Playjng with light, reflections, shadows C&C please and thank you

[JBW]

[Clive Kirby]

Hi
I like this. Particularly the little highlights on the edge of the petals and the reds reflected on the leafm which leads you to the subject.

I noticed a loss of detail in small areas on the flower petals. I get a similar loss of details in reds with my camera (nikon d90). I usually control it by decreasing the exposure until I get the detail. Do you know whether this is caused by over saturation or over exposure of the reds?

regards
Clive

[Clive Kirby]

...or perhaps it's my screen, I'm using my laptop, which hasn't got the best of colour reproduction.

Clive

[JBW]

Hi
I like this. Particularly the little highlights on the edge of the petals and the reds reflected on the leafm which leads you to the subject.

I noticed a loss of detail in small areas on the flower petals. I get a similar loss of details in reds with my camera (nikon d90). I usually control it by decreasing the exposure until I get the detail. Do you know whether this is caused by over saturation or over exposure of the reds?

regards
Clive

I am a newbee but certainly have my problems with bright red and orange flowers. Hopefully someone will be able to answer your question for both of us.

[Clive Kirby]

Hi
I'm no expert, but I do experiment when I get a problem. The best way I have found to control this is to check the histogram for the three colours and make sure the red is not over exposed. Unfortunately I often end up with the other colours under exposed. I can normally fix this by processing the image. Also during processing I keep a check on the histograms to make sure I am not over saturating the reds. It doesn't normally happen with the other colours.
I still struggle with purples, which often end up as mauves (too much red). I have tried adjusting the exposure and white balance, but have not been able to solve it.
Hope this helps.
regards
Clive

[Stagecoach]

Brian,

This is a common problem with red flowers and can be overcome by underexposing but this will of course affect everything else.

Looking at the red channel of the histogram on this shot does not show it to be clipped to any degree but I do not know what you have done in processing. Whatever, there is certainly a loss of detail. Reducing the saturation helps but again affects everything else unless you start doing if selectively.

I did a very quick bit of research on it and this is the first info I came across that may or may not be correct but may get some response from others;

"" I believe it is because the range of red that the sensor responds to is wider than that perceived by us humans ""

Grahame

[JBW]

Brian,

This is a common problem with red flowers and can be overcome by underexposing but this will of course affect everything else.

Looking at the red channel of the histogram on this shot does not show it to be clipped to any degree but I do not know what you have done in processing. Whatever, there is certainly a loss of detail. Reducing the saturation helps but again affects everything else unless you start doing if selectively.

I did a very quick bit of research on it and this is the first info I came across that may or may not be correct but may get some response from others;

"" I believe it is because the range of red that the sensor responds to is wider than that perceived by us humans ""

I have tried hundreds of shots on this type of blower blossom and this is the best. They just seem to merge into an oil painting effect.


Grahame

[jcuknz]

If either of your editing programmes are capable of this I suggest taking two exposures using the shutter speed and not the aperture to obtain the difference in exposure and then lining them up in editing and select the areas you want*. If you had a firm support for the camera and it didn't move between exposures you would find they lined up nicely of thir own accord. I believe you have a bamboo stick so perhaps you should see what you can find to create a firm support.
This problem comes up when the camera doesn't realise the colours are as bright as they actually are. A bright yellow english flower was causing the same problem on another forum awhile back

* I have layers and use the destructive approach of erasing the top layer where I want the bottom image to show through with a soft edged brush and a low strength so several clicks are needed to totally remove the top layer ... but again this seems to be a characteristic of my editor and others may not be able to do this ... I can only suggest in case hopefully yours can.

The more sophisticated way is to use a layer mask.

If the camera will make bracketed exposures that could be a way with a firm bamboo stick to obtain the two files.

You are certainly coming up with some nice images so some lateral thinking should pay off for you

[Stagecoach]

Brian,

ISO 800 when using 1/640s and f3.1. Why the high ISO it's noisy and that will help lose detail plus it looks all OOF.

PP work is not the way to achieve getting a shot like this right.

Grahame

[Clive Kirby]

Hi Jucknz
I have tried taking more than one exposure and merging the images as you describe - works well, but it works best when you use a tripod to take the shots. But it doesn't seem to make any difference with the problems I have had with purples. I think Grahame has a point - the sensors are intrinsically to sensitive to reds.
regards
Clive