Mothers Day Roses

Not Chocolates, but flowers

A nice bunch of roses turned up on the table for Mothers Day, and never a wasted opportunity for Father .....


















A bit of an experiment for me, these are handheld macros entirely lit by flash.

K7 & Tamron Adaptall 135mm f2.8 / 31mm extension tube, Cactus RF60 flash in 60x60cm softbox controlled by Cactus V6 Trigger. F11, ISO 100, 1/180th sec

I was shooting in dim domestic light and with no contacts on my extension tube I was using the Tamron 135mm in manual aperture mode, so at F11 could not see enough to focus. To help I had a Pentax AF-540FGZII flash on top of the V6 and I used the LED lamp on the flash to illuminate the flower for focussing.

It was really interesting to be able to shoot handheld at such magnifications and apertures! The SR plus 180th shutter speed was OK ..... a tripod and Live View focussing would have been even better, but would have made my setup even more complicated and time consuming, so this LED plus flash solution seemed at good balance .....

These came out really well Nigel, considering they were hand held they are quite sharp and they are well lit. I love the red colour of the middle shot!

Very nice, almost smell them,

Thanks Don, too busy going mad with all the camera/flash gear to pause for a sniff .

I've got a few more to come plus shots of the set up.

Thanks also Jeremy .... the handholding is a big deal really, as the extra time to set up tripod and precisely focus using Live View would be an issue.

Good shooting Nigel. Really like the first and last ones, lovely tones and textures captured in less than ideal scenario. The middle one, seems to have lost some texture, I don't know if this is because of flash or not, you can see where the red turns to pink just along the edge of the petals, kind of like it's just blown, having said that I love the center with the deep shadows as the petals get tighter. Red and yellow flowers can be difficult to shoot at the best of times, I think you have done a super job with these considering the setup.
Derek

Many take Derek for your comment, and I did have some trouble with that red one. I could not correct the colour with processing at all ... Perhaps its some weird optical effect from the old lens ?

Hi Nigel. I don't think it's the lens. Red flowers are really tricky to shoot well. I don't know what causes it but I've noticed it plenty of times in my shots. It's like it's so saturated it just loses all texture and definition and that weird colour thing as well. I'm sure that some of the bright sparks on here will know the reason for it, as I don't.

Probably right Derek, who knows ... ? I only checked the brightness histogram, but maybe I should look at the red colour one, maybe there would be overexposure just in that channel? Thanks again for your interest and thoughtful comments.... definitely this is something to try indoors on those rainy days.