Narcissus Flowers. © Copyright 2020 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A group of white narcissus flowers in bloom.
A short while ago I shared the first photograph of this set, a picture of a single narcissus flower. In this companion photograph, made on the same day and in almost the exact same spot, I decided to focus on a group of these flowers instead.
Photographing these flowers seems to me to be a bit more complicated than it might appear. Allow me to share a few things I had to think about. First of all, I wanted to blur out the background, but I also wanted many parts of the flowers to be relatively sharp. Photographers will recognize a conflict there between a small aperture and a large one! A second challenge comes with a subject where almost all of the tones are light. I want to retain the bright quality of the subject, but I must avoid overexposure or I’ll lose all of that subtle near-white texture and detail. So I underexpose just a bit, knowing that I can work the image in post a bit to get it where I want it.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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