Early flowers

As you can see, if you are a regular reader of this post - I have been playing with a different look for the Blog. I hope you don't find it too bad. I still have the sniffles. When I went out for the paper this morning the wind cut through to my bones, even though it was not as cold as it has been. Mind you I am sniffling a lot less so hopefully it won't be raining tomorrow. With the time on my hands I have been trying out different Blog looks. I am not totally comfortable with the current look but a change is as good as a rest.

I have been playing around a little more with HDR photography on some of the flowers in the garden. The sun was shining, but there was not a huge difference in the dark and light when I took these pictures. The result is that the composite picture looks misty or dusty.

I used a tripod to take these pictures, however the flowers themselves were blowing in the breeze and so look slightly blurry. I have then re-sharpened the result as well as increasing the contrast. These were taken on full zoom as well so the depth of field is not great. (Depth of field - a measure of how much of the picture is in focus.) The bit in the middle is in focus the front and back are out of focus. Actually I probably should have had the snowdrops in focus as the eye is drawn to them because of their different colour.

These snowdrops look more interesting. The wind did not blow as much when I took the (7) picture(s). I broke the composition rules by having the subject (the flowers) is more or less in the middle of the frame. But hey it is the exception that makes the rule.

The HDR effect brings out the form on the leaves quite well, better than highlighting the detail on the petals.

Some more snowdrops from an elevated position.

This looks autumnal - but from the snowdrops on the bottom right you can see it was taken today (Early Feb) at the same time as the previous pictures.)

The last picture was not a composite - it was just one shot. It appears sharper. I think you need much more of a lighting range to make good use of HDR and in general close-ups do not present as much opportunity as landscapes shots in the early morning or close to sunrise. Also the movement of the subject is more likely (or at least) apparent in a close-up.