In the Rain

June 18, 2007

Acer circinatum “Vine Maple” - in the rain

Lately I’ve been enjoying how things look in the rain.

Posted in landscape |

3 Responses to “In the Rain”

  1. Martin Doonan Says:
    June 19, 2007 at 2:36 am

    I also like the look of things in the rain but I’m usually disappointed with the photographic results: just how does one capture that “sparkle” of fresh raindrops properly?

  2. Paul Butzi Says:
    June 19, 2007 at 9:08 am

    Martin-

    Yes, I’m still struggling with the photographic results. This photo, for instance, falls way short of the actual appearance, which was that the vine maples had leaves coated with thousands of little jewels. Especially the web sized jpg falls short.

    And part of it seems to be that the 5d just doesn’t have the resolution to cope with the excruciatingly fine detail, especially very small specular highlights. So working with a smaller area works better because the detail is more broad, it seems. Then the job is to suggest the whole with just a small part - sort of visual haiku.

  3. Doug Plummer Says:
    June 19, 2007 at 10:39 am

    If I lived in a cold and cloudy and dank place all the time I would be a happier photographer. Seattle doesn’t count–we have a 4 month drought in the summer.

    The sunny days are my nemesis. It hurts my eyes to be out in one, and I feel the photographic possibilities so diminished. The trick with wet things is to get some kind of backlight, like up, towards that gentle softbox of a sky. If your lens gets wet, then you get a bonus softening effect. If you really want sparkle, then find backlit details against a dark background.

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