Isolation For An Evening Rose
Many of my best photos (or at least the ones I like the most) are taken in the evening light. I like the color, the angle, and the way that the long shadows cause contrast in a scene that does not exist at other times. This picture story is about using contrast and position to create isolation in an image.
f3.5 at 1/320 0ev 45mm (262 mm equivalent) 2816 x 2112 Canon S3
Essence: Although taken in the evening in November, this picture of a rose was not taken against a dark background. Far from it. Here is the whole scene:
In the image above, the camera metered the exposure at 1/50 (f3.5 fixed) and shows the background clearly illuminated and the rose over-exposed. But by zooming in on the rose, the exposure changed to 1/350 causing the background to all but disappear as the exposure of the rose was corrected. I kept the speed high because the wind was blowing the rose and I was afraid of blurring. The image with the black background is the best of six shots that I took zoomed in.
Accident: I was on my way to get pictures of my kids chasing around in the back yard with my Canon S3 when I saw the sun illuminating this rose, isolating the flower against everything else. The colors were nice. When I took the photo I didn't see the translucence of the petal on the left that gives the image much of its color, and the degree of darkness in the final image was a surprise. At f3.5 the depth of field was shorter than I would have liked and I had to hope that it was sufficient.
Vanity: As usual, I increased the saturation on the original image, up to 1.2 in this case. Next I played with the levels to make the background as close to black as I could get and increased the tonal range of the rose petals, in particular the petal that is in shade on the right. The adjustment looked like this:
Highlights and shadows came next. Nothing on the shadows because I wanted them darker than dark, but a setting of 8.8 on the highlights to bring some more detail out of the brightly illuminated petal. Then I adjusted the white balance to 5569K for a more orangy look, closer to the scene I remember.
The hardest setting to get right was the sharpening. I used the regular sharpening tool, and after much adjustment I set the Intensity to 0.54 and the Radius to 2.73.
Final image:
f3.5 at 1/320 0ev 45mm (262 mm equivalent) 2816 x 2112 Canon S3
Essence: Although taken in the evening in November, this picture of a rose was not taken against a dark background. Far from it. Here is the whole scene:
In the image above, the camera metered the exposure at 1/50 (f3.5 fixed) and shows the background clearly illuminated and the rose over-exposed. But by zooming in on the rose, the exposure changed to 1/350 causing the background to all but disappear as the exposure of the rose was corrected. I kept the speed high because the wind was blowing the rose and I was afraid of blurring. The image with the black background is the best of six shots that I took zoomed in.
Accident: I was on my way to get pictures of my kids chasing around in the back yard with my Canon S3 when I saw the sun illuminating this rose, isolating the flower against everything else. The colors were nice. When I took the photo I didn't see the translucence of the petal on the left that gives the image much of its color, and the degree of darkness in the final image was a surprise. At f3.5 the depth of field was shorter than I would have liked and I had to hope that it was sufficient.
Vanity: As usual, I increased the saturation on the original image, up to 1.2 in this case. Next I played with the levels to make the background as close to black as I could get and increased the tonal range of the rose petals, in particular the petal that is in shade on the right. The adjustment looked like this:
Highlights and shadows came next. Nothing on the shadows because I wanted them darker than dark, but a setting of 8.8 on the highlights to bring some more detail out of the brightly illuminated petal. Then I adjusted the white balance to 5569K for a more orangy look, closer to the scene I remember.
The hardest setting to get right was the sharpening. I used the regular sharpening tool, and after much adjustment I set the Intensity to 0.54 and the Radius to 2.73.
Final image:
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