Lyshack said:It doesn't help that it's so difficult to photograph that color, Char. I don't think I have a true blue-based black or purple, but even the ones that look that way to my eye photograph with a red cast in the sun.

This past year, I investigated this in depth. Part of it is that purple is just blue+red, and sometimes even true purple daylilies bloom toward one end of that spectrum or the other. I'm actually going to start a Fickle Purples thread to elicit pics that show examples of exactly that.

The other issue is white balance. Cameras, even those like the decent one on my phone, have difficulty capturing purples...and some reds, too. Trying purple flowers against just green skews the color toward the red. (I'm not a photographer, so I apologize if nothing I just said is true.)

I made an interesting discovery last year: put a purple flower beside an yellow, orange, or peach flower, and the camera will self-correct. The pic comes out pretty darn close to the color you see! Of course, I can do this because almost everything is in pots.

Here's what I mean: Strutter's Ball against just green...


vs. Strutter's Ball beside yellow...


"Maya Purple" (an apparently unreg Lowe's clearance find from the early aughts) against just green...


vs. "Maya Purple" beside orange (sorry...bad pic)...


Give it a try. If it doesn't work, feel free to put me on blast lol.

That is something I had never considered,but willing to try!

Gorgeous

Time of day and sunlight affects pictures drastically too. I've heard people say to put a white sheet of paper out and use that to adjust the white balance. I say, who has time for all that! But the f-stop and iso speed make a difference as well in the true colors coming through. You would think with everything being "smart" and digital this would have fixed themselves by now. Lol

Ken I am going to try that. Of course, I am going to have to remember in July when I get some flowers to try it with.

I took these two pictures of the same seedling a few seconds apart to demonstrate the umbrella effect on a picture. One of the things that still stinks about digital photography is the white balance/color cast adjustments cameras will make. Cameras really don't understand shady or sunny, so they build in program logic so when the camera senses it might be shady, it puts a blue case on it, and when it's sunny, it puts a yellow cast on it.

So with these two pictures, I took the first one in full sun. The second picture, I put my body in the way of the sun to put it in a shadow. Looks like completely different colors. Not just in the bloom, but the foliage. You can really see the extra yellow in the sunny foliage, and a bluer cast over the shady bloom,



Newer, good cameras give you the option to turn off the color cast adjustment. My next camera will have that feature hoping the pictures will finally show up closer to the way my eye sees them.

A lot of the problem with flower photography has to do with how a camera's built-in exposure meter is calibrated and how "center-weighted" it is. A flower in a sea of green isn't going to be correctly exposed, that's one reason why it's better to try and fill the frame with the flower.

A screen or light-diffusing umbrella helps in bright, high-contrast situations, but tends to mute some colors, and it doesn't really address the purple/black problem.

A neutral gray card is still the best way to get a proper exposure for a subject. It also works particularly well on purple and black flowers. The good news is that you don't need to carry a gray card around, the palm of your hand will work almost as well.

I shoot a lot of daylilies with my iPhone these days, but for tricky subjects, I use the SLR.

I set my camera to manual focus, and auto exposure. After composing the picture, I fill the frame with my palm, making sure that it lies in the same plane as the flower, and is being lit with the same light that will be shining on the flower. Pressing the shutter button down halfway will lock on and hold the exposure of my palm. After that, refocus and shoot. I'm not aware of how to do this with a phone, or even a point-and-shoot camera.

Technology probably isn't going to be the answer for this one, since most of the tech is being used to design products for mass consumption. Cameras and film have been designed to correctly represent human skin, and most built-in exposure meters are designed to consider a scene as a whole, meaning that at some point, when doing "specialty work", photographers are still going to have to be photographers.

Frillylily said:I have trouble w dip being too loose and floppy sometimes the scapes don't hold up, so I prefer tet. That isn't always true, just a general observation for many I've grown.

I was referring to tet conversions, not tetraploid daylilies in general.

A white umbrella is my go to.

I'm trying to figure out how I would hold the umbrella, hold my phone for the pictures, and where do I put the cup of coffee

Forget the coffee, it is a balancing act holding an umbrella and a camera for me. I like using a camera versus a phone for better pictures.

Maybe I could strap the umbrella to a hat and tilt my head just right

My white umbrella is a large golf type, hummm wonder if I could just wear it as a very, very large hat of course I wouldn't be able to see much of anything let alone not stepping on plants.

I always thought it should have the handle grip removed, then just stake the umbrella into the ground.

I take all my photos with my phone and a camera app that lets me manually fiddle with the white balance, exposure etc. It is not perfect but adjusting the white balance until the image is what my eye sees is pretty darn good.
The time of day makes a big difference because my eye actually sees the colors differently in the bluer early morning light I think. I'm definitely far far far from an expert but it is fun trying to capture my garden in photos.

Seedfork said:I always thought it should have the handle grip removed, then just stake the umbrella into the ground.

There you go Larry, you could produce a new picture taking umbrella for taking garden pictures it should tilt and be tall enough to stand under.

Lyshack said:I put my body in the way of the sun to put it in a shadow.

I can't tell you how many times I have put my body in front of a daylily to cast a shadow

I can't say how many photos I've discarded because I was inadvertently casting a shadow over half the subject.

daylilydreams said:

There you go Larry, you could produce a new picture taking umbrella for taking garden pictures it should tilt and be tall enough to stand under.

Now you're talking! I'd buy one. And, I think you could expand your market in the Iowa region if you put a cup holder on it.