PaulWatt
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at Arundel Castle in Sussex when I had a day out with my fiancée (WendyRussell on here!). As she's a tog too, we've always go cameras with us.Time
This was taken at about 3pm on a really bright day. Conventional photography wisdom frowns about taking photos during the middle of the day, but I used the bright sun and harsh shadows to my advantage. See below for more details on that!Lighting
As it was really bright and the sun was shining on this tulip, I used my lens wide open at f/4, spot metered and exposed for the head of the tulip. This had the result of giving me a really narrow depth of field and a underexposed background.Equipment
This was shot hand held on a Canon 5D mk ii on the 24-105 L F/4 IS without flash.Inspiration
My fiancée loves tulips!Editing
I created a virtual copy of the image with basic edits done in Lightroom and on that copy I dropped the exposure by about a stop and clarity and boosted the contrast. I then opened both images as layers in Photoshop and blended the images together so I had the properly exposed tulip on the darker background. It was then a case of carrying out a B&W conversion (which I did in Lightroom).In my camera bag
Depends! If I'm shooting professionally (a wedding or portrait for example) My bag will usually contain my 5D mk ii, 25-105 L F/4, 70-200 L F/4, 50mm 1.8 prime and 40mm 2.8 prime,2 speedlights and remote triggers and the other various bits of oh-so-important equipment that I lug around with me! If I'm shooting for fun, it'll either be the 5d with the 24-105 (a great walk around lens) or one of the many 35mm film cameras that I've collected.Feedback
Just look for simplicity in the composition and try to visualise the finished image. It'll make post-processing a whole lot easier!