Further camera tips
totototo@telus.net (Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:31:36 PST)
Jane McGary lamented the practice of using image editing software to jazz up
flower colors.
One way to keep yourself honest is to use a 17% neutral gray card as
background, or just for separate reference shots under the same conditions and
at the time of taking your picture(s). The Rix-Phillips books (among them, the
wonderful Bulb Book, aka Random House Book of Bulbs) use such as a background
for the studio shots, and to the extent that the printed version of the gray
card is tinted, you can get an idea of what kind of color imbalance the
photograph has.
I believe—correct me if I'm wrong—that digital cameras have more faithful color
rendition than film cameras. With film, it's almost impossible to get blue
flowers to look like anythng other than a murky purple. Furthermore, film
tended to reproduce all reds in a highly saturated fire engine red: a sort of
one color fits all approach. Perhaps this exaggeration of reds is connected
with the poor reproduction of blues.
Another technique that can be very helpful on occasion is to open the diaphragm
of your lens to the maximum aperture. This beshallows the depth of field,
throwing the background out of focus and emphasizing the subject. If you use
this technique, be sure that the camera's autofocus system is focussing on the
subject, however. Using a wide aperture also gives shorter exposure times and
can help reduce movement due to wind.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate
on beautiful Vancouver Island