Flora

I rather like these small and compact flowers. We have some in the garden and they are a magnet for bees and other insects at this time of year. All very natural. 

What isn't natural is this picture, as it is partly faked. The sunlight is actually off camera flash. The shutter speed was chosen to make the background dark, and Photoshop finished off the process.

(I like a bit of black in my pictures, you will find evidence all over the blog: Here's a random example...)




Now you know the secret you can see this one comes from the same neck of the woods, with flash and selective darkening used to isolate the bloom and add impact to the image.



I show all of this to remind us that nothing we see in print is quite what it seems any more. The digital revolution has given us an endless flow of potentially perfect images.

I do wonder if that is a good thing...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The white stuff

Image
Here's a high key picture.  This splendid bloom is presented against a white background to captivate and impress.  This is not a studio picture, I found the subject in a garden we visited. In fact the method I used was to photograph the flower from below and I used the grey sky as a backdrop.  Suitable application of exposure compensation pushes the entire image towards white and gives it the high key look.
Read more

Casting a shadow

Image
Dismal dark depressing dull damp disappointing December. Hmm. Lets remind ourselves of summer when there were shadows in pictures. Lets concentrate on where the light isn't: Sometimes its the shadows that define a picture. Here are some of hard light examples from the Mediterranean, and each one will have needed some exposure compensation. The first images hints at a sunny day. This one gives you the evidence: A clear blue sky glimpsed between shadows. This third image, also from the much rebuilt and restored fort at Paphos , allows us to see more of the building. A pleasing succession of arches and the reward is the sunshine at the end And finally one last shadow picture: One for Arthur C Clark: The Monolith in Newbury Kennet Centre car park. Its been there for 4.2 Billion years. No one knows what it does.
Read more