Dahlia
Farmer’s Market Resource
A few weekends ago at one of the local Farmer Markets my wife and I purchased three Dahlias. When we got home they were placed in the garage to be planted later. Before that took place I shot about 50 macro floral shots.
Outdoor Photo Studio
My outdoor macro studio is our garage with the door open. I can move my subject into the bright shadows or in to direct sunlight. I make the shooting sequence as easy and as controlled as I can. Here’s my process…
- Pulling out a folding card table to place my shooting subject on. Bring out the foldering chair to sit on while I’m shooting.
- Pull out the tripod with the Wimberley “Plamp” attached to it & the other end holds the flower ensuring no breeze moves it. Very important with marco shooting.
- Post processing included Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4 (Detail Extractor, Pro Contrast, & Darken/Lighten Center) and Sharpener Pro.
Macro Shooting Information
Shot with my Nikon D300, manual mode, RAW, Tamron 90mm macro lens at 1/20, f/4.4, and focal length 90mm.
It is shots like these that keep me coming back to shooting mainly macro floral images!
Thanks for viewing this image.
Absolutely gorgeous. I do so enjoy your tutorial posts.
Gorgeous Rick! And don’t you just love the Nik products?
Yes! Nik filters are so easy to use/learn. Thanks for the comment!
Rick,
I moved back from sharpener pro to photoshop. Duplicate the nearly final in a new layer, convert to smart object and apply a high pass layer in overlay mode. A combination of brushing in the layer mask and pixel size off the filter setting will fine tune the picture. MAybe I didn’t work long enough with Sharpener pro, but this workaround gives me faster more control on the sharpening process
Greetz,
Bernard
First, thank you for stopping in and sharing your thoughts.
Second, using Sharpener is no simple task. I was hoping for some thing more intuitive. Still, I really need to spend more time with it, especially the RAW portion of the filter. I’ve written Nik Software requesting they produce a more focused webinar on this software.
Good idea, looking forward for the webinar
Its a nice shot, but I think detail extractor may have gone a little far. It seems just a tad too sharp. I find that that filter is one of the hardest for me to use effectively.
Did you know there is a dahlia festival coming up next month in Canby, just south of Portland? I’d love to go check it out.
Wonderfully composed!
Thank you!
The forms and colours of this shot are amazing. And all the details makes for a very interesting picture. The repetitive forms that opens up down to the left, gives the picture a very organic and dynamic expression, that enhances the beauty of the Dahlia.
Otto… Thank you for the detailed comments. The image, like you noted, was shot with those thoughts in mind: Details, Repeativeness in lines, pattern, and color(s).
Thanks for taking the time to stop by.