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Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 3:52 pm
by Jim_Mercer
Still not decided how many are dead as recent weather and watering seems to have revived some plants
- Looking through the door
- To the left
- and to the right
I was going to add some more detailed pictures then found the 5 attachment limit so the links below should take you to my photostream on Flikr where I have created a set for the greenhouse tour
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23418154@N ... 546051586/
tour026 by
aCactus2008, on Flickr
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:34 pm
by Cactus Jack
Hi Jim , very nice , they are well packed in but looks good .
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:20 pm
by Julie
Jim has forbies! Everything is going to be okay.
It's not a proper collection unless there is a forby in there somewhere.
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:58 pm
by Morgans Beauty
very nice coloured crassula-bonsais in there jim!!! thx for showing us your holiest
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:30 pm
by Jim_Mercer
Now that I have allocates spaces to my purchases at Harrogate and the North West Cactus Mart and finding a few gaps which might mean I might take a trip to Spalding tomorrow but I also realised that there is no easy space available for taking photographs if I want to isolate a plant from its neighbours. Recent photo sessions have involved moving at least three plants off the staging (and onto the floor).
Today's solution is a small piece of extra staging
- The stage
The back of the new piece slots into the existing staging - the fixed backboard should mean I am not tempted to leave it in as a permanent fixture as if I did that I am sure some plants would find a permanent home on it.
I think I will leave the hardboard unpainted as it does give a fairly neutral background
- Rebutia pygmaea
One reason for not painting it is I cannot decide what colour it should be, for most of my recent pictures I have used some cheap craft paper from a multi-colour pack and the new staging was "designed" to make use of this paper and allow a bit of space for me and my tripod.
- Stage set
Results
- Mammillaria
- Rebutia again
Comparing the two Rebutia pictures makes me think that I am getting a much greater depth of focus using the "standard" lens on my EOS450D but the macro lens does have the advantage of a longer focal length so less danger of casting a shadow.
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 6:56 pm
by Acid John
Jim can you close you macro lens down to say F22 and then take a longer exposure, that should give you a nice depth of view.
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 4:04 pm
by Jim_Mercer
Switching to av mode it seems I can go as far as f57 but the resulting shutter speed really requires tripod and remote release even in bright sunshine. This was taken at f40..
- As taken
..which brings about the next question, how much editing should you do in your preferred photo editing software
In most of my pictures I have limited my editing to changing the background to a single solid colour and some slight tweaks to brightness & contrast. While reducing the above image down to a suitable size for uploading I noticed lots of dust/pollen on the petals. A few clicks of a healing brush and the spots are gone.
- Healed
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Tue May 03, 2011 7:50 am
by BrianMc
Hi Jim,
No wasted space in your greenhouse
.
As far as photo editing goes, speaking as a professional photographer/retoucher, its best to get it right at the photography stage - time is money! Photo editing is for things that cannot be avoided or have been carelessly overlooked
A little soft brush or blow of air before photography can save more time at the computer later. Looking at a macro shot one often sees things not visible to the naked eye, so its always worthwhile to look at the subject through a magnifying glass first.
Your picture of the rebutia against the hardboard is certainly unclutured and focuses the attention to the plant, but I must just pull you up on your terminology. The hardboard cannot be termed 'Neutral'. In photographic terms 'neutral' indicates that it has no colour cast (ie. perfectly balanced - white, grey, or black) something which obviously does not apply to the hardboard.
The longer focal length of your macro lens, due to the laws of physics, means that it inheritantly has a shorter depth of field when photographing from the same distance with the same aperture, but I'm guessing the macro lens is capable of stopping down smaller.
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 11:05 am
by matchat
Hi Jim, you mention that stopping down as far as f57 requires a tripod and remote release. I see that you already have the tripod which should really be used in macro photography anyway. You don't need a remote release though, just use the self timer function on your DSLR and step away until the camera takes the picture.
Re: Jim's Greenhouse
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 7:55 pm
by Jim_Mercer
Using f57 seems to confuse exposure meter, but winding back to f40 appears OK - not sure how real these values are as the lens itself only goes down to f32 but I am also using the life size converter and then there is the 1.6 focal length factor for the APS-C sized sensor. Using self timer would mean trying to find appropriate menu option which I would then forget to reset
I already have a remote control - a very cheap purchase from Amazon at a fraction of the price of the "proper" Canon part.