cactus flower
A picture of a cactus flower growing on my mothers cactus plant.
A picture of a cactus flower growing on my mothers cactus plant.
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Jan, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at my moms apartment in Kennewick Washington. It was shot indoors.Time
It was late in the evening when I decided to take a photo of her cactus plant which had several flowers blooming at the time. I thought this time of day would be best so as to block out all the background distractions that were outside the window.Lighting
I determined that using the natural light found in the room and adjusting my shutter speed and fstop would give me a beautiful shot of the blooming flowers without having the issue of flash reflecting off the window it sat in.Equipment
This was shot with a Nikon D5300 and a hot shot flash mounted on the camera, using an 18-55 mm lens.Inspiration
This cactus plant belonged to my great grandmother and vary rarely did it bloom. When I saw the flowers and their radiant colors I wanted to capture this beauty to remember for all time.Editing
I entered the photo in light-room as a raw file and made some basic adjustments to the lighting and contrast and brought out some more detail. I then edited it in Photoshop. The picture was great; however, I wanted the background to be solid black so made the adjustments to the areas that were still grey or showed a bit of the outdoors so that it would be a solid color. Then a upped the saturation a little and brightened the middle of the flower and then cropped it so that it was flowing from the top corner of the picture.In my camera bag
I normally have a Nikon D5300 with several lenses ranging from an 18-55mm, 55-200, 70-300 and have recently added a few others. I also carry an external hot shoe flash, macro adapters, filters, extra batteries, extra sim cards, remote switch and of course a cleaning cloth.Feedback
To take an indoor shot like this you would want to use the rooms natural light so as not to cause the flash to reflect back off the window. The one thing I might have done differently had I packed them with me, would have been to tape up one of my black back cloths so that I would not have to do as much editing afterwards. This also may have given me the chance to use the hot shoe flash by bouncing some light from the ceiling and lighting the flower a little better, again not requiring as much editing. If possible try to take your shot as close to the flower that you can get and preposition (composition) it where you want it to be in the picture giving yourself a little room to crop if need be. Cropping or enlarging a photo after the fact can cause it soften and show more pixels, which can make your picture look bad.
