gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Close-up flower shots render the petals without texture. They look too waxy and/or shiny with the colors smeared on them. Is a polarizer the best way to handle that or shooting with overcast or both? Your advice would be appreciated.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Can you present an example? I take a lot of close-up flower photos and don't have that problem.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Thank you. I have never had that problem either.

Dennis

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

Yes an example or two would be useful. However both options you mention lead to huge improvements. Using a polarizer cuts through surface sheen and reveals more of the underlying structure and texture (detail). Shooting close ups in direct or mottled sunlight creates dynamic range difficulties which overcast lighting improves.
On the coast your flower subjects will often be wet, which amplifies the above issues. The closer you get the more any wind movement will challenge you. Good luck!

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Thanks. All good points to keep in mind.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Ditto!
Examples would definitely help guide the discussion.
Dave

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I got the info I was looking for from Orphoto without sharing a sample.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Some flowers are smooth-textured and waxy. Others have rich texture. The best way that I've found to get the texture to come through is to use a speedlight, hand-held usually (I often work alone) and put it near the flower, almost at a right angle to the lens axis. This extreme angle will definitely reveal the texture. The worse thing you can use is a ring light or camera mounted speedligt - the lighting will be flat and uninteresting.

These examples illustrate the textue I think you are striving for:

Video slide show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StpvIvjitWo

_DSC5982-NIKON D810-3007990-(02-03-18) by Gene Lugo, on Flickr

_DSC8165 by Gene Lugo, on Flickr

_DSC8150 by Gene Lugo, on Flickr

_DSC0090-sm by Gene Lugo, on Flickr

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

All great photos Gene. Well done sir.

Dennis

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Thanks! It gives me something to do when it's cold outside -

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

There is more than one issue that can account for the lack of texture (detail) in any subject.

Exposure: Overexposure will "burn out" highlight and mid-tone and underexposure will negate shadow detail. detail.

Lighting: Falt ligh might cause the poor rendition of detail and texture. In the case of flowers, you want the lighting to strike the subject from an angle off the camera subject axis. A reflector can be used to re-direct light so that it skims across the surface of the subject. This is cammed feathered lighting. You can also supply controlled light with flash from an off-camera direction. Yet another method is transillumination, which is light filtering through leaves and petals.

Polarization: Especially on leaves and petals with glossy surfaces there is glare from sunlight or skylight, This glare tends to desaturate colours and grey down darker colours of foliage. A CPL filter will remedy this problem. The use of this filter is helpful but the other issues must be addressed as well.

The angle of Incidence: This theory is an important aspect of photographic light that is often neglected. The and of incidents is equal to the angle of reflection, This subject is work a bit of research and study. It will give you control over specular highlights, glare control, and using reflectivity as a tool. Once you get the hang of it, the theory easily translates into practice. You may notice that weh you move your camera position slightly the light quality and rendition of texture improve. As a visual experiment, shoot a flower in the direct sunlight in the afternoon he the sun is striking the subject at an angle. Let's as the angle is a bit 45-degrees. Then place the camera at 45-degrees, then- move it around and see the difference in texture highlights and dimensionality. This does not mean that you have to adhere to a formula or measure the angles or always shoot at the same relative angle to the light source. You decide which angle suits your subject and the effect you want but you will have a concept of how the light changes the rendition of the subject.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Excellent. Thanks. Do you use TTL or Manual? I use Manual on my camera and TTL most of the time.

Leitz Loc: Solms

There are a few simple ways to address the issue. Unfortunately, each requires the ability to think.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I have only used manual. All of my speedlights are from Sunpak (they used an aged tube so that color is pretty consistent from light to light), and studio lights - a Speedotron Blackline setup. I find it more accurate, especially when using the Speedotron, since all the heads have modeling lights. It's a little more of a crapshoot with speedlights, but my flowers were all done with a single light, firing into a 10x14 bounce reflector that was attached to the flash head. After a few test shots you get a feel for what will work.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)