Display:
We have these very pale flowers in our garden in which the bees were having a pick-nick. I tried to shoot them very close up with my lens on macro setting but everything is very washed out. What did I do wrong?



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 05:57:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The camera can't expose correctly for the whole shot because it contains a dark section which you were focussing on (and appears to have been dominant in determining the exposure the camera chose) and a bright section.  It can't get all of this in accurately so either the centre is exposed to see inside where the wasp is or the outside of the flower would be exposed correctly but inside the flower would look very dark.  

If you want the outside of the flower to be the correct colour/exposure then try focussing on that first, keep the shutter button half depressed and recompose the shot (ie move the camera back so that the bee is in the centre again). Then press the shutter button fully.

It also depends how you are metering the scene in the camera (spot metering based on one point of the scene or matrix metering based on the average lighting across the whole shot) since this makes a difference in how the camera determines the correct exposure.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 06:17:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks. I'm usually on matrix metering so that might be part of the problem.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 06:34:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, it was doing its best: the camera doesn't have the dynamic range to   reproduce what your eyes see.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 02:50:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
If you want, just crop it down for a very nice shot of the honeybee!  

The Fates are kind.
by Gaianne on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 03:47:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 06:25:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Makes me feel like a Peeping Tom!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 06:26:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It might be:  

  1. pornography for plants  

  2. just another workplace surveillance photo.  

I like it.  

The Fates are kind.
by Gaianne on Fri Jun 6th, 2008 at 10:36:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
(2)      
:-))))

Best laugh I've had in a while.
Thanks, Gaianne.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Sat Jun 7th, 2008 at 08:15:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Occasional Series