Get Dreamy Photos in an Ugly Spot
Using patience, editing, contrast, and light to get shots you love.
Do you love dreamy macro photos of flowers and nature, but don’t have a pretty yard? Right now in late summer, is when gardens start to die back and blooms vanish and yellow creeps into the plants. My garden was decimated by rabbits and deer this year so not a lot of prettiness, but I did find a spot!
Here’s where I started
Not too bad, but not too good either. Bright overhead sun, no shade and dying plants, weeds and bare dirt. I was drawn to the contrast in the color but also the light. Harsh light is where you want to focus on contrasts in your composition. Here’s what I came up with!
I really tried to focus on what drew me to the spot in the first place, contrast in the colors and the light. In the above photo you can see how the greenish yellow in the background sets the light pink flowers apart. Also helping is keeping the f-stop at f4 for more separation.
In the above photo I had a bright hotspot in the background. I used a radial gradient to smooth out the highlights as well as bringing down the contrast with levels adjustments and moving the output points.
For this photo above we’ve got a bright green to contrast the light pink. I made sure my editing brought the contrast up on the flowers and down on the background. Human eyes love contrast so flattening out the areas I don’t want noticed is how I can emphasize the subject even more.
For this photo above I leaned into the bright light coming from the top left and used a radial gradient to add a bit more color to the light. This while pretty also flattened out the contrast in the brightest part of the photo.
Have patience too
I sat for about an hour, waiting for bugs to come and go. They were so very quick. I didn’t see many bumble bees or honey bees, but insects did visit while I was waiting.
Here we have an angry stripey who wants to tastes the flowers. This photo also has lowered contrast and radial gradients to focus your eye to the insect. A nice this about photographing plants is that with a low f-stop you don’t have to worry about the background blobbines of the rest of the plant. This can give you a little freedom to play around with the unimportant parts of the photo.
I was using the Nikkor Z 24-120mm f4 that I picked up this spring. Only because I couldn’t get the lens cap off of the 105mm D I have on the Z-F adapter with my injured thumb. But, I am loving this lens! I’m planning on taking it with me when I visit the North Shore this fall. I did get the lens cap off the other lens and go for a quick stroll in the neighborhood but that’s a different post.
