Fantastic wild garlic photos — how to photograph and edit them

Actually, I just wanted to take a quick walk through the forest and see when the wild garlic is ready to bloom again. But now I’m amazed to find myself standing in the middle of a sea of white flowers in the otherwise green wild garlic forest. 3 weeks earlier than last year. That was certain. I’ll be back here tomorrow at the latest to take photos.

You can see the VLOG to the BLOG at the bottom of the page or you can reach it via this button:

Gear:

Sony a7IV
Sony FE 2.8/16–35 mm GM

This article is about the settings and image processing. If you want to know more about wild garlic in general, where to find it, etc., you should take a look at this article: Bärlauchfotografie – So klappt’s unter jeder Bedingung

Tips/settings for photographing wild garlic

Use medium focal length to wide-angle lens
Use aperture priority or manual mode
Closed aperture between f/8 and f/16
Focus stacking if necessary (preferably when there is no wind)
For focus stacking, select exposure metering over the entire image average (if no multi-metering method is available), or Manual mode
If it is dark in the forest and the exposure time would be too long, don’t be afraid of ISO 800 or ISO 1600
Get close, vary the camera height and make sure that important picture elements are not unattractively covered and are separated as well as possible.

Photoshop-Workflow

Basic settings, gradation curve, colors with Lightroom or Camera-Raw, possibly already selective masks
Synchronize settings for focus stacking between images
Select all images with Shift+mouse button, right-click Edit in, open in Photoshop as layers
In Photoshop, select all layers with Shift+left mouse button, click on Edit, Auto-align layers, Projection auto
Focus stacking through Photoshop with Edit/Auto Blend Layers/Select Stack Images
Optional: Group focus stacking layers with Ctrl+G
Transform
- Copy the result layer with Ctrl+J for transform (if necessary)
- Edit/transform/deform, drag corners until it fits or edit/perspective deformation
- Alternatively or additionally: filter/liquefy, take as large a brush as possible and draw in individual areas.
Clean up using removal tool “J” or generative filling
Dodge&Burn:
- Easiest way to create luminance masks via TK-Panel or ProPanel (additional addons for Photoshop),
- in channels with Ctrl+left mouse button,
- in Layers to create a new layer,
- Create layer mask,
- Mixing method Soft light,
- Paint over areas with a light or dark brush (opacity <30%) as required and according to your own ideas.
Shape light:
- Create new level
- Mixing method Soft light
- create a manual “vignette” with a dark brush (opacity 10%) or paint some light into the picture with a light brush
Orton effect
- Click on top layer, Shorcut Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E copies all visible layers together into a new layer
- Filter/blur filter/Gaussian blur, between 24 and 33px or more, depending on the resolution of the camera
- Opacity between 6 and 12%, if necessary work with a mask if the effect is too strong
Cropping

This and all other shots of this post you can request under “Prints” as an art print for your wall at home directly from me.

Pictures from the VLOG

This video should be a bit more about image processing, so there are only a handful of pictures this time, but have fun watching.

VLOG to the BLOG

I almost missed it. Without any premonition, I popped into my local forest the day before to see if the wild garlic could start flowering in the next few days. But I was amazed when I saw that the forest floor was already covered in a carpet of white wild garlic. Of course, I came back the next morning to take some nice pictures. I’ll also show you how I edit my wild garlic pictures in Photoshop. Have fun looking at them!

Feel free to share:

Endlich Licht am Quermarkenfeuer auf Sylt

How to take minimalist forest photos

Focal lengths and their image effect in landscape photography

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Fantastic wild garlic photos — how to photograph and edit them

Fantastic wild garlic photos — how to photograph and edit them