Colours or B&W?

I have usually pretty clear vision of how a photo should look like after processing and it was the same in case of this ‘mum photo. I wanted to add it to my growing series of photos in high-key look. Processing itself was rather easy with cloning out specks as the most time-consuming part. After all, the photo looked like I planned.

~ This Way (BW) ~
1/25 sec. @ 100 mm, f/2.8, ISO 100

Chrysanthemums are great flowers for many reasons. For me it’s because they start blooming in late summer and lasts through autumn until first frost and because of their blossom structure. I really like all those layers of petals which unfold slowly as if hiding some precious treasure in the very center. If I was a bee those petals would be like a highway for me. A highway leading me to the center of heaven.

When I had the photo processed I started wondering  how it would look like with colours back so I tried it and that was my damnation.

Now I can’t decide which version I like more. At least I can ask you. Which version do YOU like more and why?

Indian summer is in the air. Enjoy!

Taking time

You can say that I am taking my time with blogging and you are right. I still cannot get the right grip with photography and my thoughts are easily drawn to other things. Nevertheless I take a camera from time to time and take some photos, processing them is something else though. In last days my mind was turning around idea of posting something new and yesterday I had a discussion with a colleague of mine, in work and photogprahy, about our photography and this discussion was the final push which I needed to sit behind my computer and process some of the latest photos. When thinking about the photo for processing I was drawn to one which I had in my mind in last weeks, a photo of pink kalanchoe which I wanted to present in little bit grungy way. I used one of my very few textures and after some time I got a photo which I had in my mind for a long time.

~ Rough World ~
1.6 sec @ 100 mm, f/8, ISO 100

I know that it looks a little bit strange with further blossoms out of focus and then a background full in focus but I somewhat like this contrast and I am interested in your comments.

Sometimes, actually quite often, when I am done with a photo I try out different processings just for fun and sometimes I get a result I like. Mayhap influenced by the discussion with my colleague yesterday I tried to give the photo (the original one before applying texture) a high-key look and I really like the result.

It will never stop to surprise me how easily you can change a look and atmosphere of a photo. It may be a good exercise so you can try it, too.

Thank you for your persistence in visiting this blog and I wish you happy Easter.

Addendum: as some of you expressed your interest in what and how I hung on a wall in our living room, here is a photo of the set of photographs we finally decided for. All are prints on canvas, the biggest ones are 40x60cm, the smallest is 20x20cm, overall area covered by photos is 160x100cm and they are above our sofa. It was challenging to find a set of photographs fitting together without distracting viewers (mostly me, my wife and our kids) and we think we succeeded. I was pleased by several positive comments from our friends when visiting us but especially one asking who painted it for us.

Common weed

I think that we all see dandelions as common weed which is not always easy to get rid of. On the other hand we all usually enjoy view on a meadow glowing with golden colour of thousands and thousands dandelions.

Last year I took some detailed photos of a dandelion which you can find in this post. Also this year I have decided to take some dandelion photos but this time I wanted to try shooting seed heads.

1/160 sec. @ 100 mm, f/4, ISO 100

I used “Aged photo” preset in Lightroom 3.4 and did only couple of additional tweaks.

1/400 sec. @ 100 mm, f/2.8, ISO 100

You can see a lot of dandelion photos nowadays on flickr and other photo related sites so I wanted to create something unseen and I think that I achieved it with this photo. At least I never saw anything similar. I used Lightroom’s “Creamtone”preset and did additional adjustments. I think it could look really nice on a big format.

I saw uncountable amount of dandelion photos with water dropplets so I wanted to try to have some mine, of course.

1/500 sec. @ 100 mm, f/4, ISO 100

This was taken one foggy morning after the fog has dissappeared and after sun had some time to dry everything soaked due to fog. I visualized this with strong contrast and still soft. I hope that I made it. Whole processing was done in Lightroom without using any preset this time.

I originally thought that I will use the same processing for all these photos making nice triptych but it did not work. Each photo asked for different processing and I think it’s much better this way. What do you think?

Thanks for visiting and enjoy summer!

Technical information: all photographies in this post were taken with Canon EOS 450D camera and Canon EF 100mm USM macro lens mounted to a tripod, in natural conditions, indoors.

Tulips in Black & White

Tulips are amazing flowers. So graceful and delicate with their thick wax petals, tall stems and proudly standing heads. We have been buying cut flowers to our bedroom very often in last months and tulips were the most frequent ones. Once we bought beautiful white tulips which turned out to be the variety with much more petals then only those surrounding the blossom’s center. I decided to try both high-key and low-key kind of photos with them beside some macro shots of center details which I will present in some of next posts. Now I would like to present one high key photo and one low key. Here is the first one:

~ FHK #011 – White Tulip ~
1/3 sec. @ 100 mm, f/10, ISO 100

It was tricky to get all subjects in the photo with right tonality because the leaf on the left side was very dark. Finally, the luminosity masking technique produced the best result.

Following photo is more classical low key image than those from previous post. I leave the judgment up to you.

~ FLK #003 – Trinity ~
1/3 sec. @ 100 mm, f/16, ISO 100

I tried various presets of conversion to B&W but after all I manualy changed the tones and their lightness in Lightroom. It was also a bit tricky to get all the details as I wanted. I wanted high contrast but I didn’t want to loose all details in leaves. I must say that I’m pretty happy with the result.

Let me know if you like these photos or not and why. What works for you, what would you change or do differently? This all helps me to understand how you perceive my creations and how could I do it better next time.

Enjoy spring!

Technical information: all photographies in this post were taken with Canon EOS 450D camera and Canon EF 100mm USM macro lens mounted to a tripod, in natural conditions, indoors.

Getting to market, step 1

I announced my goal for this year – getting my photos to a market – in one of my previous posts. I did some small preparations when a very pleasant surprise met me and I’ll write about it in one of my next posts for sure. Let’s focus on the “getting to market goal” now.

My first step on the road ought to be offering my photos in a gallery hosted by the printing company where I make my photos printed. I have already sent my photos there but they haven’t been published, yet. Ok, never mind. They will do it soon, I guess.

Maybe a month ago my wife stuck on a web site called fler.cz. My local visitors will probably know it. It is the biggest local web portal for artists and craftsmen (no mass production) allowing them to offer their products on the portal pages for a commission. Something like a local version of etsy.com. I browsed the shop and I really liked what I found there. Frankly, I like the stuff there more and more Moreover, I looked through a gallery of photographers offering their photos there and I found out that such a type of photography as I’m doing is not present there so my work will “fill the gap” in their portfolio. And “fler” if it comes from “fleur” in French means a blossom! What a match

~ Seedy Mum ~
4 sec. @ 100 mm, f/10, ISO 100

It took me some time before I finally decided to put my work on display and so from now on you can see and buy my first 15 photos there. There is a LOT of various photos on the server so I’m really wondering if my works will interest someone to buy it. Time will tell. I know that the key is to have a bigger offer than just 15 images and I plan to update it regularly. I’ll definitelly do a recap after some time and I’m really looking foward to it.

Until then, enjoy the spring in full bloom!

Technical information: all photographies in this post were taken with Canon EOS 450D camera and Canon EF 100mm USM macro lens mounted to a tripod, in natural conditions, indoors.