flowers

Correcting or Altering Photos

This is the way purple Coneflowers are supposed to look.

The following were seriously underexposed photos that were corrected as best as I could. It really changed the over all appearance and color compared to the top two photos. Am I the only one that hangs on to bad shots & tries to fix them like this?

Granted, it’s unique and interesting in it’s own way, but they really look “blah” compared to the the top two photos taken. Below are two that I tried with less color saturation so they would look less bright and garish.

Another example of underexposed coneflowers I corrected but would have looked so much better if the exposure was right. I am really not sure what was going on with my camera at the time this happened. Sometimes I manually adjust for the lighting & forget to change it back.

The next photo didn’t have an exposure problem but one that I didn’t notice in the field while taking it. There was part of a plant in the foreground to the left I didn’t notice at the time I took the shot. It ruined what could have been a decent photograph.

“A Little Knowledge…

Is A Dangerous Thing.”

And it can make or break your photographs.

I have no excuse.  For years I worked off and on for professional finishing labs as well as a private One Hour Photo Lab that I operated for years, I did not own it.  Along with photo finishing I sold cameras & had knowledge of their operation, went to workshops, etc.  I used to care about aperture, film speed, now I switch my Pentax K200D to auto on everything I can.

I chose this body because I had a Pentax 35mm with a couple of lenses & I could interchange on this digital camera body which is what I have been doing for over 10 years.  I absolutely need to upgrade but know when I do, another better digital camera will come out even cheaper.

One of my shortcomings is that I don’t always think things through or verify information that I have before I do things.  Knowing quite a bit about cameras and their accessories gave me a false sense of security that I “knew it all.”  When I found a “softener” filter in my lens size I got all excited & purchased it.  It didn’t occur to me to ask why it had (B) on it.

Come to find out that B is a stronger softener than the A that was not available at the time.  Had I questioned the proprietor I would have been told that this filter has a stronger softening effect than A and asked them to order it for me since that was my intent.  I wished just the slightest hint of softening.  Instead I ended up with almost a “fog” effect which I intend trying at a later date in a cemetery or especially with lights like at Christmas.

Needless to say I used it a few times and was not happy with it.

Sharing the results of the Hoya 49mm softener B results.  I promise to do another post later when use it again with specific results in mind.  I had no idea what the effects would actually be until this trial shoot at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan and my yard.

Pink Tiger Lilies
Close up of the stars that appear in lights with the softener lens.

 

This lens does not do justice to delicate pink rose petals starting to fade.

Miscellaneous flower shots.  A few are not bad.  I need to play with it more.

Still Celebrating Mother’s Day

Pictures of the “fake” blue orchids I received on Mother’s Day.  Supposedly if they ever rebloom they will flower white because they somehow must place blue dye in the soil or water or something to get them to do this.  Pretty fascinating really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cth02of2mBE
They are beautiful.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers are very striking flowers and fields of them are so impressive to behold.  I have seen only two such fields that I can remember.  I used to grow a row of Sunflowers in my garden along the edge where our small cornfield was.  I really wish I would have taken pictures of that garden and many other things.  Photography was not a priority back then and was expensive to develop.

My post is dedicated to Sunflowers but I am thinking about my cornfields right now.  One year was dedicated to what I believe was the “Silver Queen” late corn, very sweet and tender, and another year we planted hulless popcorn.  Never together because of possible cross-pollination issues.  I have since found “hulless” at markets, but not often and none has ever been as tender as the popcorn we grew so many years ago.  We hung the ears out to dry and then stored them in large mason jars still on the ears, kernels removed right before popping.  Not sure of how to do this at first, we somehow dried them to perfection because they popped beautifully.