A little bit of shine and PSE

Looking for color in the yard is kinda hard this time of year but I found a few plants still trying to shine.

Can't find the name for this annual Daisy Bush with fern-like foliage..
could have SWORN that I wrote down the name of everything I purchased ! :)
It was in partial sun most of the summer, then moved to full sun, and suddenly began to bloom
in October and continues today in early December.





The next 5 plants here I've shown earlier this past year...and are still looking good!


























Now toying with Adode Photoshop Elements 8 (PSE)...
Original picture.
My one and only impatiens...not so clear, but it will do.




Now the "art" of deception...They call it enhancement or adjusting the the color hues, etc.
Fun tools which I may never learn how to use.
Not sure why I should use them, really.

Black and white can be interesting BUT mostly all I'll do is "crop" and adjust the "brightness" or "contrast" for this blog,
as I do when printing pictures.
Doing more than cropping etc. takes away from the reality of what I see and wish to share, but sometimes does look pretty cool.








Maybe using the variety of tools to create greeting cards is a good idea....any other ideas?
Original Pic





Framed





Now using a few paint tools and a frame. Looks like a watercolor painting.



This looks like wax. Have no idea how I did it.
Still know very little about this program but I do find it entertaining.

Unknown Canna +Point and Shoot

Two Subjects....Unknown Canna and using 2 different cameras.


In 2007 I bought a few different canna seeds from Karchesky Canna and grew them.
I'm only showing you 2 different ones....you'll see why.
These came with 'Pixie' seeds but aren't the correct cannas.
Unknown shorter than others and very prolific.
Used a 'Point and Shoot' back in 2007.



Also started these from seed 2 years ago.
'Patens'





Saved seeds from all cannas in 2007 but decided to grow only the unknown cannas
this year because they were so prolific and only stood about 3 to 4 feet.
I like the shorter ones.
NOW LOOK WHAT I GOT !!
DSLR Pic



My guess is a cross pollination of the two.
I wrote the seed company and Alice Harris agreed
about the cross pollination and said it also may be latent genetics.
Even though I still have more seeds left over from the 2007 unknown(Now a NEW plant)
I'll save seeds from these new ones and keep them separate for the future.


This pic was taken with my $150.00 Point and Shoot Canon Power Shot a590.
Just set it on 'auto' and shoot...pretty good !





Here's a closer view.
DSLR Pic



This pic also was taken with my 'Point and Shoot'.
Can't complain about a 'point and shoot' camera.





You can see how tall they are. Have 5 plants in the yard.
No place to store rhizomes with proper temperature over winter...
so I'll start from seed again. It's soooo easy !

F-Stop

Examining Depth of Field.


When operating a camera manually it helps to understand this...
F-Stop = diameter of the aperture / focal length. Picture below.

F Stop e.g. f/16 setting lets in the least amount of light (small diameter) and a long depth of field
F Stop e.g. f/4 setting lets in the most light(large diameter) and a shallow depth of field


Shutter Speed = how long the actual "exposure" takes.
Because I'm changing the F Stop I also have to change the Shutter Speed to get the correct exposure.
Aside from understanding that...the depth of field is what I'm interested in.

Ok, now my test of "Depth of Field".


Here's my experiment.
Using my standard zoom lens DT 18-70mm f/3.5~5.6 up-close.


F Stop e.g. f/22 gives you a longer depth of field or in other words...a longer distance in focus.
But can't see a noticeable difference between these first two pictures with this long shot of about 60 feet.
I think it's because there are too many images in this picture.
Can you see a difference ? I can't.


Shutter speed is 25th of a second and f/22 stop/aperture



F Stop e.g. f/8 gives you a shorter/shallow depth of fields or in other words...a short/shallow distance in focus.
Shutter speed is 200th of a second and f/8 stop/aperture





BUT here you can see the difference with a shorter shot of 6 feet


Again...
F Stop e.g. f/22 gives you a longer depth of field or in other words...a longer distance in focus.
Shutter speed is 25th of a second and f/22 stop/aperture
Did not use a tripod or picture would be clearer. My camera has stability control.



Again...
F Stop e.g. f/8 gives you a shorter/shallow depth of fields or in other words...a short/shallow distance in focus.
Shutter speed is 250th of a second and f/5.6 stop/aperture



So what's my conclusion?
For landscape shots...manual is not necessary.
For close-up shots where you want the background to be blurry use a small F Stop.
Also there's always different lenses, but don't feel I have a need for that now.
Although a Macro Lens might be nice.
Still learning to use a DSLR...any suggestion/advice is welcome.

My camera info is located at the bottom of side bar.