Supernova
I saw this flower in a garden next to my home, and a supernova image came to my mind.
I saw this flower in a garden next to my home, and a supernova image came to my mind.
Read less
Read less
May, 2013Views
732
Likes
Awards
Winner in Favorite Bright Vivid Flowers! Photo Challenge
Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Jaw Dropping
Genius
Superior Skill
All Star
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in a garden, near the apartment I live, in Rio de Janeiro.Time
It was taken late afternoon, and I went out to test some extension tubes that just arrived at home. I was curious to understand how it works, even knowing it would be better to test in better light conditions.Lighting
Lighting was poor. It was late afternoon, and the garden was surrounded by tall trees, blocking most of the sunlight. I was lucky to find some light passing through the trees, going right to this flower, but it was still kind of dark.Equipment
For this photo I used a Canon 550D/T2i camera. I believe I was using a 50mm f/1.4 lens, and 3 cheap extension tubes. It was taken handheld, so it was a challenge to get something with a minimum focus. Handheld macro is a challenge to any photographer, even it's worse for an amateur like me.Inspiration
This flower took 100% of my attention when I saw it. The colors were beautiful, even under bad light conditions. I was wondering how I could make any justice to its beauty in a photograph. For my own surprise, an image of a galaxy came to my mind. When trying different angles, suddenly I saw a supernova in my viewfinder, and I was very happy with the outcome.Editing
When taking a handheld macro photo, focus is always a problem. Even your heartbeat can make your hands shake to the point you loose the focus. The depth of field is way narrow. In post-processing, I used Photoshop highpass filter to improve it, and a little bit of sharpening adjustments. Also I needed to fix the white balance, add a little bit more exposure because the light was very bad, and finally boosted color vibration to make all the pinks and purples explode, to get to the supernova image I had in my mind.In my camera bag
Well, it really depends on what I planned to shoot. Most of times I take handheld photos. Usually I'm very light: I take my camera body, a EF 17-40mm f4 and my loving EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS. I usually keep both lenses with a CPL filter. When I really want to experiment new stuff, then I carry a ton of additional things such as grad color filters (Cokin style), circular grad ND filter and my tripod.Feedback
It's important to train your eyes. Spend some time in the Internet looking to abstract and nature photographs. The more images you see, the larger your brain image database will be. You will be amazed how a brain can come up with very crazy things, like in this case: a flower seen as a supernova. I don't mind too much with the techniques. Most of my photos could be used as case studies for bad techniques, and I don't really care. If I see something beautiful, interesting or odd, I take the photo. If it pleases my eyes, I won that day. Don't think too much: just keep shooting. This is how you really train your photography skills, and develop your own unique style.
