Tag: black-and-white

Anatomy of a Hibiscus – Part 1

One of my pride and joy has been able to sustain an oriental hibiscus plant (indoors) through the vagaries of British weather, and in return I’m blessed with vibrant red hibiscus flowers 3-4 times in a month, sometimes more. Here is a study of a hibiscus flower in original (untouched or processed, exported from Lightroom), B&W rendition (processed in Silver Efex Pro), processed using Color Efex Pro filters to bring out detail.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. 1/100, F32 Extenal flash used at right angles to ensure black background.
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. 1/100, F32 External SB-600 flash used at right angles to ensure black background.
Processed in NIK Silver Efex Pro. Orange Filter.
Processed in NIK Silver Efex Pro. Orange Filter.
Processed using NIK Color Efex Pro. Detail Extractor and Tonal Range corrections.
Processed using NIK Color Efex Pro. Detail Extractor and Tonal Range corrections.

I like the picture as it was from the camera (untouched). Why process a picture if it doesn’t really add anything more to the photograph?

Thanks for stopping by, and please do leave a comment on what you think?

Technical Details

Nikon D7000 (Manual Mode), ISO200
SB600 Speedlight External Flash in Slave mode at right angles to lens
Sigma 105mm/f2.8 macro lens
1/100 sec, F32 to ensure picture sharpness and black background
Post-Processed (where done) using NIK Software LightRoom plugins.
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A tangled web!

Autumn mornings offer a great chance to see myriad spider webs drenched in the early morning dew making a million natural necklaces of tiny pearly dew drops. I took these pictures on just one such day. The industrious spider had built this web on the clothesline overnight.

1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash
1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash
1/60 f/5.0 ISO200 with flash

I am constantly amazed at the persistence of the spider to continually attempt to make a web in the most unlikely of places, day after day. Maybe there is a lesson in it for us all….
Technical details

Nikon D80
Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens
Nikon Speedlight SB-600 flash
Processed in Adobe Lightroom 4.1

Colour or B&W

The eternal question, does a picture look better in colour or black-and-white. The following two pictures highlight the dilemma. The colour picture I like for the character of the boat and the fading colours. On the other hand, the black-and-white looks atmospheric and interesting. What’s your preference? Pictures taken with a Panasonic Lumix TZ30 and processed with Lightroom 4.

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