Comments

  1. Kengi says

    Absolutely lovely. I have no idea how rq got such delicate detail in those close shots of the flowers. I would have gotten nothing but a weird red blotch of over-saturation that looks good enough in the little lcd screen on the camera, but horrible on the computer. I know part of it is getting the lighting just right with camera angles and reflections, but I don’t yet have that skill.

  2. says

    Some of that is how your computer is processing the red colour spectrum. Most displays have to be properly calibrated, they suck out of the box.

  3. Kengi says

    And yet I can view rq’s pictures on the same monitor and see how much better they look than mine. I have dozens of pictures of red roses from last month that are hopeless. I’ll keep trying to play with the light, angles, and camera settings. Focus on the point-and-shoot is also one issue I struggle with in such situations.

    But yes. I have a cheap monitor and it isn’t calibrated. I adjust it to look the best for me, but it’s never been calibrated. I have a friend with a calibration system and have always meant to borrow it. He recently bought some new monitors which he said were calibrated perfectly right out of the box and have remained calibrated so far. They used one of the newer (and expensive) technologies which I can’t recall the name for at the moment.

  4. rq says

    Phone camera. It’s my secret weapon. I stick it right up close, right into the laps of bees and wasps and spiders. And plant genitalia, as it were.

    The only major issue I have with it is the fact that it is so automatic -- no manual control at all, which means in low-light conditions, I can no longer get decent close-ups because it becomes incapable of focussing on objects that it estimates are too close (something something light something focus mumblemumblemumble). I’ve missed out on some great spider action due to this. I had close-ups figured out on the camera, back when it still worked, but it would probably take me another little while to re-learn the tricks -- but yes, mostly to do with lighting, mastering the manual focus, and the macro feature.

  5. Kengi says

    Phone camera. It’s my secret weapon.

    Thanks for the info. Phone cameras do seem to be getting so much better. Mine, not so much. I’m hoping for another couple of years from my current phone, but I’ll definitely consider the camera in my next one so it can become “the camera I have with me” for a wider range of shots.

  6. rq says

    I forget what phone camera my phone holds, something Samsung, I believe, a now-standard phone version and I can get some wicked close-ups (I’m not too afraid of bees, haha -- the zoom function is crap, strangely enough). Like I said, generally impressed, would like some more autonomy, but it is a phone camera. I bet by the time you get around to getting a new phone, it’ll be even better. :)

  7. blf says

    Hairy poppies? Are you trying to take over the mildly deranged penguin’s pastime of unspeakably gruesome nightmares?

  10. Ice Swimmer says

    The first is just so cute. The violet stamens and the star in the carpel in the third are beautiful. The fourth looks a bit shy.

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