Another trip down memory lane. I cropped this one a little, used the spot healing brush on one blemish, and added a texture. Then when I got done and saved it I realized it was almost identical to an image I posted earlier. But it’s different, I promise and all the work was done today!
Another one of those days where flowers almost fell off the table. So I cruised through some past files and found this one from my last trip to the rose garden. An almost perfect sunflower. I was still test driving the Sol45 at the time and I’d say it performed very well. All I did with this one was add a high pass filter and spot heal a couple of minor flaws on the flower.
The pickings are getting mighty thin, flowerwise, anyway. I’m glad to see that the pollinators are still finding plenty of pollen. This was shot at North Mountain Park with the 180 mm macro lens on the Canon 7D MarkII. I cropped this one from horizontal to vertical, added a high pass filter and a texture and tweaked the exposure a little.
Today is my Mom’s 86th birthday. She doesn’t really need any more things and she doesn’t get out much and she has been wanting to check out the new Indian Casino in Yreka. So, I thought the nicest thing I could do for her today was take her on a little outing. I came back with $100 more in my pocket than I started with and she had a good time even though she didn’t win much. But, long story short, there wasn’t much time for flower photography so I went back to what I shot yesterday with the Velvet 85. I really just liked the colors on this one. I brightened it up a bit and then the texture I chose brought it along a little further. High pass filter and a little touch up with the spot healing brush.
I thought I would try something a little different. This image is from the files, taken back in August when I was experimenting with the 7D with a telephoto lens and extension tube at the rose garden. The original was close to monochome but more yellow. I decided to give it a black and white treatment with a sepia tone. I wasn’t completely happy with that so I lowered the opacity and let just a little of the color bleed through from the original. Now I’m happy. Hope you like it.
One of the tricks I’ve learned in my Macro photography class is shooting through a copper tube to create a sort of frame around the flower. What’s fun is it takes on the color of the flower reflected in the copper. This one just had a high pass filter and a texture added.
My mom always called these Johnny Jump-ups. I can see why they are called that as I had a pot full of pansies last year and these came up volunteer all over my yard this year. I never had the heart to pull them up but they are getting pretty scraggly so I decided to make a little bouquet of the flowers that were left and take them out. Then of course I had to photograph it. This one needed a little exposure adjustment. I added a high pass filter and toned down the saturation just a little. Shot with the 22mm macro on the M3.
I’m liking this Macro workshop. I do my homework in the afternoon and then I have something to post the next morning. Yesterday’s lesson was on a technique called free lensing, which basically means taking the lens off your camera and turning it around and holding onto it while you shoot. You loose all the automatic controls so you just have to find your focus by moving back and forth. Out of about 30 shots this was the only one that turned out. I had stopped by Home Depot since it was on my path yesterday and picked up a couple of new plants to play with including this fresh echinacea since the ones in my garden have about given up the ghost. I used the M3 with it’s 22 mm macro lens but you can do this with any lens to get more magnification…not sure about the zooms. But, it’s all about experimentation. In post I added a high pass filter and a lightroom preset that helped to brighten up the colors.
I’ve got a crazy busy day today so I wanted to post something first thing this morning so I don’t forget. I shot this one yesterday afternoon when I was experimenting with the 28mm macro lens I have for the M3. I would like it better if the center was just a little sharper but I really love all the crazy blur and bokah on the left. I had to do a lot of spot healing on the flower which I think has some ash residue making for a lot of white spots. I didn’t get them all but I got most of them. Then I added a high pass filter and that’s all.
I just started an online workshop in macro photography so you will be seeing more like this for the next 18 days. This one was just a test of what macro lenses I have and how to get a true one to one image. I added a high pass filter and that was all.