One Shining Moment ....

This is the last in the Cape Daisy macro series, and for any who want to know how I did them, read on.

This last one is the cultivar "Symphony" and the petals are really pale getting darker at the tips.

Thanks all for following this series, much appreciated, Nick.

Most importantly, select a good quality undamaged bloom with not too much lost pollen on the petals.

I use a florist dry block to hold the flower and cover this with black velvet making sure that the velvet is at least 8 inches from the flower so you don't see the pile of the fabric.

Tripod mount the camera and use mirror lock up if you have it and a cable or remote release.

Turn off Auto focus and manually focus and compose your shot, ensuring that the light is hitting the flower correctly and that the velvet is in slight shadow, (Block excess light on the velvet with card, a newspaper etc)

Use manual setting and select your aperture and experiment with shutter speeds, (the camera normally overexposes due to the dark background, I normally underexpose by 1/3 to 1 stop, this almost guarantees a well e xposed shot.)

I also shoot in RAW, much better Post shot control.

In photoshop recrop the shot , ( as little as poss just to tidy up and improve composition)

Use the clone tool to get rid of any pollen you may have missed, adjust curves or levels if necessary, then finally sharpen and if wanted add a border. I use Photoshop but most editing programmes have this facility).

Hope this helps someone, regards Nick

Title:	One Shining Moment ....
Username:	NickBrandon
Uploaded:	25 Apr 2008 - 5:52 PM
Camera:	Canon EOS400d
Lens:	Sigma 70-300 DG APO MACRO
Recording media:	RAW (digital)
Tags:	Cape daisy, Close-up / macro, Flower, Flowers & plants, Macro, Osteo, Wildlife / nature
Votes:	54
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