POTN Powershot Speed Challenge #13 - Flowers

[snowrdr]

Challenge #13 - Flowers

I have chosen flowers to be the subject this week. With emphasis on exposure, lighting and composition. I would like to see the deep rich colors of your flowers that the correct exposure will bring out.

Also, although not in the rules, I would prefer (but not mandatory) that your entry will be from a shot taken this week. Go out on a mission just for this challenge. Find a suitable flower or flowers and shoot different angles and maybe try a number of different settings to see what results each setting produces. Try to fill the frame with your flowers so you can make big prints of your winning entry! :D

Please include with your entry:

Camera model
Shooting mode
F number
Shutter speed
Date
How much cropping if any

Thanks, have fun and good luck! :mrgreen:

________________________________

To submit, click "Post Reply" and put your Photo Name in the Subject Line. Don't forget your Camera Model.

Post until Monday noon GMT, April 10, 2006
Photo Submissions

1. Camera -- Any Canon Powershot Series Camera (SD, A-series, S1/2, & S-series only...No Pro 1's!!!)

2. Time -- any on-topic photo taken at any time is eligible, although photos that have won other competitions should NOT be entered.

3. Size -- Photo must be EXACTLY 800 pixels on the longest side and no more than 200K in size with NO BORDERS. Here is some help for resizing your photos in Photoshop - http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...9&postcount=26 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=663519&postcount=26)

4. Post-Processing -- do whatever you like and the host will decide if it works.

5. Posting --
* ONE PHOTO per photographer in each challenge.
* Photo Name in the message subject line.
* Camera model.

6. Notes -- Name and camera you used and any other information pertaining to the photo...location, photo tips, brief EXIF data ect.

7. Commenting -- No commenting during challenge. When the posting is closed, comments can be made in this thread.Time

One challenge every week, on the following schedule:
New Topic ... After winner is declared.
Posting Starts ... Right after topic is announced.
Posting Stops ... Monday noon GMT
Winners Announcement ... As soon as possible after the contest has been closed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please consider turning on Private Messaging in your profile.
This will allow the host to contact you about winning or ineligible photos. You turn this feature on by clicking "User CP, Edit Options, Enable Private Messaging" (about a third of the way down the page). Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

POTN Powershot Challenge Info & Winners List and Rankings: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=133933 (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=133933)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information below is for reference and should NOT be included with each new challenge thread.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hosting

1. The Challenge Host is the winner of the last challenge.

2. Choose a topic and list any special rules -- but DO NOT POST a photo.

3. Post the topic in a thread with this title: “POTN Powershot Speed Challenge #XX -- [TOPIC]”

4. At the end of competition, choose a Winner and two Runners-up and explain why the photos were selected. Comments on other photos are nice but not required.

5. Post these in a thread titled “POTN Powershot Speed Challenge #XX -- [TOPIC] -- Winners.”

6. Winner starts with Rule #1 above.

7. If the winner can't be contacted and doesn't respond by Wednesday noon GMT, the second-place winner will host the challenge.

[BullittMan]

Not too many flowers this time of year in northeast Ohio.. maybe I can use this as an excuse to buy my g/f some more ;)

[cspratt]

Dog-tooth Violet = Fawn Lily = "Erythronium oregonum"
Canon S2 IS with TCDC58B (handheld)
Shooting Mode: Aperture-Priority AE
Tv (Shutter Speed): 1/200 secs.
Av (Aperture Value): F/4.5
Metering Mode: Center-Weighted Average Metering
Exposure Compensation: -2/3
ISO Speed: 50
Original Image Size: 2048x1536 cropped and processed to 800x640
White Balance Mode: Auto
No flash
Date taken: April 2, 2006

[BullittMan]

Here's an old pic of mine, just to liven the competition up a bit:
I have no idea what kind of flower it is, taken last July in Colorado. Taken with my old A400: f/3.8, 1/160s.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f84/BullittMan/flowercontest.jpg

[[edit]] ok fixed the huge version.. hooray for photobucket gremlins

[nwyman]

Field Pansies and Chickweed

S2 IS
Aperture Priority Mode
Ap. 5.6
TV 1/500
-0.3 EC
pattern metered
25% crop
focal length 49 mm

[Action_Man]

Canon A85.

We dont really have any flowers here at the moment, but i found this :) ...


70000

[Desi]

I'm using an old photograph, as our flowers leave much to be desired at this stage

[bayoubooger]

POTN Powershot Speed Challenge #13 - Flowers

Phalaenopsis Nivacolor Orchid
Canon Powershot S1 IS
Exp Mode: Auto/Portrait
Lens Aperature: F2.8
Exposure Time: 1/25
Exposure Date: 04-02-06 @ 9:48 AM
Original Size: 2048x1536 cropped to 800x800

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/239/2694/1024/teas%20apr06%20016.0.jpg

[Stephen Martin]

Bird of Paradise
SD400
Shutter Speed: 1/500
Aperture: 2.5
Focal length: 5.80mm
Flash Off
Date: 2/24/06
Cropped to 800x640
Straightened

[O_T]

My Wife had purchased a spray of daffodils from the Cancer Society. They didn't last long. This is my attempt to revive one:
Canon A610
EXIF data embedded

[75D]

Flowers haven't arrived yet but here is a shot I took last July with m A75

1 /1000 @ 3.2 54mm Auto Mode

[Firestorm34]

Heres is a pic I shot last summer at the local garden store, I don't know the name of the flower

Canon S2 Is
F 2.7
P 1/8
super macro

Greg

[John C]

A bit of a twist on the theme;

http://static.flickr.com/41/125334455_b271d285a2_o.jpg

Exif: 1/13s; F/3.2; 55mm Equiv; ISO 50
Other - about 1/4 - 1/5 of the picture cropped from the right to give a more central subject.
Taken: April 8th 2006 at 7:54pm
Mode: Either Av or M, I forget which.
Lighting provided by a table lamp held horizontally just out of shot :)
PP: Converted to B&W using gradient map, and then curves toyed with to emphasise the contrast of the subject and background.

[pup]

S500
Cloudy Setting
F2.8
1/200
April 6, 2006
--------------
Martha Washington Geranium
--------------
http://www.wakefuldreaming.com/200/contest4.jpg

[aradia]

Camera model: Canon S2 IS
Shooting mode: Av
F number: F2.7
Shutter speed: 1/800
Date: 4-4-2006
How much cropping if any: just resizing

http://yummy-poison.net/photos/potncontest.jpg

[teekay]

A95
http://community.netidea.com/teekay/temp/Crocus.jpg

[t-bonestahl]

A620

shot at 1/40s @f/4.1
a little USM

http://static.flickr.com/50/126394915_408ca1d53e_o.jpg



t-bonestahl

[Helenscope]

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/Helenscope/so_sweet.jpg

Before spring...

Date March 3rd 2006
Canon PowerShot S2IS
Aperture Priority f/3.5
Shutter speed 1/60
ISO 50

[_SBradley_]

Sunflower & Bee
PowerShot S70
1/160 s; f/4; ISO 50

http://www.simonbradley.net/photos/albums/userpics/10001/050903-1702-33_Crop_Web.jpg

[Stefan A]

Carnation
S2IS
f/3.5
1/15 sec.
2/19/06 - indoor - no flash
cropped about 1/2 of the picture

[Salsa]

S2 IS
F 3.5
1/60
Spot Metering
Jan 6 2006

http://salsa33.smugmug.com/photos/58433267-M.jpg

[Edd S]

Camera: Canon S2IS


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f31/Edd_S/flower7.jpg

[Tex 1973]

Colours
A620
Aperture priority Av 2.8
Tv 1/1000
Vivid, daylight
ISO 50
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/362/img03788lz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Moppie]

A80
1/800 @ F:5
11/12/2004
About a 2/3 Crop

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v31/Moppie/Yellow.jpg

[Diminished29]

A610

Av mode
ISO 200
f/3.2
1/640
Vivid setting
Macro mode
USM, Contrast, Saturation

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e347/Diminished29/Nature/peartreeforal5.jpg

[snowrdr]

Thanks everyone for the great entries! :D

This challenge is now closed. I will be posting results later today.

[snowrdr]

I want to thank everyone again for posting entries in this week's challenge. It is great to see new names submitting photos also!

After alot of deliberation and tough decision making, I feel there are 5 photos that stand out this week.

1.) teekay - Spring Opening
Superb composition and great use of lighting to bring out the colors. Nice work! Let us know the steps you did and settings you used.

2.) Tex 1973 - Colors
Very nice composition with great colors. I kept coming back to your shot to look at it all over.

3.) EddS - petite & pretty
Nice work bringing out the beauty from such a small subject. Great handheld shot...

Honorable Mentions

t-bonestahl - Azaleas
bayoubooger - Navicolor Orchid

:mrgreen:

[Stefan A]

Congrats to all the winners. For lots of us, it was tough because of the season, but we all managed to come up with something. Ever since bayoubooger's Orchid was put up, that has been my favorite. It would have been my winner. I also liked Aradia's backyard flower. It made me laugh. It looks like it's wearing a Groucho mustache :).

Stefan

[O_T]

Congratulaitons!
I agree woth Stefan in that bayou's Orchid Rocked!! Excellant.
Tex1973, "Colors" is a great example of what the catagory suggested, and fit the bill simply and perfectly.
Great job all!!

[75D]

Congratulations to all, it was a great competition, looking forward to the next one.

Wayne

[Salsa]

Congratulations to all the winners and honourable mentions! :)
Great colours Tex1973!!!

My favourite was also the Orchid by Bayoubooger.

O_T- I also had purhased flowers from the Cancer Society.. Mine didnt last as long as your wife's. Your attempt to revive one made me smile. I liked the photo.

Regards
Sally

[_SBradley_]

Congrats, guys! I thought there were some great shots this week -- particularly some of the later entries, interestingly. My personal faves were from: Diminished29, Tex 1973, Moppie, Desi, and Salsa -- although I think this last one may have been excluded due to its size.

In other news, I may not be entering these weekly competitions as often as I have been: I just ordered myself an EOS 30D with EF-S 17-85 mm lens, Manfrotto 055 tripod with 460 head, and various other accessories! :D (I do still like my S70, though, so I'll do my best. ;))

[t-bonestahl]

Thank you for the honorable mention Dave and congrats to all of the winners! I also really enjoyed sbradleys entry (I liked how the bee and the flower matched in color), and I thought that Salsa's entry was so vivid and beautiful. Looking forward to next week!

[bayoubooger]

g'day all,

Thank you for the honorable mention Dave and congratulations to all of the winners! I'm new here and having fun reading about Canon's only, even though my S1 IS lacks a macro setting, it does OK..maybe I'll drag out the old canon for the next macro, thanks again and have fun all, enjoy this forum...:oops:

[snowrdr]

In other news, I may not be entering these weekly competitions as often as I have been: I just ordered myself an EOS 30D with EF-S 17-85 mm lens, Manfrotto 055 tripod with 460 head, and various other accessories! :D (I do still like my S70, though, so I'll do my best. ;))

Congrats on getting the new 30D! I will be watching the other sections for photos from you.

PS
I thought your bee picture was awesome also. I took alot of sunflower shots one day last summer, and none turned out like that. :cool:

[teekay]

Thanks for the win! I was sure that Bayoubooger would get it, but that is part of the fun of these challenges - there's no predicting the judge's taste :confused:

The snow had only just left here so I just went out and picked one of the few flowers out in the garden. Setup was simple: a single small table lamp in front of a black paper background, stop down to get the best DOF, take a few shots to get the optimum focus and exposure, then crop the result tightly.

Will post the new challenge ASAP.

[John C]

Congratulations guys - can't argue with the winners, although the entries were great, and I didn't envy snowrdr his task this week!

I thought O_T's ghostly daffodil was a really interesting take on the theme, and after Nancy's protests about the lack of anything to snap, she turned in an absolutely beautiful shot, with wonderful use of depth of field. Bullittman's pic really had something, but the focus being on the rear most flower (seemingly) detracted from it slightly for me. Simon's bee was terrific (still don't know how you do that without them flying off :) ) and Tex' colours blew me away, as did the sharpness and vivacity of Salsa's pic. Moppie's shot with it's strongly contrasting yellow and blue appealed to me too, although I thought it slightly lacked a focal point.

Congratulations on your acquisition of a 30D Simon!

[Tex 1973]

I am stunned, thanks for the 2nd place and kind comments. Probably most were technically better photographs, some were excellent, I just went for colour.

I have been following the competition for a few weeks, almost entered the macro challenge, but did not think my shots were original enough. The motion photographs were just too good. Hopefully more newbies will now be encouraged to take the plunge.

[Diminished29]

Congrats guys, there we're soo many awesome pictures. Dave I know you had to have your hands full with these! :lol:

These we're the many I would've picked, with my tops picks going to:

t-bonestahl
john c
bullittman - DOF was off, but I had to mention it because I loved the tranquil composition.
============

desi
edd s
bayoubooger
moppie
tex 1973
salsa
sbradley
bullittman


====================================
Simon, turning to the DARKSIDE, huh? I see how it is! :evil:

Well, all I have to say is that your presense will definately be missed in these contests. Your an outstanding photographer!

I tell ya though speaking of DSLRs I should be picking up one later this year or early of next and I'll more than likely be going with a 30D myself.

HOWEVER...:lol:

The lens choices are getting EXTREMELY difficult now that I'm finally narrowing down my choices as I'll be getting one of each listed here:

-PRIMES-
1. Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX - $430
2. Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM - $315
3. Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM - $350
===============================
-WALKAROUND ZOOMS-
1. Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 - $450
2. Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 - $450
3. Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 - $370
4. Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 - $450
5. Tokina 16-50mm f/2.8 - $450
================================
-ULTRAWIDE ZOOMS-
1. Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 - $450
2. Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 - $630
3. Tokina 12-24 f/4 - $500
================================
-TELEZOOMS-
1. Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L - $600
2. Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8L USM - $1150
3. Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 EX APO IF HSM - $700
4. Sigma APO 100-300mm f4 EX IF HSM - $781
5. Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM - $1350

[_SBradley_]

Simon, turning to the DARKSIDE, huh? I see how it is! :evil:

I'm afraid so. Well, I'll definitely hold on to my S70, because it's an excellent compact camera, and I'm sure it'll still have its uses, in situations where an SLR would not be convenient.

Well, all I have to say is that your presense will definately be missed in these contests. Your an outstanding photographer!

Thanks! :) Like I said, I'll do my best to keep an eye on these contests, so I'll probably still be around for some/most/all of the contests; though I'll obviously be concentrating on my DSLR photography.

I tell ya though speaking of DSLRs I should be picking up one later this year or early of next and I'll more than likely be going with a 30D myself.

Good choice. ;) I'm hankering after the Canon EF-S 10-22 mm and 60 mm macro lenses -- though, after this month's purchase, those are going to have to wait a while! ;) Still, this is my birthday present to myself. :lol:

[BullittMan]

Yeah that old A400 of mine was a pain in the rear to focus correctly on things close up.. but thanks for the mentioning Diminished and John :)
I can't wait to take my 620 back out to Colorado this summer!

[John C]

Thanks for the mention chad - I couldn't get any of my colour shots to work at all, so in the end went for a high contrast shot (my other "possible" was this rose (borderless for the comp);
http://static.flickr.com/40/125866100_1700c32bc1.jpg
I liked the dreamy quality of it, but thought the stark mono conversion of the eventual entry captured what that particular flower was about rather better than the tinted rose captured the essence of that flower.

Pretty dumb in a contest that's all about capturing the colours of the flowers though :)

I have to say, going off topic slightly, that's an impressive lens list :) I know people who've used both the sigma 10-20 and the tokina 12-24, and rate both very highly. The only complaint I've heard about either is that the 10mm length of the sigma puts you a looooong way from the subject - great for epic cityscapes, apparently, but the guy I knew found it hard to make much use of it :)

[Diminished29]

John, I think I perfer your other one better, just something about the lighting that makes it very interesting. The DOF is also quite good on it.

===============

As far as the lens, yes, I've been doing quite a lot of research, but I guess if I HAD to buy them tomarrow I'd go with:

Canon 50mm f1.4

Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 (Assuming IQ is as good or better than the Tamron 28-75

Canon 70-200 f/4 (I don't shoot sports and I don't know if I could justify getting the 100-400 because the only thing I'd use that 400mm length for would be birds as I don't really take other wildlife pictures much.)

I don't think I'll be even considering a Ultrawide unless the Tamron 17-50 wouldn't be wide enough, but those UWA lens would be the ones I'd choose from if I do feel the need to get one.

[John C]

As far as the lens, yes, I've been doing quite a lot of research, but I guess if I HAD to buy them tomarrow I'd go with:

Canon 50mm f1.4

Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 (Assuming IQ is as good or better than the Tamron 28-75

Canon 70-200 f/4 (I don't shoot sports and I don't know if I could justify getting the 100-400 because the only thing I'd use that 400mm length for would be birds as I don't really take other wildlife pictures much.)

I don't think I'll be even considering a Ultrawide unless the Tamron 17-50 wouldn't be wide enough, but those UWA lens would be the ones I'd choose from if I do feel the need to get one.

They look like good choices to me, from what I've read and heard. In terms of primes, I'd be quite tempted by the 85mm - a friend of mine has a Nikkor prime in this focal length, and he's found it to be a very useful lens.

If I make the jump to dSLR, I can see an ultrawide being on the shopping list (probably the Tokina, as so many people I know have raved about it) because I shoot so much architecture.

Maybe we should have a graduation party for Simon to celebrate his move to the big leagues, and one for you when your 30D arrives :)

[_SBradley_]

Maybe we should have a graduation party for Simon to celebrate his move to the big leagues, and one for you when your 30D arrives :)

Heh! :) I took mine out for its first shoot today and photographed the traditional ducks (along with some swans, some geese, and even some flowers). I haven't downloaded the pics to the PC yet, but it certainly felt nice to use -- very fast! I think I'm going to have some fun. ;)