Sunflower
Aug, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
My town has public garden space in a wide open field. I run by there frequently and one day as I was going by I noticed many of the sunflowers had started to bloom and were beautiful. I came back later and try and get an image that showed off their colors.Time
This was taken right sunset, the sun was just touching the trees on the horizon. It was the middle of summer so this was right around 8pm, just as the light was good and soft.Lighting
I found shooting with the sun in the background was either washing out the color or forcing me to close aperture too much to take care of the background. This was taken at more of a 90 degree angle to use the light and keep the aperture open enough to clean up the background and highlight the colors in the flower.Equipment
This was shot with a Nikon D3300, 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor lensInspiration
I thought the flowers were beautiful, so I set out to find the right way to convey that to othersEditing
I used the editing program on my computer to slightly boost the color saturation and and turn down the light in the shadows. Nothing major, just some small tweaks that I thought enhanced the color.In my camera bag
My only camera (so far) is my Nikkon D3300. I carry the Nikkor 18-55mm and 55-200mm zoom lenses as well as a Tokina 11-16mm wide-angle lens. I find this gives me a wide variety of options for most situations I encounter. I also have a MeFoto Road Trip tripod that is incredibly portable and easy to set up that I keep strapped to the back of my bag and a wifi connector in a pouch that lets me turn my phone into a wireless shutter release for long exposures.Feedback
I moved around a lot to find an angle that let me get the results I was looking for. I circled around the garden quite a bit to find the angle that brought out the best colors in the flowers. If possible, explore all 360 degrees of your subject until you find what works best in your lighting.
