Yeah, I know, another Hydrangea, pretty lame. But it has been a busy day which is going to be followed by a busy week so I HOPE I find some time to get some new images but it is not going to be easy. This one was also taken with the fisheye optic. It left some black corners which I filled in with content aware fill. I also had to reduce the noise and I added one texture to help unify the edits to the corners. But, you get a little better idea of what the fisheye is capable of with this one.
I made the mistake of going to Lensbaby’s web site to see if they had any other lenses I should try out. What I found was the Fisheye optic which gives a very wide angle of view and has a half inch minimum focusing distance. I started out in my back yard to see what it could do. I had been shooting inside last night and forgot to reset my ISO so I’m going to pretend I wanted all that graininess for an artistic effect. I had to crop it to an 8×10 because I found the curvature of the fisheye at the top very distracting. I added a lightroom preset and one texture. Not my best work but what I could come up with on short notice today. I’m thinking the fisheye might be fun at the rose garden.
I had very good intentions to get out and shoot today but when I got home from my morning meeting it was so windy I didn’t think I could find anything standing still. So, I opted for this one from my walk on the Greenway with the Edge 35 the other day. I just cropped it a little and edited out a distracting element in the lower left corner.
This week has been busting my chops, meetings, classes, volunteer activities. All good, just too busy for photography. So, I’m dipping back into yesterday’s trip to the Grower’s Market with the Burnside. This Sunflower had seen better days but still had a lot of character. I had the lens set to create an in camera vignette but took it even further in post processing and added a texture which added even more darkening at the corners. I also added detail especially in the flower to make those edges and ridges snap. I just got some new Lensbaby toys today so hope to be able to play with them tomorrow.
As promised I took the Edge 35 out for a walk today. I initially put it on the M3 but it was so heavy it almost overwhelmed the little camera so I switched it out to the R which felt more balanced. Before I left the house I checked the specs on the Edge 35 to to make sure I knew what I was working with. Minimum focusing distance 7″ check, f3.5 to f22 check.
I spotted this old oak tree along the Greenway and realized it was on the right side of the fence. I went over to see what leaves and acorns I might find. Seemed like most of the acorns were on the ground already. This tree has to be at least 200 years old. It is about six feet around the trunk at the base. So, I went over to give it a pat and thank it for being there. Well, when I looked up and saw the sun shining through the canopy I remembered a little trick that most photographers who have been doing it for any time will know. That is when you set the aperture at f22 and point it at a light source, including the sun, you will get a perfect starburst. Yep, it works.
So the trunk and limbs of the tree came out completely in shadow so I had to take it through Camera Raw twice to open the shadows up enough to see the detail in the bark. It maybe could have used one more trip. I also added some luminence to the greens and yellows to make the leaves stand out a little more and reduced the luminence on the blues to darken the sky.
I’m still putting the Velvet 56 through it’s paces so today I took it to growers market. I was just leaving the market when I spotted some thistles blooming. I went over and darned if there weren’t bees buzzing around. I probably could have gotten a little closer from a technical standpoint but I was a little worried about ticking the bees off. So this is a situation where the Velvet 85 might have been the better tool for the job as I really don’t like that dead thistle at the bottom. I cropped in quite a bit as it was. I suppose I could have gone a little further. One advantage to the R camera is it has a lot of pixels to play with. In any case I did brighten it a bit and added a high pass filter for detail. I also added a texture for just a slight painterly look on all that gorgeous blur in the background.
Here’s another one from my camera walk with the Velvet 56 yesterday. I had to brighten the exposure on this one due to the white flower tricking the camera into thinking it was grey. I also added a high pass filter to bring out the raindrops. And I added one texture but masked it out over the flower. Textures and the Velvet lenses really do play well together.
I took the Velvet 56 out for a spin around the neighborhood this morning, mounted on the EOS R. Match made in heaven I think. The combo is light enough to easily hand hold and both the camera and the lens are sharp where they need to be. And the Velvet 56 lives up to all my hopes and expectations as a macro lens. I love, love, love, the super soft background the velvet produces and I was hesitant to mess it up with a texture but in the end I thought the texture added just enough interest to make it a keeper.
I’m starting to get my second wind on this project. I stopped by North Mountain Park yesterday. They had half the park closed off… apparently because of yellow jackets… but fortunately the flowers were still accessible. I haven’t done much with the Sol45 lately so thought to give it a whirl with the zinnia beds. The flowers are a bit past prime but I was happy with the effect though it might look better if the flowers had not been in shadow. In post I adjusted the exposure, added clarity, contrast, and vibrance. Then I added a texture for a little more visual interest.
I’m finally getting over jet lag and had some time this morning to visit North Mountain Park with the Sweet 50. The Morning Glorys are always, well, glorious, this time of year. I added a high pass filter, darkened the center. Added a lightroom preset which basically increased contrast and finished it off with a texture which I masked out over the main flower.