him.  As it turned out, the photo is cropped version (about one third of the entire frame).  I really like the contrast in colors.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3, Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, ISO 200, f/22 and one second on a tripod with an SB800 with a snoot and triggered by PocketWizard Flex.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom 3—Set black and white points, added clarity and mid-tone contrast and adjusted hue of green.

Photoshop CS5—sharpened bug using high pass filter method.

Big Eyes

The dragonflies were out in force yesterday.  There were lots of subjects, but most of them were just a little too skittish to get a good photo.  Finally, this guy landed and was most cooperative.

I took a few “safe” shots to make sure that had something in the bag.  I then kept creeping closer to see how close this guy would let me get.  The photo is slightly cropped.  I wanted to show off his big baby greens.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D3x, Nikon 300mm f/4 with a 1.7x teleconverter and extension rings at ISO 400, f/13 and 1/60^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:  

Lightroom—Set black and white points, changed hue of certain colors and added clarity and vibrance.

Another Chloe Butterfly

Before I discussing today’s photo, let me address an issue noted regarding yesterday’s post—I did not de-saturate the colors. I took the original posted image and just cropped it, added a layer to do the burning, and completed the stroke on the newly cropped photo. For some reason, it was de-saturated when I posted it on the blog. So, try to image the new crop with the same saturation. I am too lazy to re-do it!

Chloe and I took this photo when we took the one posted on Friday. When I first viewed this one on the computer, I was not very happy with it because out-focus leaves in the right corner (too near to the camera to focus) seemed to make the butterfly float on an unconnected leaf.

After looking at it for a while, I decided I liked the look that was caused by the out-of-focus leaves. But, what do you think?

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4 shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/250^th

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and increased saturation of green.

Big Eyes

I was taking very close-up shots of these flowers. I was using my Nikon 105mm macro lens with 36mm extension tube attached. I had to adjust the power settings on my Speedlight and when I looked back through the viewfinder, I saw this guy in the upper left corner of the frame. I immediately refocused and started firing at Mr. Big Eyes.

I must admit there was not a lot of time to compose this image. I was afraid this guy would fly away.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 macro with 36mm extension tube, shot at ISO 200, f/32 and 1/60^th of a second on a tripod with a Nikon SB-800 (set in manual mode) with a softbox attached and triggered by radio triggers at camera left

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights of the dragonfly and the flower.

Face to Face

This butterfly was so interested in this flower that he did not care about anything else. I wanted the photograph to be about the details of the butterfly, so I added an extension tube to my 105mm Nikon Macro lens to focus on the details. The hardest part of the photograph was dialing down the flash to the point where we would not blow-out the details—Cole did a great job!

Even at an aperture of f/16, I was able to get only his right eye in focus. I think that the shallow depth of field helps focus the viewer's attention on what I thought was the real subject of the photograph.

Cole somehow escaped the wrath of his sister while we were taking this one. Rather, it was Grandpa that felt the sting of "Little Grandma." The comments went something like this:

Chloe: "Grandpa, you are getting to close to the butterfly. You are going to scare him or hurt him. Back up."

Grandpa: "I am not going to hurt him; and, if he gets scared, he will just fly away."

Chloe: "I THINK you should STOP getting so close to him."

(Cole smiling off to the side)

Chloe: "Cole, make Grandpa stop getting so close to him."

Cole: "I want to see him fly off."

Chloe (as she is storming off): "Guys, I am going to tell Grandma that you are scaring the butterfly. She is going to put you guys in time out."

Cole and Grandpa (setting in time out): "Grandpa, you got me in trouble!"

SILENCE from Chloe and Grandma.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 1/60^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Simple Light

As we approached this butterfly, all I could see was the beam of light behind the butterfly that was falling on the flowers behind him and on the ground. I wanted to put just enough light on the butterfly to make him set out from the flowers, so my expert VAL Cole pointed the light about a foot above the butterfly so that the light would feather gentle on the butterfly’s wings. Our reflector lady was too busy picking flowers for Grandma to be much help on this one.

Once again, we had some editorial comments by my staff that went something like this:

Chloe: "Grandpa, the flowers and the butterfly are so pretty."

Cole: "Blah, blah, blah."

Chloe: "Cole, I am not talking to you. I am talking to Grandpa."

Cole: "Blah, blah, blah."

Why do I feel like I am listening to some of our current politicians?

After seeing this one on my monitor, I tried various crops, including one that was just above the flower on the left side, which eliminated much of the negative space above the butterfly and flowers. After looking at this crop, I felt that the negative spaced added to the overall composition, but I could not decide why it added to the image. What do you think about the crop?

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/180^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Butterfly on Cornflowers

The entire production crew really like how this butterfly was setting on the cornflower. Whatever there was that drew him to the flower, he was determined that a Bollywood production crew was not going to get him to move. Every once in while he would fly around for short while and then come back to the same blossom.

Every time the butterfly would fly away, there was a discussion that went something like this:

Cole: "Chloe, you scared him away by putting the reflector too close to him."

Chloe: "No, I did not. You scared him away with your bright light."

Cole: "No, I did not. Grandpa, is he coming back?"

Butterfly would land again. Shooting would resume--to be followed by another take-off, discussion and landing.

Here we place the light behind the butterfly so the at we could get nice even lighting on his wings and we placed our reflector to the right side about even with the butterfly so that we could get some light on the backside of the flower he was setting on.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/9.5 and 1/250^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and changed hue and saturation of green.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly and flower to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Green and Yellow

Little doubt at what caught my attention about this scene—the colors. All the colors in the scene blend perfectly. We positioned the SB-800 on a softbox on the right side and the reflector low and on the right side. I wanted the light to be very even and soft.

I took a couple shots in portrait orientation, but the image looked too static. I then noticed the flower in the right corner. I thought that it would add an implied diagonal to the overall composition. Although the flower in the corner is small and faint, I believe it adds a lot to the overall composition.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4, shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/250^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity, change green hue and saturation, and added vignette.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the butterfly and flower to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

Little Game Hunting in the Yard

This week’s photographs have been produced by CCGPPC (Chloe Cole Grandpa Photographic Production Crew). After my initial introduction to a big production crew with “Children at Play”, I decided to upgrade the crew by replacing JD with Chloe. The production crew divided their chores as follows: Chloe holding the reflector, Cole holding the SB800 with softbox and Grandpa behind the camera. The crew was fabulous! And, they really got into it.

Our first presentation is of a wasp on the red bulb of some type. Every year, the wasp swarm all over these plants and for some reason they are very passive while on the plants. I think that I have taken photos of them every year. Thanks to my production crew, we got a very nice, even soft light on our subject by placing the SB800 with the softbox on the left side and the reflector on the right side.

Everything was going well until a certain lady came out and started yelling at the cameraman about the wasp being too dangerous and to stop IMMEDIATELY! One member of our crew, a certain young lady, went over to the dark side, but the guys tried to argue our case. We lost. The authorities closed our production down. Censorship!

Great job production crew.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 105mm f/2.8, shot at ISO 200, f/22 and 1/90^th with a SB-800 on a softbox and triggered by Nikon CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and added vignette.

Photoshop—ran nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter on the wasp to add contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows.