Thursday, June 16, 2016

Mellow Yellow


The Creative and Impressionist Flowers photo workshop ended today, and what a workshop it was! We saw some exquisite flowers at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, including gorgeous roses. The participants created some beautiful images and quickly got the hang of new techniques like shallow depth of field and back button focus.

This yellow rose sported some water droplets left over from a morning rain, which added to the beauty of the undulating petals. Shooting straight down on the center of the flower created a circular main subject, while the curving outer petals provided support and added interest.

When doing macro photography of flowers, shallow depth of field enhances the feeling of softness and dimensionality. Not all parts of the image have to be razor sharp, but it helps to have something important sharp, like the small round center in this case.

I use autofocus, and set only one focus point visible in the center of the viewfinder. That enables me to quickly focus on the area I want sharp, knowing that the autofocus will lock onto that exact area. It is quick, easy, and almost foolproof.

TECHNICAL DATA
Shutter Speed 1/1250.  Aperture f/4.  ISO 400.  Lens: Canon 100mm macro f/2.8L IS.  Camera: Canon 7D Mark II.  Handheld.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."  --Buddha

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