Modeling today in my studio

[Diane]

Ditto everyone else's remarks, David!

[David_L]

Thanks Diane. This is today's top model.


[attachment 18217 Mat_haynei_perplexa_KK1459.jpg]

Matucana haynei v. perplexa KK1459

[David_L]

Mammillaria napina. This was actually taken with a different camera and I've tarted it up a bit with Photoshop to match. I've waited a long time for a flower and it has been worth the wait. Like Mammillaria senilis, I find this very challenging to flower.


[attachment 18219 Mammillaria_napina.jpg]

[Ross M]

Brilliant plants and photos David.

[Tony R]

Yes indeed, David. Fantastic photos. The sun has brought out the flowers well down here in Kent.

[ralphrmartin]

David

you've done well to photo some of those Rebutias without the shots looking burnt out. Care to share any advice?

[David_L]

Ralph, that's praise indeed! I used a large black plastic bucket on its side as a background, supported on a garden chair, placing the plant inside and angling it to get the best illumination from the sun without harsh shadowing across the plant.

The camera was a Canon EOS 40D digital SLR and the lens a Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX Macro. I take lots of shots using the RAW plus JPEG format, 10 or more per flower. I use manual focus and hand hold with sensitivity set to ISO 400. Shutter speeds typically less than 1/200th sec. I use the JPEGs on the computer screen to evaluate focus and exposure and process the corresponding RAW format shots from the best using Photoshop Elements 7.

Shooting in RAW gives quite a lot of flexibility to recover from slightly blown highlights though of course there are limits to what you can recover. Lots of trying to recover feather detail from over exposed white birds like swans and egrets has taught me the limitations. I then reopen the processed ("developed") RAW image in Photoshop and do any further tweaks; save in TIFF format before finally resizing for the Web and saving again as a JPEG.

Sorry if this is technical gobledegook for some people, but it's the only way to precisely describe what I did with these shots. To be fair I have taken many pictures I have been very happy with using a simple compact camera, my current one being the Nikon 5100. In fact the Mammillaria napina shot and all the shots on my other Spring thread were taken with that camera. With care you can get results 90% as good, but now that I've seen what you can achieve with the DSLR and a farly modest dedicated macro lens I'm tempted to use it more often.

[ralphrmartin]

David

thanks for the detailed explanation. It's quite clear you have gone to a lot of time and trouble to get good results, and the final pictures are worth it. Taking a series of exposures is a good way to go, and patience makes perfect!

[David_L]

A few more from today. Light hasn't been that good so flowers are not completely opening. First another shot of Rebutia tropaeolipicta. This is a new species for me. Picked it up at ELK last year from an amateur grower who had one or two nice Rebutias very well grown. According to the label it's from Ludwig Bercht seed.


[attachment 18309 Reb_pygmaea_tropaeolipicta.jpg]

[David_L]

Another Rebutia, Rebutia tarvitaensis. Reckoned by John Pilbeam to be the largest flowered of the Genus. There might be a few rivals to that claim, but it certainly has very large flowers.


[attachment 18310 Rebutia_tarvitaensis.jpg]