From the garden in our resort condo: http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2023/2/2/bird-of-pa K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited Comments and criticisms are invited and appreciated. Dan Matyola *https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery <https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery>*

> On Feb 2, 2023, at 9:17 PM, Daniel J. Matyola <danmatyola@gmail.com> wrote: > > From the garden in our resort condo: > > http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2023/2/2/bird-of-pa > > K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited > Comments and criticisms are invited and appreciated. Lovely flower, I wish that it were better separated from the background. If I were shooting it, and couldn’t arrange to have a simple black background behind it, I would try and do some sort of Rembrandt lighting on it, either with a speed light when there was less background light, or even just some sort of hot light at night from the side so that the leaves behind the flower were not illuminated. Possibly doing something fancy to shade the leaves and use a mirror or reflector to put more sunlight on the flower. Another thing that might help is to use a longer lens and move back so that there is a lot less background visible, so that more of the background were something darker that contrasts more with the flower (like the leaves in shadow rather than sunlight concrete) -- Larry Colen lrc@red4est.com

Very nice capture, Dan. Good to see a bit of SA! That particular flower, known to gardeners world wide as the "Bird of Paradise", is the South African indigenous species Strelitzia Reginae. Alan C On 03-Feb-23 07:17 AM, Daniel J. Matyola wrote: > >From the garden in our resort condo: > > http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2023/2/2/bird-of-pa > > K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited > Comments and criticisms are invited and appreciated. > > Dan Matyola > > > >

I tried (and failed) to grow that flower. For Christmas I got this: https://www.lego.com/nl-nl/product/bird-of-paradise-10289 On Fri, 3 Feb 2023, 06:17 Daniel J. Matyola, <danmatyola@gmail.com> wrote: > From the garden in our resort condo: > > http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2023/2/2/bird-of-pa > > K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited > Comments and criticisms are invited and appreciated. > > Dan Matyola > *https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery > <https://tinyurl.com/DJM-Pentax-Gallery>* > -- > %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List > To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-leave@pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. >

A beautiful flower! Following up on Larry's comment, what might help a lot is a radial filter in lightroom to darken the background and lighten the flower. Or use the post-crop vignetting slider. Henk Op vr 3 feb. 2023 om 06:51 schreef Larry Colen <lrc@red4est.com>: > > > > On Feb 2, 2023, at 9:17 PM, Daniel J. Matyola <danmatyola@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > From the garden in our resort condo: > > > > http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2023/2/2/bird-of-pa > > > > K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited > > Comments and criticisms are invited and appreciated. > > Lovely flower, I wish that it were better separated from the background. > > If I were shooting it, and couldn’t arrange to have a simple black > background behind it, I would try and do some sort of Rembrandt lighting on > it, either with a speed light when there was less background light, or even > just some sort of hot light at night from the side so that the leaves > behind the flower were not illuminated. Possibly doing something fancy to > shade the leaves and use a mirror or reflector to put more sunlight on the > flower. > > Another thing that might help is to use a longer lens and move back so > that there is a lot less background visible, so that more of the background > were something darker that contrasts more with the flower (like the leaves > in shadow rather than sunlight concrete) > > > -- > Larry Colen > lrc@red4est.com > > > -- > %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List > To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-leave@pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions.

I agree with Larry that a longer lens would be useful here so the pebbles and rim on the planter are blurred out if you cant get an angle where the -bird- is against a background of only leaves.. I definitely would not want a"plain black background" - I like the pattern the blossom against the leaves make.. so the whole frame is considered..  a blossom against a solid background  seldom works for me aesthetically.. The good thing is, that plant is one you see every day Dan, you can go back to it and work it.. a cloudy day would be useful.. It's pretty as it is, though. ann On 2/3/2023 12:50 AM, Larry Colen wrote: > >> On Feb 2, 2023, at 9:17 PM, Daniel J. Matyola <danmatyola@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> From the garden in our resort condo: >> >> http://dan-matyola.squarespace.com/danmatyolas-pesos/2023/2/2/bird-of-pa >> >> K-5 IIs, smc DA 35 mm F 2.8 Macro Limited >> Comments and criticisms are invited and appreciated. > Lovely flower, I wish that it were better separated from the background. > > If I were shooting it, and couldn’t arrange to have a simple black background behind it, I would try and do some sort of Rembrandt lighting on it, either with a speed light when there was less background light, or even just some sort of hot light at night from the side so that the leaves behind the flower were not illuminated. Possibly doing something fancy to shade the leaves and use a mirror or reflector to put more sunlight on the flower. > > Another thing that might help is to use a longer lens and move back so that there is a lot less background visible, so that more of the background were something darker that contrasts more with the flower (like the leaves in shadow rather than sunlight concrete) > > > -- > Larry Colen > lrc@red4est.com > > > -- > %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List > To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-leave@pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- ann sanfedele photography https://annsan.smugmug.com https://www.cafepress.com/+ann-sanfedele+gifts https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/annsan https://www.createphotocalendars.com/Shop/annsanfedelecalendarsandbooks