February 15, 2015 - Photo of The Day

Well I guess we are officially once again in Winter's grip. It is COLD! But hey, at least we finally made it into double digit temperatures. It's a balmy 14° out there right now.

I had intentions to go out today to shoot. I had some reservations too. The reservations won. So for today's photo of the day I revisited the orchid that my sister Elaine gave us for Christmas. We received it at Thanksgiving and it still has flowers. In fact there are buds on it too so I guess we're doing something right. Here is what I shot.

Now believe it or not this photo is a little out of my comfort zone. I approached it differently than I normally would. Let me explain a little. As I have said before I always shoot in RAW format. Like many people I used to always shoot JPEGs. They looked decent and I could fit a boatload of them on a memory card. They also saved faster so I could shoot more in a shorter period of time. Then I upgraded to a DSLR and had the ability to shoot and save in both RAW and JPEG. That way I had the RAW image to give me more editing options in Photoshop and I also had the safety net of a near "perfect" JPEG. You know, just in case I couldn't get the results I was looking for in the editing process. Then finally as I practiced and learned more (I'm always learning and always will be) I gained the confidence to shoot solely in RAW and I have not nor do I plan to go back. When you shoot a photo the camera sees much more than you realize and RAW saves it all. But before I get too far away from today's photo you can check out this link and this link to learn more about the two different formats. And also let me say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with shooting in JPEG. It is all a matter of preference and how much post processing you want to do.

When I shoot I generally tend to underexpose the image and bring it to the levels I want in Photoshop. It is the safer way to work as a rule. Today however I took the other route. I overexpose just a little and toned the levels down instead of up. I did this really just to experiment. To change things up a little. I kind of like the results. What do you think?

Here are a few background details about today's shoot. The orchid is on our kitchen window sill. The white you see is caused by the snow that is on my car in the driveway. between that snow is of course a window and also a screen. Because of the way I set up the exposure all you see besides the orchid is a plain white background. And for those interested here is the technical data from the image's EXIF file.

Filename - IMG_5323.CR2
ImageWidth - 4272
ImageLength - 2848
BitsPerSample - 8 8 8
Compression - 6 (JPG)
Make - Canon
Model - Canon EOS REBEL T3
StripOffset - 65552
Orientation - Top left
StripByteCount - 629156
XResolution - 72
YResolution - 72
ResolutionUnit - Inch
DateTime - 2015:02:15 10:46:51
Artist - Larry Miller
Copyright - Copyright Larry Miller - All Rights Reserved
ExifOffset - 434
ExposureTime - 3 seconds
FNumber - 40
ExposureProgram - Manual control
ISOSpeedRatings - 100
ExifVersion - 0230
DateTimeOriginal - 2015:02:15 10:46:51
DateTimeDigitized - 2015:02:15 10:46:51
ComponentsConfiguration - YCbCr
ShutterSpeedValue - 1 seconds
ApertureValue - F 39.74
ExposureBiasValue - 0
MeteringMode - Center weighted average
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 250 mm
UserComment -
SubsecTime - 38
SubsecTimeOriginal - 38
SubsecTimeDigitized - 38
FlashPixVersion - 0100
ColorSpace - sRGB
ExifImageWidth - 4272
ExifImageHeight - 2848
InteroperabilityOffset - 46314
FocalPlaneXResolution - 4720.44
FocalPlaneYResolution - 4786.55
FocalPlaneResolutionUnit - Inch
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Manual
White Balance - Auto
SceneCaptureType - Standard
Owner Name -
Serial Number - 322074054683

Maker Note (Vendor): -
Macro mode - Normal
Self timer - Off
Quality - RAW
Flash mode - Not fired
Sequence mode - Continous
Focus mode - One-Shot
Image size - Large
Easy shooting mode - Manual
Digital zoom - None
Contrast - Normal
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Low , -32769
ISO Value - 32767
Metering mode - Center weighted
Focus type - Auto
AF point selected - 0
Exposure mode - Manual
Focal length - 75 - 300 mm (1 mm)
Flash activity - Not fired
Flash details -
Focus mode 2 - 65535
Auto ISO - 100
Base ISO - 100
White Balance - Auto
Sequence number - 0
Camera Temperature - 30 C
Flash bias - 0 EV
Subject Distance - 0.00
Image Type - Canon EOS REBEL T3
Firmware Version - Firmware Version 1.0.5
Owner Name -
Sharpness (EOS 1D) - 0
Directory index (EOS 450D) - 720
File index (EOS 450D) - 1
AF point selected - Multi-point AF or AI AF
Num AF Points - 9
Valid AF Points - 9
AF Image Width - 4272
AF Image Height - 2848
File number - 000 - 0000
Sharpness (A0) - 3

That sure is a lot to take in isn't it. Basically I shot the image at F40 using an ISO of 100 and a Shutter Speed of 3 seconds. And if you would like to see the image before processing you can check it out at the Facebook Group here.

And that folks is my Wintery day post. I'm going for now but will be back real soon. I hope you visit again. Also If you enjoy my blog please feel free to share it with your friends and family. The more the merrier as they say.

Until next time...