Platanthera chlorantha, and how to shoot them

[Arild]

This happens all the time :-)

I am almost home after a ten - twelve hours walk in the woods or up in the mountains.

And all the sudden, the orchid I have been searching for all day without luck! Just one plant, these are increasingly rare where I live --
people want new homes, not nice orchids and green forests ...

The 40cm high Greater butterly orchid is not easy to take photos of.

And thats why I am shooting Nikon D750, it is eight in the evening, almost dark, still D750 manages to autofocus on them tiny flowers!!
You see I cant do manual focus, I have an eye illness, I really dont see well in the finder, I do have to trust the AF.

I had no flash, and no tripod, sorry about that, using my 105 micro VR,  I shot at 2000 asa handheld :-)

[Michael Erlewine]

This happens all the time :-)

I am almost home after a ten - twelve hours walk in the woods or up in the mountains.

And all the sudden, the orchid I have been searching for all day without luck! Just one plant, these are increasingly rare where I live --
people want new homes, not nice orchids and green forests ...

The 40cm high Greater butterly orchid is not easy to take photos of.

And thats why I am shooting Nikon D750, it is eight in the evening, almost dark, still D750 manages to autofocus on them tiny flowers!!
You see I cant do manual focus, I have an eye illness, I really dont see well in the finder, I do have to trust the AF.

I had no flash, and no tripod, sorry about that, using my 105 micro VR,  I shot at 2000 asa handheld :-)

To start with, I would use a tripod. lower ISO, higher f/stop, and longer exposures. Use a small flashlight to help see to focus. And keep experimenting until you can see the result you want, I am sure others will have perhaps better advice, but that's my two cents.

[HCS]

To start with, I would use a tripod. lower ISO, higher f/stop, and longer exposures. Use a small flashlight to help see to focus.

Very sound advice when you want maximum sharpness.

On the other hand, if you're "stuck" without tripod and flash, you could minimize sharpness. Trying to get sharp will not get you there without the above mentioned tools. Use multi-exposure, use long shutter speeds and move the camera, in other words, create your impressions of the flower. Come back later with the tools and take the sharp shots 

[Arild]

Thanks.

What I meant to emphazise there is waaay too often never any second chance.
Come back and take a planned shot with tripod and lighting wont happen

So I am trying to refine my techniques wout flash /tripod.

[HCS]

Thanks.

What I meant to emphazise there is waaay too often never any second chance.
Come back and take a planned shot with tripod and lighting wont happen

So I am trying to refine my techniques wout flash /tripod.

Well ... there is always a second chance, isn't there  And a flash unit is relatively easy to carry.

But anyway, other than my other advice, you could practice camera bracing techniques. For flowers, you could sit down, not kneel down, and brace the camera on your shoulder and cradle it with your other hand, while pressing it against your head. This will get you a few stops after practice.

Buying and using a VR lens can/will help further.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Tall, thin plants are a challenge to document outdoors.  Their "fill factor" is low thus keeping the background under control often requires a long focal lens and/or a large aperture. Most important however is to reduced their tendency to sway in the  breeze (any plant photographer knows only so well a dead calm ceases immediately when he or she has found the plant and is ready to start shooting, then gusts pick up immediately !!).

Improvised means of controlling subject movements include making supports from nearby material; branches, grass twisted and braided to form a thick fibre, even actual rope if you have it available. Wimberley makes the 'Plamp', a very lightweight and flexible clamp one can easily carry in the field. It is designed so as not to damage the stem it supports as well.

When shooting, be careful to align the camera parallel to the major axis of your subject so as to utilise the limited depth of field to the maximum extent possible. Reducing the need for stopping down allows for shorter exposure times which also cut down on plant movement.

A small flash unit on an extension cord allows for flexible placement and some extra definition of surface structures (hairs etc.). You should learn how to blend the flash light into the ambient light without overpowering it.

By the way, Platanthera chlorantha is perhaps the most common of the two big Platanthera species in my region ...

[David H. Hartman]

Arild,

This is a list of suggestions thrown down pretty fast. I hope you find it useful. I suggest experimenting on a more common white flower to get your technique down. When pushing what can be achieved in hand holding camera movement focus and subject blurring can be a problem. Take a lot of photographs in the hope of getting it all right in one.

1) if you are not shooting NEF or RAW then I would do that.
2) I can't tell if you are using VR. If not use it in a situation like this. Some say VR doesn't work for closeup or macro. It does. It won't get you to crazy low shutter speeds as it might with more distant shots but it is still working and it can still help.
3) I'd reduce the exposure maybe a 1/2 stop. Based on the JPG the whites are a bit too bright. You've heard about exposure to the right? Well when whites are important reducing noise in the shadows isn't so much. The whites need to be positioned where there is more contrast and where the human eye can see it. You don't want the whites on the shoulder of the image where contrast is lower.
4) This is a maybe: try a black card on the side of the subject where less light is coming from. The light is very even in this shot so it's hard to see the form of the flower peddles.
5) Lower the shutter speed and counter with a smaller aperture. The EXIF on the JPG indicates a 1/800th second at f/3.5. You might try f/8~f/9 at 1/200th. You might get away with f/10~f/11 at 1/125th. With VR on I'm pretty sure you can get away with 1/200th and maybe 1/125th. You would need to test to find out how low you can go.
6) Hand holding close-up is going to give problems with focus. Shoot a number of shots and choose the best focus later. If you are pushing how slow a shutter speed you can hand hold with VR hope the focus and camera movement come together in one shot. Shoot even more for extra hope.

A word about VR and close-up and macro. It doesn't stop working when you focus close. I own this lens and I've tested it to 1:1. A major problem at 1:1 is holding focus. Body movement toward and away from the subject can easily blow the focus as DoF is very thin. One might get away with 1/60s with a 105mm and VR with a focus distance of 2 or 3 meters in terms of camera pitch and yaw and movement to and from the subject shouldn't matter greatly at this distance. One might get acceptable shoots down to 1/30th second.

Without VR one will use higher shutter speeds counter camera movement and vibration, higher for close-up than general photography. The same applies here. You might need 1/800th without VR but might get 1/200 to 1/100.

Some will probably be happy with 1/20~1/30 second at general shooting distance with this lens and VR. If they think they can do the same close-up it's not going to happen. When it doesn't they say VR didn't work. It does, it's just not enough. If VR and camera movement are tamed focus errors are so easy at or near 1:1 when hand held VR may have been enough but focus error wrecks the shot. Again they may say VR didn't work.

It gets to the point that using VR with close-up and macro is helping with what is essentially a crap shoot. Blow on the dice and roll them as many time as necessary to get one roll right.

Hope this helps,

Dave Hartman

I hope there aren't to many typos to make this hard to understand. I'm writing fast as I have to leave. I'll check later.

[armando_m]

I have done handheld macros, getting the right focus as Dave mentions is hard , what I do is set the following:
Autofocus to continous mode
Single point
Shutter actuation only on AF confirmation

[Arild]

Some  facts

I alway shoot NEF, always, nothing else, neve ever.
Must be at least fiften years since my last jpg exposure, back in the Cann G3 days.

As of May 2017, I use 24-120 VR and 105 micro Nikkor VR
and a Nikon D750

I strive to use the 105 vr micro as often as possible

I notice a major improvement from that crappy 40 nikon and D7200 which I was unable to see the finder.

I dont sit or kneel, I always lay down flat infront of my pretty flowers :-)

I have ordred a SB-910 flash ;-(( I have decided to take the plunge use flash more than often
So now I have to learn the trick:
How to light my flowers with the sb-910 some one meter away -- being the sunshine on my plants..

Black card?? Please elaborate?

This one. This situation is I need to master with ONLY my d750 and the 24-120. A passing by where I do need to get a nice shot with no fuss and in no time, others are waiting.
Rhodiola rosea. Last night at 2100. Heavy Shadows. I really didnt see the plant in my D750 finder. I used the 24-120 VR. Didnt bring any tripod or flash. Just a snapshoot by a tiny creek late in the evening in Norwegian Mountains. My friends had left me to go and prepare some food, I really had no time to do some photography.....it was just a hasty shot...

[David H. Hartman]

Black card?? Please elaborate?

When the light is even and comes from everywhere such as twilight or hazy bright a black card is used on one side of the subject to subtract light from just that side. If you want your subject lit from the right then the black card is held on the left side. This will change the omnidirectional light to a soft directional light causing soft shadows on the left side.

The black card can be white on the other side so it can be a fill card also, your choice. If the subject where lit from behind you can use the white side to reflect light back on to the subject.

I generally prefer to add light with my SB-800 and diffusion cap. I'll use an old SC-17 TTL cord and hand hold the Speedlight or use a macro flash bracket.

To sum up the black card subtracts light, the white card bounces light back and the Speedlight adds light. That's three tricks in the bag.

Hope this helps,

Dave Hartman