The plan was to do a photo shoot on Gasparilla Island, but Mother Nature intervened and it rained; actually it poured down rain. The rain stopped, but the sun never came out. On the way back home, these yellow flowers were spotted growing up a wall. After a quick switch to the Lensbaby Composer with the Double Glass Optic, the photograph was taken.
Camera settings
ISO setting 500: The combination of an overcast sky and smaller aperture forced a higher ISO in order to get a faster shutter speed.
Exposure compensation 0 EV: Lensbaby images have plenty of color saturation, and the overcast skies and water also helped to increase saturation.
Focal length 50mm with a +4 Macro extension: The Lensbaby Macro extensions do a wonderful job of getting in close and still delivering a good image.
Aperture f/4.0 aperture disc: Every Lensbaby optic except the Pinhole/Zone Plate and the Sweet 35 use aperture discs. This aperture disc with the Double Optic would give me a fairly sharp image with a large sweet spot.
Shutter speed 1/160 of a second: A faster shutter speed is useful when photographing any kind of close-up.
Composing the image
This one was pretty much a no-brainer. Get as close as you can to the flower with the lens and macro extensions and take the picture. The dark foliage around the flower serves as a frame to direct viewers’ attention to the flower.
Post processing
A vignette was added to darken the edges of the image, and the saturation was increased to make the colors pop.