One of the things that I love about the change of seasons is the transition flowers go through. I chose to photograph two wildflowers that are in the yard. One looks like it is done for the season and the other hasn’t gotten the memo regarding the frost we have had.
ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/3.2 1/100
This is my flower that is done for the season. When I was shooting this flower and the one you will see below I set my f-stop to 3.2 because that was enough to capture the detail of the flower and blur out the background. Because the f-stop setting like that will let in a lot of light I used a high shutter speed and a low ISO to keep the images from being overexposed. Both images were edited using Camera Raw. I converted them both to greyscale and then applied some split toning. For this first flower I have my color settings on blue but at a low saturation. I felt like this helped convey the cold of the approaching season.
This flower, processed in a similar way but with different settings:
ISO 160 50mm f/3.2 1/100
Here I used a combination of yellow and orange and a high saturation. I was hoping to convey the fading warmth that this flower is pretty successfully hanging on to.
This post was written in part as a response to Sonel’s Split-Toning Challenge. Her theme for this week was change of season. If you are interested in split-toning at all I would encourage you to visit her blog, she has a lot of helpful hints and she uses a variety of different programs to edit her images.
What do you think of my flowers? Kind of hard to believe they are right next to one another in the yard isn’t it?
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
Your entries to the challenge are lovely. With your knowledge of photography, you have an idea of what you want to accomplish.
I just play around with the filters and then say…that’s what I wanted to do. lol
Each season of the flowers/leaves is important. Photography surely helps us to see the beauty of each transformation.
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Thank you very much for visiting and your kind comments. It it true that I had an idea here of what I was going for and so I shot these photos with that in mind. I will say though, that there are plenty of times where I have just been playing around with editing and end up with a nice result. I’m a fan of both methods I guess you could say 🙂
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These are beautiful. I especially like the first one.
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Thank you.
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I love wildflowers. My husband spent yesterday preparing the garden for winter. The colors of the trees are beautiful as are the textures and forms of the shrubs and perennials. We have yet to prep the garden in back of the house. That’ll have to wait until the next weekend or two. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find alyssum that’s been growing in a pot is still thriving in spite of the cold. Lucky me! 🙂
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Wow, I bet your gardens are gorgeous! I am also a huge fan of wildflowers, so we planted two big clumps of them this past season.
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I love your photos. It seems that each flower has its own life cycle.
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Thanks, and yes the differences among the flowers that are all right next to one another is pretty interesting.
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The 2nd flower would give me hope that there might be some good days left before winter sets in. The first is a sad reminder that the party’s over … winter’s a-comin’. Well done.
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Thanks, we did have a fabulous day here yesterday but today is supposed to be much cooler. I do love that transition and I love watching it in my garden as well.
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Reblogged this on Sonel's Corner Split-Toning Photo Challenge.
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Wow! These are stunning shots Amy and I love the split-toning effects. They look great! 😀 Thanks so much for taking part and for sharing hon. Much appreciated. 😀 *hugs*
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Thank you for taking the time to set up the challenge. I appreciate the mention of my blog in your post. I know you were not feeling well this week, so thanks for taking the time to get the challenge together and I hope this coming week is a healthier one for you.
Cheers!
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That top shot is gorgeous! I really love it 🙂
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Thanks so much!
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I love this and your tutorial, too. I took a photo of a Rose today on a cloudy day and the color was great. The core wasn’t as crisp as I wanted. I’m gonna try dumping the shutter speed tomorrow. I never know when it’s f stop or shutter that trips me up.
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Since I can’t always tell which exposure I’m going to like best, when I am taking a photo like this, I often take a few different f-stop and shutter speed combinations. Even now that I have a better idea of what the combinations might look like I still take several, it’s easy to throw away what you don’t want later. On that second photo for example, the exposure I thought I was going to like best was not my favorite. Don’t think of it as getting tripped up, think of it as exploring your options 🙂
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