Flowers late but starting

[DaveW]

Seems to be a late year for my flowers but now the Rebutia's are in in bloom.

Rebutia albipilosa, rather like a long spined R. muscula:-

albipilosa.jpg (47.6 KiB) Viewed 3329 times

Rebutia muscula for comparison.

51_Reb_muscula2.jpg (99.23 KiB) Viewed 3329 times

Rebutia pygmaea WR 660

pynmaea.jpg (55.73 KiB) Viewed 3329 times

Rebutia pygmaea WR 646

pymmaea.jpg (98.68 KiB) Viewed 3329 times

[bluetexasbonnie]

Those are fantastic. The colors are so rich and vibrant.

[DaveW]

One more:-

Rebutia perplexa

perplexa3.jpg (55.9 KiB) Viewed 3317 times

[bluetexasbonnie]

Oooh, that's my color.

[DaveW]

If you like that colour how about Rebutia violaciflora. An old species now often reduced to a variety or subspecies of R. minuscula?

violaciflora.jpg (91.4 KiB) Viewed 3285 times

If you can't find ready made plants Rebutia's come quite easily from seed and will often flower in their third year. There are many species available in dealers seed lists, particularly Continental seed lists.

[bluetexasbonnie]

Ooh! I like that even better. Gorgeous.

[Tiggy]

What beautiful flowers. Those colours are really stunning Dave, and the photography is excellent. You obviously have a good camera to get such nitid (can't think for the life of me the corresponding word in English) shots. (Clear or sharp?).

Susi

[DaveW]

Most cameras these days are very good Susi, even phone cameras.

However I shoot RAW, so do not let the camera itself process my images, but do most of the work such as adjusting exposure, cropping and sharpening in Photoshop Elements then convert to JPEG's as the last stage. You don't have to use the image just as it comes from the camera, neither did you in film days.

Unlike film most digital images taken off the camera sensor have to be softened in camera to avoid moiré patterns and then artificially sharpened again. If you shoot in-camera JPEG's your camera does the sharpening for you (you can sometimes set how much in the camera's menu) but if you shoot RAW, if your camera allows it, you can sharpen more effectively in post processing.

http://www.revellphotography.com/blog/2 ... d-of-jpeg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As the next link says RAW shots straight from the camera may look worse than in camera JPEG's that is because you are now expected to do the processing the camera does for in-camera JPEGS, but in post processing software (sometimes it comes on a CD with the camera or using Photoshop type software) so don't be put off by the flat image:-

http://www.slrlounge.com/school/raw-vs- ... sual-guide" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you don't know what moiré patterns are:-

https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answer ... r%C3%A9%3F" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As to out of camera sharpening see:-

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/ti ... oes-it-do/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My 10 megapixel camera is a few year old now Susi and was superseded quite a few years ago. It's a Nikon D200 and though over £1000 when new you can now pick them up second-hand on British EBAY for £200, the price of a new reasonable quality point and shoot camera.

Macro work is as much technique as equipment, such as taking your time to set up the plant for photography, just like taking peoples portraits and using a tripod rather than hand holding.

[Tiggy]

Have just been reading the information on these links Dave, and found them very interesting although I don't know if I can shoot in RAW with my little basic camera, will definitely get the guide out tomorrow though and what it says. Can't see anything on the camera menu though. Maybe a new "up market" camera will have to be in the pipeline for the future
Thank you though for all of that information.

Susi

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Lovely Rebutia's

I do like them. Hoping mine will thrive like yours are.

I know this sounds weird, but I seem to do better with Turbs than I do Rebutia's . The amount of Rebs i've gone through over the years

[DaveW]

You can still do some post processing with in-camera JPEG's Susi. You don't have quite the same latitude as RAW but really things all come down to are the results good enough for purpose? When you consider the computer screen you are looking at only has the resolution of about a 4 megapixel camera then all those extra camera megapixels are lost anyway therefore some losses in processing will probably be undetectable unless you were printing over large prints..

Anyway here's one comment on JPEG's:-

http://www.michaelfurtman.com/jpeg_myths.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.seriouscompacts.com/showthread.php?t=882" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you don't have Post Processing software on your computer you can download free stuff off the Web to give it a try, or most of the paid for software allows a limited period free trial:-

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index ... nts&loc=en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Free software:-

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/ ... ry-1135489" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Probably should have moved this to the photography section?