Sunday, May 26, 2019

Palmer Arboretum

So thought about Old Sturbridge Village...but my knees actually feel OK today and I didn't want to over-do them, plus it was supposed to get downright hot (upper 80s) so the thought of a decent length walk wasn't appealing.

Then drove towards Tower Hill Botanic Gardens -- and from what I read the toughest stuff for photographing flowers is bright sun and wind, and I noticed there was a steady strong breeze to outright gusty winds :/ Not sure I wanted to drop $16 for admission in that case.

But on the way home decided to finally go behind the old Woodstock Town Hall to visit the Palmer Arboretum for free!

Canon EOS 50D,0.0015625 1/640, f/5.6, focal length 50, ISO 800


Canon EOS 50D,0.0015625 1/640, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Canon EOS 50D,0.0015625 1/640, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Canon EOS 50D,0.002 1/500, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Canon EOS 50D,0.0008 1/1250, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


Sunny and windy? Challenge accepted :D Actually I'm really pleased how these photos did turn out for the most part.
Canon EOS 50D,0.00015625 1/6400, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 200


But you can see how it really is blowing stuff out when there is areas of sunshine between the shaded areas.
Canon EOS 50D,0.008 1/125, f/5.6, focal length 15, ISO 400


Canon EOS 50D,0.0025 1/400, f/2.8, focal length 50, ISO 400


A crop from the above photo.



Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Windmills & Waterfalls -- Part III

The two shots from Pachaug that "didn't make the cut" (See Windmills & Waterfalls -- Part I) -- composition was a bit off, and probably one is too soft in the back and the other too sharp.

Canon 50 D, 50mm f/1.8 lens -- 1/30, f/2.0, ISO 100
Exposure -2 in Lightroom


Canon 50 D, 50mm f/1.8 lens -- 1/50, f/8.0, ISO 800

The other thing I just realized, after Liz M. commented that the forefront of the falls looked "soft" is how depth of field is affecting these shots.

Here is a close-up from the f/5.6 shot. I was about 3 meters away, so depth of field was about 30" (I was probably a bit further away and thus a little deeper field). Focus was basically at the top of the closer dam.


Compare that to f/2.0 which had a lot of bokeh in the background, but also meant a lot more of the foreground was also out of focus, The depth of field is only 10" -- way too narrow to get the front falls to "pop" fully.

Windmills & Waterfalls -- Part II

Not quite what I want yet...but getting closer!

The original shots specs were the same:
Canon 50D 50mm 1.8 lens; 1/100 F/18 ISO 100
High Speed mode, Live View mode
Took 30 shots like this:


Used Imagemagick to create this "averaged" composite:
convert -average *.JPG converted.jpg


I also played with Canon's Digital Photography Professional 4 software which can make composites, but what I found is each photo was quickly increasing the exposure. The blades are more or less what I want, but it will be time consuming to do this -- I suspect I have to copy the current raw files, drop their exposures, and possibly make several intermediate files to combine later in order to stop overexposing.


Additionally, even though it's just a couple seconds the clouds moved enough to blur significantly -- his might be a candidate to Photoshop to keep a single background and substitute in just the composite windmill. Hmmm...

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Windmills & Waterfalls -- Part 1

Pachaug Forest

Canon 50D, 50mm f/1.8 lens, f 5.6, 1/250th, ISO 800, Exposure +1 in Lightroom:


Wasn't even noticing the swirls (of course I was on my belly, my head hanging off the bridge abutment to get the camera low enough) till I got home and started developing the photos. Best perspective I could get without putting on a bathing suit, the prospect of which in a flowing brook before Memorial Day is not enticing!

Friday, May 3, 2019

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Less it seem I'm just being lazy with the garden...

So in other words ... in the 147 years of record for #Boston, April 2019 saw the most number of days of measurable precipitation at 21 breaking the previous record of 19 last set back in December 2007.


Hard to get some dry time in the garden to plant stuff and not make a muddy mess when it is raining almost every day!

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Playing with the flash

,,,I have to do something while waiting to do my 10 o'clock changes for work...

600EXII RT Speedlite, attached to the camera, using the default ETTL settings. (In theory I should be able to set the flash up remotely from the camera, too -- that will be for another night.

Direct on:
Canon EOS 50D,0.005 1/200, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


Pointed towards ceiling:
Canon EOS 50D,0.00625 1/160, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


Towards ceiling, with built-in diffuser:
Canon EOS 50D,0.00625 1/160, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200


Towards ceiling, with the clip-on diffuser:
Canon EOS 50D,0.00625 1/160, f/1.4, focal length 50, ISO 3200