Thanks, Vijayasankar ji, It's a very good subject. Just to start with, I offer a few broad suggestions for a layman (which will go a long way in improving ones' plant images) for plant photography: 1. Try to use 'Manual' focus instead of 'Auto' focus as it gives better control etc. Try to learn Manual Focus for those who has not done so till now & see the dramatic results themselves. 2. Similarly use in-built 'Flash' in 'Manual' focus generally except where the plant/ flower is white or in bright sunlight. 3. Try to use ISO 100 or less to minimise noise, in a Manual/ Shutter priority/ Aperture priority mode. 4. Try to have shutter speed of 1/x or more if one is using Lens at x mm e.g. if one has set one's Lens at say 55 mm, shutter speed should be min. 1/55 sec. for a clear picture. 5. One should use shutter priority mode (with small lenses say upto 65 mm) by setting shutter speed at 1/x to get more depth for brightly lit plants instead of aperture priority mode. 6. Process a bit for levels, shadow/ highlight and brightness/ contrast in suitable photo processing software. 2009/10/22 Vijayasankar Raman <[email protected]>
> Dear Garg ji and all, > I feel this is high time to discuss about plant photography. Thanks to Dr. > Rawat ji for pointing out the issue that is always there in our minds. > Taking good plant picture, showing features that may be helpful in > identification, is crucial and comes by experience. Since there are many > expert photographers in our group, i wish, their experience can be shared > among other members too. It will surely help this group in building up of a > QUALITY image database of Indian plants with GOOD pictures. > > In my experience, I learnt that just taking tight close up of flower (of > course it will look beautiful) will not be enough and many pictures of the > same plant showing a habit with habitat in the background, a twig that shows > the arrangement of leaves and flowers and fruits etc. required to describe a > species completely. For some species even number of seeds is a key > character, hence, whenever i collect a Crotalaria species i always split a > pod and take photo of seeds, at least to know the seeds are more than 30 or > less than 10 etc. Similarly glands, exudations, stipules etc are to be > covered in the picture to establish correct identity of certain species. > > So, the learners (new to photography) can ask questions (like how to set > camera when the background light is more than that of the object? or how to > focus a flower when its parts are in different planes? etc.) and the experts > may like to answer based on their experience. As a learner, i have many > questions relating to plant photography too and I hope many others also may > need experts' advice in this regard. > > Thank you > > -- > With regards > > R. Vijayasankar > FRLHT, Bangalore > > > > -- With regards, J.M.Garg ([email protected]) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna' Image Resource of thousands of my images of Birds, Butterflies, Flora etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- Indiantreepix: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
