Peter Newman  


Dahlias Three by Peter Newman

June 2021 - Dahlias Three

About the Image(s)

I saw these dahlias in a local greenhouse. I just liked the arrangement. Since there was a lot of clutter in the background, I set the camera for manual so it would only light up the subject. However, since there was still a lot of clutter. I cleaned it out and made the background black. I deliberately left the center Dahlia much brighter than the other two.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




Karl Leck   Karl Leck
Hi Peter, A nice painterly interpretation. In the nit picking department, I suggest two possibilities. (1) Leave all of the flowers at the same luminosity, or (2) If we wish to have the center flower prominent with better lighting, be sure to keep the stems of the side flowers reduced in tone along with the side flowers themselves. Nice flow to the composition. Karl   Posted: 06/09/2021 09:28:51
Peter Newman   Peter Newman
Hi Karl, good point.   Posted: 06/09/2021 18:16:06



Judith Lesnaw   Judith Lesnaw
Nice composition. I agree with Karl that the right and left stems could be muted. Please elaborate on how setting your camera to manual lit only the subject. Did you use a flash?
What were those settings? The flowers look quite soft. Was that an artistic intention, or a function of the settings? Can you post the original. What did you use for processing to clean up the background? What camera and lens did you use?   Posted: 06/14/2021 10:46:04
Peter Newman   Peter Newman
Judith, Because I I messed up when installing a new drive for my images, I cannot readily find the original. cannot find the original. However here's what I do. I have my strobe setting to high speed sync, and the camera set to manual, with ISO, speed and aperture set so that the background will be black when I hit the shutter button and the only light comes from the strobe. It often takes several tries to get it near right. On my Nikons, this technique will not work with the built in flash. And on any camera, it will only work if you have a high speed sync setting.   Posted: 06/17/2021 18:35:11



Freddie Kelvin   Freddie Kelvin
I love the composition of this beautiful image. I agree with Karl that the stems could be toned down. The brighter center flower really works well.   Posted: 06/15/2021 19:32:10
Peter Newman   Peter Newman
Freddie, thanks for your comment. I completely agree that I should have toned down the stems.   Posted: 06/17/2021 18:37:34



 
Very pretty! I agree with the comments about the lighting on the stems. Also the leaves on those stems. I very much like the black background, and in particular the composition-the 3 different heights of the flowers. When I lived in Japan for a few months I started a flower arranging course, but then we got called on to move, and I only got one lesson. However, in that first lesson, they taught us to place the three elements in the composition (or 5 or 7 -- odds) at different heights. It's aesthetically pleasing!   Posted: 06/19/2021 23:57:14