Dogwoods and Lighting

Let me first say that I am by no means an expert on Lighting.  That said, I did have fun the past couple days shooting a Dogwood in bloom in different lighting and had so much fun with these photos and I have to share them and a couple tips with you.


Morning light, before the sun is overhead:

I love Spring, warmer days, all fresh bright colors, and love going for walks in the morning and in the evening.  One night while I was walking I noticed how neat the dogwoods looked in contrast to the darkness, so I broke out my camera and played with the photos, this was a challenge since you have to use a high ISO and slow shutter speeds.  It would be smart to have a tripod, but I wasn't thinking of that at the time, so I didn't bring the tripod out.  Some of the photos when right into the trash bin as there's no way to hold the camera without a shake for a 3second exposure, but I did get some very neat photos that I'm proud of.  The only light source I had that I used was the street light across the road.

Dogwoods at Night:

A wide angle shot capturing the tree, this is with no editing

Unedited

adjusted the tint and contrast

same image as the above 2 but did a "Low Key" black and white filter

I love the street light shining through the petals and the contrast of the flowers to the night

This image is slightly blurred due to slow shutter speed but with a contrast adjustment and sepia effect I really like it.

Now to compare them with some harsh direct sunlight (which I really do like on flowers at times) Here is afternoon light:

Blue skies, sunshine green leaves and white flowers, direct sunlight is beautiful.

This is not one of my best photos but I love seeing the sun shine through the leaves,

 Tip:  Be very careful on your exposure as this makes all the difference in your lighting, you can take a photo shot in nice lighting and make it look like it's all in the dark.  Below is an example of two different exposures on the same shot, these are both before I edited the images...The top is the one I like the most I think the exposure is very good for the lighting, the bottom is underexposed and while the flower facing left does stand out and have good contrast the rest of the photo is lost to shadows.

Tip: Don't be so quick to delete an image that the lighting isn't perfect in, I don't like the low exposure in the above image but I took that and did a high contrast black and white and added a diffused glow and I like the image it became here:

The Dogwood at Sunset:

I hope you all go out and enjoy the Spring and take time to find the beauty in nature.