AusBonsai

Hi Grant,
Your third photo is the best as far as detail in the highlight areas. If you look at the second photo you will see the foliage a little clearer. You can get the best of the two if you use a reflector. Use the same F stop as you did with the third photo and hold a piece of white board above the top of the tree and slightly toward the back. This will tend to highlight the foliage but keep the detail in the highlights.

Regards Ray

Hi Grant
The first is way too bright on the trunk, but nice detail in the foliage tips.

The last one to me is the best as it has a more yellowinsh tint. What did you do between the 2nd and last ones? They seem the same brightness>

Steven, Nice choice for an intial DSLR.
I use mine for Athletics photos mainly so do not need low Fstop usually. photos of Bonsai I only recently started getting interested in Good shots of my trees so have not invested much yet.

Learn to use the various modes and functions properly, and then experiment with different exposures with your stock lenses.
Use decent auxilary lights if you can and nice Backgrounds to get the most out of what you have.

if you run into limitations of the original lens then splurge if you need to

Ken

Shoot RAW, change your White Balance in post processing.

Adobe Lightroom is a good program to use, but expensive. Your Canon should of come with some RAW software (Digital Photo Professional, from memory).

#1 looks like motion blur? Were you handheld?

Tripod (or table with timed shutter and step away), do the best with lights as you can and large F-stop. If it's handheld, you need to keep your shutter speed high enough to avoid blur.

Edit: If you mush shoot JPEG, change your 'Picture Style' and add some sharpness there, and fiddle with the other sliders. The way 'professional' photographers make photos stand out is usually all in lighting and post processing. Post processing, like white balance, sharpness, contrast, clarity, saturation, lens corrections will make your photos appear much better. Most programs can do that all automatically if you are overwhelmed.

Hmmmmm....


did someone say HDR...

OK,

A few more photos.

All are on tripod and timer; but s... happens sometimes.

OK now a question. I can't see any appreciable difference between all the photos; especially the back ground blur etc.

Am I doing anything wrong; misunderstanding or.. is the lense that important? ie the 18 - 200 lens as opposed to a fixed 50.

Grant

As apposed to what Go-fish does, I very rarely shoot anything over f8 bonsai. That fig, with the backdrop so close I would be shooting at f2.8 then bumping the DOF slightly larger to encompass the depth of foliage. Try under 4.5. Though I must say my camera has never left Manual mode since I got it, I'd have to read my manual to find out what AV mode does again.

You would need to pixel peep to appreciate any differences (which is looking at the same section of the full size pictures at 100%).

Look at your original picture, before resizing, and there should be a difference between 4.5 and 29. Never shoot past 11 on a crop camera, after that point you get lens diffraction, which is a softening.

The F4.5 shot may all be in focus, as well as the F9 because the DOF may include the entire plant. The background may be more blurry in the 4.5 compared to the 9.

Switching between the 2, F4.5 actually looks sharper than F9 but that could be that you missed the MF. Did you refocus each time?

To completely blur out your backdrop, you need to bring the plant and camera forward, and have the backdrop well out of the DOF, or like Mitchell says "Shoot wider". Just remember, cheap lenses soften at fast apertures.

Your White Balance is still off, which is why shooting RAW is important.

One thing to remember, is that photos out of a DSLR come out looking quite bland as the in-camera processing is minimal compared to Point and Shoots. You need to add the colour corrections and sharpening.

Just noticed the WB is off too, when processing a shot.

I believe either your lighting or flash is too bright. Your lighting the back drop to much a bit, my black fabric does the same.
Tree looks completly different with the WB adjusted.


The reason White balance is important and may help solve this issue, is that all three of those last shots are blown out beyond repair with correct WB, though I can see the backdrop dissapears like you want.

Get the WB sorted, only takes 2 secs, go to the colour balance section and select the lighting source you are using, halogen, flourescent.... I am guessing halogen or incandescent from the orange tinge.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice. I will read and digest the information.

Attached is the 1st photo after being fiddled with of course.
Grant

S.O.P wrote:You would need to pixel peep to appreciate any differences (which is looking at the same section of the full size pictures at 100%).

Look at your original picture, before resizing, and there should be a difference between 4.5 and 29. Never shoot past 11 on a crop camera, after that point you get lens diffraction, which is a softening.

The F4.5 shot may all be in focus, as well as the F9 because the DOF may include the entire plant. The background may be more blurry in the 4.5 compared to the 9.

Switching between the 2, F4.5 actually looks sharper than F9 but that could be that you missed the MF. Did you refocus each time? NO I DIDN'T.
To completely blur out your backdrop, you need to bring the plant and camera forward SHALL DO WHEN WE HAVE SPACE, and have the backdrop well out of the DOF, or like Mitchell says "Shoot wider". Just remember, cheap lenses soften at fast apertures.

Your White Balance is still off, which is why shooting RAW is important.

One thing to remember, is that photos out of a DSLR come out looking quite bland as the in-camera processing is minimal compared to Point and Shoots. You need to add the colour corrections and sharpening.

Thanks

Mitchell wrote:Just noticed the WB is off too, when processing a shot.

I believe either your lighting or flash is too bright. I WILL DULL THE LIGHTS>Your lighting the back drop to much a bit, my black fabric does the same.
Tree looks completly different with the WB adjusted.


The reason White balance is important and may help solve this issue, is that all three of those last shots are blown out beyond repair with correct WB, though I can see the backdrop dissapears like you want.

Get the WB sorted, only takes 2 secs, go to the colour balance section and select the lighting source you are using, halogen, flourescent.... I am guessing halogen or incandescent from the orange tinge.

Thanks

Not sure what you did, but that worked a treat for the background.
The white balance still has me a bit worried, my software is still telling me it is off. Are you using a combination of different light? Halogen and fluro or flash and halogen etc?


When I auto white balance the image, it thinks it should resemble this more. It can be fooled by multiple light sources though.

Looking good so far mate.

Mitchell wrote:Not sure what you did, but that worked a treat for the background.
The white balance still has me a bit worried, my software is still telling me it is off. Are you using a combination of different light? Halogen and fluro or flash and halogen etc?


When I auto white balance the image, it thinks it should resemble this more. It can be fooled by multiple light sources though.

Looking good so far mate.

You are very clever!

Yes we use a few lights. The bare old incandescent bulb in the garage/studio; plus two studio lights, and a bit of daylight seeping in as well.

Re background I just fiddled with the photo when I got home from work. Brightness, contrast and mid tones. Bonsai, Bonsai, Bonsai!

As I said earlier I will dial down the lights a tad.

Now that I understand you get better photos once the shot is taken it will be a bit easier.

Grant

At the combined AABC/BFA show the other day I met one other who had just bought a Canon 60D as well.

He explained that he learnt so much from all the input on this thread that he felt like he knew the camera.

Any way he bought it and loves it. He has even read the manual!

He was taking pictures similtaneously in two formats. One in very large RAW and the other ready for downloading straight onto the website.

Grant