Sunday, May 01, 2011

A study in light

It has been blowing a gale, but I set myself the challenge today of looking at the effects of light. Stupidly, I did this with flowers on long wavy stems with big heads that easily catch the slightest breeze, at the end of a wind tunnel of a passageway between the front and back garden. I have deleted loads of photos where the frame is almost empty apart from a smear of purple in one corner, where the allium head has blown out of shot. Lessons learnt? That photos with the sun behind you are flat, that interesting effects can be made by shooting into the light (but the white balance or something isn’t right – I’ll have to experiment with that) and that flower photography would be much easier if I did it when wasn’t blowing a hoolie.

IMG_8476  Front lit

IMG_8477Side lit

IMG_8485Back lit

6 comments:

Lona said...

Your pictures of the Alliums are just marvelous. It is so fun to play with light and angles when taking pictures. Beautiful!

Liz said...

Hi,

Wonderful, often it can be best to photo once the sun isn't direct in the sky... That magic time after sunrise and before sunset. That way the light is far softer. But yes playing with light is always fun!

I was playing around with the light today... I got some very interesting results that I'll post in the coming days :)

Rosie@leavesnbloom said...

My favourite is your backlit photo of those alliums. I love shooting into the light and creating interesting bokehs. I don't like working with the mid morning and early afternoon sun as it is too harsh and shadows can be difficult to avoid. If you use picasa I'm sure you can adjust your white balance.

HappyMouffetard said...

Lona - thanks for visiting and your comments.

Liz - I shall have to have a look at your results. You're absolutely right about it being better not in full sun, but when the sky is blue is when I always feel I want to go out and take photos, so I thought I'd play and see the differences - it sounds stupid but it's not something I've really thought about before.

Rosie - thanks for your comment. My problem is that late morning and early afternoon are normally when I *do* take most of my photos, which causes the problems you say. I shall have a play on Picasa - good idea.

Anna said...

Interesting to compare HM. I went on a garden and flower photography workshop last year ~ canes and velcro ties were recommended to minimise effect of wind. Have still to try this out.

Janet/Plantaliscious said...

Don't know how I missed this. Love the backlit shot, suddenly more magical. So much more to learn and play around with - thanks for more inspiration.