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OfflineLSoares
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Photographing cacti, Z's way * 3
    #20341263 - 07/28/14 02:53 AM (9 years, 6 months ago)

I've been trying to do a small tutorial on how I take pictures of my plants. I suck at explaining things and english is not my first language, so beware, this will be pretty hard to read. Feel free to ask any questions, I'll try my best to answer.

- Exposure

I don't want to turn this any more complicated than it is, but I need to introduce the concept of "exposure". A camera is nothing more than a light-tight box that contains some light-sensitive material - a film, a paper or a sensor - and a means of controlling how light hits that material. Now, light sensitizes that material through two measures, intensity and duration. The measure of intensity we call "aperture" and is, grossly, the width of the hole (called "diaphragm") that opens in the box. The duration we call "speed" and is the measure of how long the hole defined by "aperture" stays open (controlled by the "shutter"). Every picture taken has a combination of speed and aperture, and to this combination we call "exposure". If you think of "exposure" as a glass and "light" as water, if you try to fill that glass you can open wide the faucet and it will fill in seconds or you can let water trickle and it will take ages to fill. You use your variables - opening of the faucet and duration - in different combinations but still come to the same result: your glass is filled, your target exposure is achieved.
There is another issue involving exposure, namely ISO rating which is a measure of sensibility to light. Continuing the glass water metaphor, think of ISO rating as the size of the glass, the higher the rating, the smaller the glass and the quicker it will fill. There is, however, a trade-off: image quality will degrade with increasing sensibility.
What should we aim at, when taking a macro photograph? The lowest possible ISO will mean a finer rendition of your subject, but it may cause the picture to be blurry because of a very slow speed. If the speed is too slow, the shutter will be kept open long enough for the sensor to pick the slight tremor of your hands, hence the blurry pictures. So it's all a matter of compromise, or you could let the camera decide for itself, there is usually a macro setting that will take automatically these things into account.

- Light meters and exposure

The light meter in a camera will ALWAYS try to do the same thing: come up with an exposure that will yield a 18% grey scene. That's the standard, it will tell the camera which aperture and speed to use (at a given ISO rating) to achieve that exposure. Some will average the whole scene captured, some will do a reading that ponders the area at the center of the frame heavier, some will sample a number of zones of the scene and do some math to achieve a "best guess" and there's a mode, the one I use in my photos of cacti, called "spot metering" that will considered just a small portion on the center of the frame - the "spot" - when taking the reading, disregarding the rest. All of them have strengths, weaknesses and applications, and all of them will give you good results if used wisely. Spot metering on a small compact digital - especially if it has some sort of "macro" mode - is, however, a blessing.

First example: take a picture with your camera of a solid white piece of paper and of something solid black. Look at them side-by-side and marvel at how you can't tell them apart. Why? Because the camera rendered an 18% grey image out of both of them, lighting the black and darkening the white. That's how camera light meters figure out exposure.

Example two (turn off flash for this): you want to take a picture of your better half standing by the window on the living room, heavily back lit. You take hundreds of pictures that always come up the same: his/her face is a dark smudge. Why? Because the camera is averaging the light on the scene and since most of the scene is that big light box, the light meter will tell the camera to darken the scene so as to render it close to 18% grey, and unless you use the flash the face will be terribly darkened. BUT, if you change to a light metering mode that relies on the reading at the center of the frame and get a little closer to her so the reading will be mostly on her face, hey!, it makes all the difference! True, the window will now look like a white sheet of paper, but that's not what you were trying to picture in the first place.

(BTW, this is useful if you are trying to take pictures of dark plants / flowers, you should really use a light (white?) background your subject can stand up against).

- Cameras

Any camera will take good pictures of flowers, plants and bugs, as long as it has macro option. A macro setting is one that allows you to get your lens close to your subject while still focusing. SLR's (single lens reflex cameras, the type which people usually consider to be "real" cameras) don't have this because it really is a feature of the lens, not the body, and macro-capable lenses are usually expensive. While I do possess good SLR bodies and good macro lenses, I use a small not-too-expensive compact digital camera, a Canon IXUS 127 HS at the moment (I am a Canon man). The brand and model are quite irrelevant, a macro setting and spot metering capability are what you're after. Your pictures, however, will be only as good as your lenses and your sensor, so look for reputable brands or you risk getting the kind of colour balance you usually associate with mushrooms or peyotes. B)
On the other hand, unless you intend to blow your pictures to 4'x3' prints, Leica lenses will probably be overkill. The range is huge and you generally get what you pay for, but I personally look out for last year's novelties: if you do some shopping you will probably find a good stock-off deal.

- Cell phone cameras

Are good to take pictures of Flea jumping while playing or junior playing in the park or grandma's 90th birthday. They may even have half-decent macro modes, but I have yet to find one that isn't way too much trouble to use to get mediocre results. Get the tool for the job if you're serious.

- Flash photography

Is a very good way of having perfect control of the lighting of your subject but it's a pain to master. I don't use it and won't go into it.

- The setup

Now comes the fun part. You will need for this:

- a stand to place your plants (I use a 7cm deep pot turned upside down);
- a background (I used an old and torn black t-shirt for as long as I could, but now use a piece of black fabric I'm not too happy with);
- a means of standing your background behind your subject. I hang mine from the top shelf and secure it beneath the pots that lie there.



- The process

(assuming you're using a compact digital)
Hang the background. Place the plant on the stand. Make sure you're not casting a shadow on it. Switch on your camera. Make sure picture quality is at its best, choose spot-metering, 100 ISO and macro mode. Point the centre of the frame at the LIGHTEST part of your plant - usually the flower or the growing point. Observe on the display the general scene - are the darker areas too dark? The light areas too "flat" and lacking detail? Slowly pan or tilt away from that point until you're satisfied. It will take some experimenting but don't worry, we will correct it later on post-production. When satisfied, lightly press the shutter button: the camera will focus somewhere and lock the exposure. If the focus is not where you want it, you may need to play a little more until you get it. Once satisfied with that, REFRAME! Without releasing the button or moving away or towards the plant, center or offset your subject for a nicer effect. There's plenty of scope for experimentation here. Then - clic! - that's it. Look at the result. Is that it? Fine, move on. It's not? Repeat, it's digital and you can do it as many times as you wish!

- Post processing

I use PaintShop Pro by Corel (formerly Jasco), but you could use any program that allows you to adjust the histogram and contrast of a photograph. Start by cropping your picture to the format you wish, otherwise things that have no relation with your finished product will interfere with the tonal balance. What you are looking for is a nice spread of tones across the image, from some solid black to the minimum possible of solid white. In PaintShop Pro I use 1% black and 0,001% white. Then adjust the contrast so that it makes the background "sink" in shadows and your subject to stand out. Voila! Resize, sharpen as required, save as a high quality .jpg (assuming you did some serious resizing. I see little use to files resized to more than 800 px in the largest side if they are to be used in the net) and impress the guys/gals at the EG with your skill.

- Final considerations

This must seem like a lot, but I assure you it's not. It's a relatively streamlined workflow that will take you very little time to achieve pretty decent results. Of course, you can elaborate on it, adding tripods, flash guns, specialized backgrounds, Photoshop CSWhatever, you name it. You'll have to try a bit, but the learning curve is easy and the results rewarding.


--------------------
Z. in sunny Lisbon, Portugal
Cactus grower particularly fond of north american miniatures.
http://jardineiroazelha.blogspot.pt/

Sowing cacti - my way!
Random pictures of my collection.
Photographing cacti, Z's way.


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InvisibleMostly_HarmlessM
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: LSoares]
    #20341328 - 07/28/14 03:51 AM (9 years, 6 months ago)

Thanks Z! :thumbup: I know you've been meaning to do this for a while :grin:


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OfflineLemnaminor
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: LSoares]
    #20341660 - 07/28/14 07:13 AM (9 years, 6 months ago)

this :
Quote:

LSoares said:








I've been always thinking that you took all those photos in some dark room :grin:

Anyway, cool guide, i'll consider to put more effort on my photos

Photographing Cacti The Lemna's way :
1 Put macro mode on your device , and shoot.


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                                                        "The best things in life, come covered in spines."


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Invisible1234go
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: Lemnaminor]
    #20341850 - 07/28/14 08:33 AM (9 years, 6 months ago)

Quote:

Lemnaminor said:
this :
Quote:

LSoares said:








I've been always thinking that you took all those photos in some dark room :grin:





Me too :grin:


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Invisiblekarode13Facebook
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: LSoares]
    #20344461 - 07/28/14 08:44 PM (9 years, 5 months ago)

Nice,simple and informative guide LSoares.

I sometimes miss point and shoot cameras. I stepped up to a Canon(:thumbup:) DSLR with macro lenses a few years ago. Taking pictures can be more of a chore, especially when lugging tripods, lenses etc while mushroom hunting. The long exposure shots are worth it though, when you get them right that is!


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InvisibleSuperD
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: LSoares]
    #20344676 - 07/28/14 09:44 PM (9 years, 5 months ago)

Most excellent, thanks for the writeup. :thumbup:


--------------------
:super:D
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. :lol:

Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), :pm: me if you have any for trade


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InvisiblecowsRmeat
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: SuperD]
    #20345133 - 07/29/14 12:59 AM (9 years, 5 months ago)

Holy $#!+, your photos are BEAUTIFUL! I havent seen any of them before but went to you gallery and they look PROFESSIONAL!  Excellent job!


--------------------
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.
'Which road do I take?' she asked.
'Where do you want to go?' was his response.
'I don't know', Alice answered.
'Then', said the cat, 'it doesn't matter.'





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OfflineLSoares
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: karode13]
    #20345243 - 07/29/14 01:48 AM (9 years, 5 months ago)

Thank you all, you're too nice. :smile:

Quote:

karode13 said:
I sometimes miss point and shoot cameras. I stepped up to a Canon(:thumbup:) DSLR with macro lenses a few years ago. Taking pictures can be more of a chore, especially when lugging tripods, lenses etc while mushroom hunting. The long exposure shots are worth it though, when you get them right that is!




Absolutely. I own a Canon 5D (1st gen) myself, and the 100/2.8 macro, and tripod, etc. Just thinking of the logistics involved in using it makes me hit the fridge and grab a beer instead - but the possibilities!

(also, since the 100/2.8 is the only dedicated macro I have, I tend to use an elderly 10D with it. The 1.6x cropping factor of the smaller sensor makes it "macro-er" than the 5D)

I may do some macro "studio" shooting with my DSLR this week, now you mentioned it. I kinda miss it.


--------------------
Z. in sunny Lisbon, Portugal
Cactus grower particularly fond of north american miniatures.
http://jardineiroazelha.blogspot.pt/

Sowing cacti - my way!
Random pictures of my collection.
Photographing cacti, Z's way.


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Invisiblekarode13Facebook
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: LSoares]
    #20345412 - 07/29/14 03:32 AM (9 years, 5 months ago)

I use a similar set up to you, a 500D instead though. Still learning every year.:smile: I'll be going out with it in a few days in search of mushrooms.  :photographer:


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Offlinetotal
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: karode13]
    #20345545 - 07/29/14 05:21 AM (9 years, 5 months ago)

You guys make me feel bad that i dont really know how to work my camera...:sad:

My method is photography is to insert a 64gb card into my 700D, put it on auto, and take about 50 photos of every single thing, and pick from the best photo!
I really have to learn some more about this!


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OfflineLemnaminor
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: total]
    #20349920 - 07/30/14 04:35 AM (9 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

total said:

My method is photography is to insert a 64gb card into my 700D, put it on auto, and take about 50 photos of every single thing, and pick from the best photo!





This method is excellent! i use this too! :grin:


--------------------



                                                        "The best things in life, come covered in spines."


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InvisibleBagels
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: LSoares]
    #22811962 - 01/22/16 05:15 PM (8 years, 7 days ago)

Quote:

LSoares said:

What should we aim at, when taking a macro photograph? The lowest possible ISO will mean a finer rendition of your subject, but it may cause the picture to be blurry because of a very slow speed. If the speed is too slow, the shutter will be kept open long enough for the sensor to pick the slight tremor of your hands, hence the blurry pictures. So it's all a matter of compromise, or you could let the camera decide for itself, there is usually a macro setting that will take automatically these things into account.






Thanks for explaining this. I love doing macro especially with mushrooms. But I kept thinking well I know I get hand shake but something else is wrong here. I have been using ISO 80 so I will bump it up a bit and have a play with it. I also keep thinking that these cacti flowers absorb light rather than reflect it but that maybe something else I haven't figured out with the camera yet. It could be the area setting.

I am a lazy photographer mainly on purpose as I never really thought I'd get much into the technical stuff as it would spoil the fun. Also it is time consuming. I am finding cacti a bit more challenging than mushrooms though. I don't really photograph much else except the cat :smile:

You take some great photos by the way :awethumb:

---------------------------------------------------


This would be good thread to sticky but I don't know how that works.


Edited by Bagels (01/24/16 08:12 PM)


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InvisibleMostly_HarmlessM
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: Bagels]
    #22813195 - 01/22/16 11:58 PM (8 years, 7 days ago)

Quote:

Bagels said:
This would be good thread to sticky but I don't know how that works.




We try to limit the number of stickies, so I have added this post to USEFUL, INFORMATIVE, & INTERESTING POSTS/LINKS


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InvisibleBagels
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Re: Photographing cacti, Z's way [Re: Mostly_Harmless]
    #22813443 - 01/23/16 01:19 AM (8 years, 7 days ago)

Quote:

Mostly_Harmless said:
Quote:

Bagels said:
This would be good thread to sticky but I don't know how that works.




We try to limit the number of stickies, so I have added this post to USEFUL, INFORMATIVE, & INTERESTING POSTS/LINKS




:awethumb:


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