Nothing says summer quite sunflowers. The image of a sunflower reminds me of long warm days, the smell of cocoa butter suntan lotion, and ice cold lemonade. As a photographer, sunflowers are great to shoot.
In infrared they are even better
I do love the way they look. Here’s a Super Color sunflower.
Here’s one making the most of the Lensbaby Velvet 85. The narrow depth of field and softness really work well.
If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you’ll remember I did a piece a couple of years ago on sunflowers.
This year I have a new reason to be excited about sunflowers . . . Hyper Color is here.
Hyper Color is so different from the other types of Infrared that I had to see what I could make.
I wasn’t disappointed.
This is probably one of my favorites from shooting that day.
This was made with a Canon 6D, converted to Hyper Color, and the Lensbaby Velvet85 at f8.0 1/2000 sec. The camera was set to shoot 7 bracketed images, each a 1/4 stop apart. The next time someone asks me why I always shoot bracketed, I’ll show them this image.
The intense color pallet of Hyper color just makes everything pop.
And once again pairing it with the Lensbaby Velvet85 is the perfect combination.
Now, if you are thinking about shooting sunflowers for the first time, let me share a couple of things with you.
- Go in the morning. The light is pure and the flowers are very alive, and there are lots of insects to add to the images.
- Bees like sunflowers, ….. but they aren’t crazy about you getting in their way. Keep that in mind.
- Pack light on the gear. I shot 99.9% of the time with the Velvet85, and then used a fisheye just a couple of other times.
- Consider bug spray. Remember the bees?
- Bring water, wear sunscreen, and keep track of time. You will be amazed at how fast an hour can go once you get started.
And Finally,
- Try different things. Most people only shoot the big open sunflowers. I love the look sunflowers before they open. They can even look a little sinister.
If you want to learn more about the lensbaby lenses, check out my reviews on our blog here and here
Then if you want one, click here.
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Dan Wampler
Dan Wampler is a digital artist from St Louis, MO. Having been interested in art and photography since childhood, he spent most of adult life working for Kodak and in the portrait photography industry. A student of the works of Ansel Adams, Any Warhol, and David Hamilton, Dan attempted to keep a wide range of artistic style.
As an early adopter of digital imaging, he found it gave him a way to completely incorporate art and photography. Began shooting Digital Infrared in 2004, and had first camera converted in 2006. His work has been seen in numerous gallery shows, is featured in an iTunes app. He produces Infrared and natural color digital art for sale and teaches his post-production techniques online.
Dan is LifePixel's Creative Director, social media manager, lead blog author, main workshops and training sessions instructor. His images appear in this gallery and throughout the website.
If you have a topic suggestion or request feel free to shoot him an email at danwampler@lifepixel.com
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Tell us about your post-processing.
Hello Steve,
First I used the RAW editor made for my camera, Canons Digital Photo Professional. In there, I set a white balance, sharpened the image and adjusted the contrast and saturation. I then converted the RAW file to a TIFF. From there I took the image into Photoshop CC and worked a little with levels and selective colors. The Hyper Color images needed very little post-production. I think I may have used a layer mask of the new NIK collection detail extractor in the close-up image with the small bug at the top. That’s about it.
Just fabulous! You are a master photographer, wow ! 😉