Crispy Leaves

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CP900 digital camera. 35-mm equivalent settings 38-115 @ 112 mm. 1:9.9, 1/240 sec. Handheld.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), December 13, 1998

Answers

I think I get it...I see images of fried dough covered with sugar...then I realize it's leaves...neat.

A question regarding doing a picture like this with a digital camera: how do you evaluate depth of field? Is the LCD screen large enough to check focus in an image like this? Clearly, being able to view your picture immediately and keep/delete it must be nice...like I said, you keep putting these pictures up and you're going to force me to buy a CP900s.

Nice picture!

-- Andrew Y. Kim (andy_roo@mit.edu), December 13, 1998.


Gary -

You need a focal point in the photo to draw the eye to. Imagine a bird, bug, or something (granted they would all be frozen) on the leaves or stems that your eye would immediately be drawn to and then wander out to the rest of the photo.

Have fun

Ben

-- Ben Lanterman (benl@anet-stl.com), December 14, 1998.


Yes, I see how a crispy critter could provide a focal point. Thanks, Ben, for pointing out that lack in the current image.

For Andrew's benefit as well as for others who may be interested, I have added a short commentary on my web site (at http://www.pangea.ca/~schaefer)on depth of field (DOF). Suffice it to say that, in the CP900, DOF is largely under the control of the camera's AE and AF systems.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), December 14, 1998.


I would have added up to one more stop of light. On my monitior the snow looks dirty, yellowish. Not the crisp white you'd expect from a fresh snowfall. I think this picture suffers from a lack of exposure control. The lack of a simple distinct subject is much less a problem. I like the subject, it's sufficient to convey a feeling and therefore, works for me.

-- Paul E. Turley (turl@usinternet.com), December 14, 1998.

Paul -

Assuming (never assume though) the camera reproduces white OK, then the snow shadows in the background are the right blue I think. Looking at the leaf shadow on the stem in the dead center top of the image leads me to believe it was taken early morning or late afternoon? It would account for the slight yellowish cast of the snow in direct light. Maybe?

Ben

-- Ben Lanterman (benl@anet-stl.com), December 14, 1998.



I've been following the comments on colour balance with interest and have done a bit of further checking to help clarify the situation. The snow on the ground was somewhat aged rather than fresh. The frost on the vegetation was fresh. The picture was taken at 11 a.m. on December 13. However, given that Winnipeg's latitude is 50 degrees North, the sun rises only slightly more than 15 degrees above the horizon at noon.

I've checked the white balance on a few of my snow shots with the following observations. On this one, and on a frosted tree shot (which can be seen at http://www.pangea.ca/~schaefer/Frosted_Tree-1.jpg) the spot colour picker on my image editor indicates a slight deficit in the blue channel. On the other hand an image taken under cloudy skies involving fresh snow (http://www.pangea.ca/~schaefer/Snow_on_Posts-5.jpg) shows an expected surplus in the blue channel. This leads me to believe that the camera is probably correctly recording the real colour spectrum and that the yellowish caste of the current image is appropriate given the low sun angle.

Thanks again for all the comments.

-- Garry Schaefer (schaefer@pangea.ca), December 15, 1998.


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