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Post by leilani on Jun 7, 2011 0:15:13 GMT -10
I have always had mixed feeling about "black backdrop" portrait type Nepenthes photography. On the one hand, it is great for isolating your subject from the distractions of surrounding imagery. On the other hand, especially in the case of the folding drapery kind of display, I think it often fails to achieve the elegance it strives for and comes off as just tacky. With a few hours of free time on my hand the other day and being in no mood to do any real work I got to do a little experimenting with this technique. One of the troubles with this kind of backdrop is that it requires you either move your plant into a staging area or attempt to drape cloth around the nursery and I did not wish to do either. So, I borrowed a large embroidery hoop, stretched a piece of black cloth over it and went out to take a few experimental shots. The day did not have great light for taking pictures and I was working with an auto camera with no depth-of-field adjustment but I was not too concerned since these were just test shots to see if this might not be a useful tool for future efforts. The results were mixed and, although they are not particularly good, I thought I might share them with you. As it turns out, where this was most useful was with plants in vine stage. The hoop itself, although still too small to frame large pitchers, was too large to position behind most basal pitchers. Where it was particularly handy was in taking pictures of upper or vine pitchers that, otherwise would be very difficult to isolate.
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Post by vividrays84 on Jun 7, 2011 4:03:59 GMT -10
Being a photographer, I Love using the backdrop method:) it really like isolating the pitcher with is colors, but it can be tricky with lowers lol....I guess it depends on what your going for..it's always nice having a hand in there to show size and to give it that exotic jungle look, it's nice when the pitchers are tucked amongst wet ferns or other plants:) Nepenthes love being photographed!!! Photoshop always helps clean up te edges and unwanted material;)
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Post by vividrays84 on Jun 7, 2011 4:06:51 GMT -10
P.S I think you did great! If lighting is ever an issue, nothing wrong with changing exposure in a editing program:)
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Post by shawnintland on Jun 7, 2011 5:37:08 GMT -10
Great Sam! I've played around with this too. Lately I've been using an 18" long piece of 10" diameter PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise with a piece of black velvet glued to the inside and wrapping around. You can slip it behind an isolated pitcher and as long as the tendrils are long enough it works out pretty good. But lint sucks! Keep it in a plastic bag when not in use. I also tried a few hanging backdrops with whole plants hung in front, also with mixed results. Rather than re-post them, here's a link to a slide show of a few of the lower resolution shots for anyone interested; picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=shawnintland&target=ALBUM&id=5615495347562302241&authkey=Gv1sRgCMPryojDy86NEw&feat=email&mode=SLIDESHOW
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Post by peterhewitt on Jun 7, 2011 6:18:05 GMT -10
You are a bit of a perfectionist we know, but the photo's actually work very well. That third one brings out some lovely shades in that plant.
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Post by thezyo on Jun 7, 2011 9:14:51 GMT -10
I like the natural-setting background of jungle better.. gives you a good estimate of size based on surrounding plants too! The black does help isolate the colors though, where white in the background might make them bleed/saturate out. Why not try blue too, to really make the reds and greens pop?
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Post by dvg on Jun 7, 2011 10:42:12 GMT -10
Leilani, while i will commend your efforts to experiment with a technique that you only half-heartedly fully endorse, perhaps your lack of full commitment to the project resulted in those less than stellar results. Some constructive criticism that i will offer though, 1) The black backdrop looks best when it comes off as completely black, without light dappled regions in the background, and it is a distraction when the weave of the fibre of the cloth is showing. 2) The trim or crop option works nicely to cut out any unwanted objects or to just keep what is wanted in the picture. I know you were only experimenting, so you get a pass on this one as i'm sure you're well aware of this. Having a cut-off half a pitcher showing, also distracts attention from the subject pitcher. 3) Positioning of the pitcher and other parts of the plant is important. I don't like to see a tendril running across a pitchers mouth opening or even criss-crossing across the pitcher body. 4) Since the idea of the black backdrop is "great for isolating your subject from the distractions of surrounding imagery", it is probably best to remove extraneous dried tendrils or other unwanted vines or leaves that otherwise cover, obstruct or distract from the view of the subject pitcher(s). 5) Lighting is very important as well, but since you said that the lighting wasn't very good that day, i have nothing further to add other than that i find shooting outdoors in full sunshine really does allow the pitcher colors to pop to their fullest intensity. 6) And since you only have one set of hands, trying to hold the backdrop, position the pitcher in some cases and operate the camera can be a bit of a juggling act. That is where an extra pair of hands can be helpful, or failing that, accessories such as insulated alligator clips or even insulated copper wires can be bent and shaped to hold vines in place and unwanted objects at bay out of the picture, until the desired shot can be taken. I'm not trying to be mean in my assessment here, that is just how i would do it, and since you were only experimenting, you can see yourself where improvements can be made in the future. Sometimes, by being too polite and saying everything is great, we can lose the opportunity to point out where improvements can be made. Looking forward to seeing some more of these attempts from you and better results next time. dvg
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Post by nreinwardtiana on Jun 7, 2011 11:18:31 GMT -10
Have you ever tried a white backdrop. Just buy a large piece of mat board, any color will do, as long as the back of the mat board is white.
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Post by vraev on Jun 7, 2011 16:13:58 GMT -10
I am with Thez on this one Sam. The pictures are great, no question about it, but I miss the backdrop of paradise. I think the standard white gloved hand holding pitchers with crazy wild vines and heaping mounds of sphagnum or tons of nepenthes as far as the eye can see in a blurry background, IS YOUR style. Its hard to get used to this new method from you. There isn't an identity anymore. Generally, I can look at pictures and immediately recognize if its from you.
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Post by walterg on Jun 7, 2011 17:45:21 GMT -10
I am with Thez on this one Sam. The pictures are great, no question about it, but I miss the backdrop of paradise... Besides, using a backdrop is just too much work.
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Post by leilani on Jun 7, 2011 19:11:25 GMT -10
These were test shots. I am not looking for a new "style" or anything like that. I will soon be entering many photographs into a new nursery database and I was looking for a good way of grabbing quick "definitional" photos of some difficult-to-reach plants. The artistic value would be secondary to a good descriptive representation. I will need to make some adjustments to my technique but with hard-to-reach and large plants in vine I think method may be useful.
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Post by boris on Jun 7, 2011 20:27:24 GMT -10
I like the photos most with black background and lots of other things like leafs, tendrils crowded around the pitcher. Like this pic. In my opinion also the artistical value of this photo is very high.
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Post by nygreg on Jun 13, 2011 6:51:49 GMT -10
If a database is being generated, and these plants are being shot on location without moving, I think I'd love to see pictures with and without a black backdrop honestly. The black backdrop would be great to provide a "what your pitcher will look like" profile while the natural, plant in its setting type picture could offer a "what your plant will look like" view.
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