Bunchberry Flower

[grouseking]

I've had a difficult time photographing these flowers, and this is the only one that I think looks all right. Comments welcome.



grouseking

 

[arghman]

I've had a difficult time photographing these flowers, and this is the only one that I think looks all right. Comments welcome.

Looks good to me! If I had to choose a picture describing what the bunchberry plant looks like, this one would do just fine.

Maybe the white portions are a little on the bright side (see my "yellows" post) -- I have found on all the digital cameras I've used that for nature scenes I usually have to compensate exposure downwards by -1/2 to -1 fstops. (w/ very cloudy weather I might use -1/3 and for very sunny weather -1... or just bracket and choose the one that looks best)

 

[DougPaul]

I've had a difficult time photographing these flowers, and this is the only one that I think looks all right. Comments welcome.

A histogram shows the flowers to be overexposed with a number of the white pixels saturated.

If your camera has a histogram (rgb is better than intensity), it can be very useful for checking the exposture on the spot. In this case, you have a small amount of white in an otherwise medium to dark picture. Many meters will overexpose the whites in such an image. Some cameras also have a mode where they will flash the saturated pixels which I find very handy for seeing what part of the pic is saturated.

Doug

 

[nartreb]

I concur, this photo would benefit from exposure compensation to darken it by half a stop to one stop. I find that's normal for white flowers in indirect light; in direct sunlight you need two full stops (sometimes more but most cameras won't give it to you; full-manual mode may be necessary).

This is a good "medium close" crop - the subject takes up almost half of the image but you've also got some background, which since it's rather interesting lichen with contrasting textures and colors, is welcome. (Good choice also to use a small enough aperture to keep both the bunchberries and the lichen in focus.) Compositionally, though, you might have had a stronger picture if the flowers weren't dead center. You might try cropping off a bunch of either the top or the bottom (ie, sacrificing some of one of the types of lichen or the other). Due to the green leaves at the top, I think my preference is to chop most of the bottom (about 2/3 of the way to the bottom leaf from the current bottom edge).

 

[Jason Berard]

To piggy back on what Nartreb said.....If you think of this as a flower "portrait"... usually the subject's head in a portrait isn't placed in the exact center.....usually it is above center, and slightly to one side. This adds visual interest, among other things.

I have trouble with over exposing whites as well....
see here.

Nice shot.

 

[forestgnome]

I like it!