How I Took The Shot
I shot this with the Nikon D700 and 60mm AF-S Macro Lens at ISO 200 and 1/10 of a second at f9 with +1 exposure compensation.
I placed the flower in front of a sheet of white card – hence the positive exposure compensation.
I would prefer to work in a room that lets in light from a huge window. That would help to minimise light fall-off into the room. As it is, the window is quite small, so it makes shadows from the edges of the window frame that intrude across the image.
It is just possible to see the shadowing with the human eye, but of course the dynamic range of a camera is smaller than what the eye is able to see, so the camera compresses the shadows and makes them more obvious when the RAW image is developed.
The result is that I had to clean up the image by lightening the ‘white’ areas of the background.
Understanding Light Fall-Off Helps When Shooting With Available Light
The strength of light though a window falls off as it penetrates the darker area within. The greatest fall-off occurs nearest the window.
When the light penetrates further into the room the difference becomes less so that that the difference between twelve feet and thirteen feet into the room is much less than the difference between one foot and two feet into the room.
In other words, the shadows are harsher nearer the window but the overall light levels are greater.
Therefore, there is a balancing act in deciding where to put the subject. Too far into the room and everything is too dark. To near the window and the light fall-off is more of a problem.
The concept of light fall-off is useful to know not only for shooting with available light but also with flash. With flash of course, you can calculate the amount of fall-off and work out where to place the subjects.
I’ll write about that in a future article.
By the way, the image of the Iris is one of the free ecards on Quillcards – just click on this link or on the image above that link to the article about it, and from there to the free cards.
A Close-Up Of The Iris
Responding to one of the comments here, I thought I would post up a close-up if the petals of the Iris and one of the vase.
Iris Vase Close-Up
Iris Close-Up
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a very well taken photograph, you have managed to blend the object practically so it sits in the air.
Thanks – I am still lusting after a big window though!
Great job.Thanks for your post.
Great shot with available light. Its always tough when you can’t play with the light manually. It seems to get more challenging as the objects get larger.
Is that a reflection of the window in the back of the glass? Regardless, the shot looks great.
I’ve posted a close-up of the iris petals and of the vase. I can’t tell whether that is a reflection of the window in the back of the vase. It might be. What do you think from the close-up.
What are the factors in light falloff? I’m guessing you’ll probably cover these in the follow up article you mentioned, but I’m curious to know how different light behaves with its falloff.
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I never shoot flash, it just makes it not so natural. Available light is my favorite.
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Excellent photography. Flowers are a really nice subject. I love photography. I’m an amateur photographer and I use my Nikon SLR D3000 camera. Thanks for sharing this.