Messing around

 

In the mean time, I've been busy with experimenting with lights indoors. I used a technique called Black Background ... it uses no background but a setting on the camera that makes the scene black and then the photographer uses a flashlight, flash, or something to light up the subject.

It was a pain to do, but I think if I practice a LOT more I can get it to work pretty easily. I'm studying how to do this outdoors while photographing a flower. I didn't take a 'how to' shot. 

I did it on the kitchen table with light coming in through a curtain. There is a coffee cup about 6 inches from the Lego Bird.

While the camera thought the scene was black, I used a bright flashlight to light up the Lego Bird and this was the result. I still have some work to do to figure out the best settings for this type of photography.

I tried a new method of lighting up a subject from underneath. I found a large piece of broken glass and put it on some old play blocks.
I stuck a flat light under the critters and a weak light shining on them from the front.

That is how I did the Shark Duckie shot which you already saw last week:

I then stood a tiny soldier right on top of the light with a black plastic background.

The soldier standing on the light with a black reflective
background behind him.

Cropped version...

A Calico Critter ~
She stood on the light and I took a flashlight and
lit her up from the top.

The shots turn out quite moody and interesting. I'd guess this method would work with some still life like an apple or forks or utensils? Perhaps a salt shaker with salt spilled on the glass and a small measuring spoon alongside it?

I just have to face it. There is not a lot out in the woodlands right now to get excited about. 

However. Things are starting to happen!

I saw Robins again today, along with Bluebirds, Sandhill Cranes have been flying overhead...and this morning I heard my first red winged black bird.

Seems like I need to start looking for neat signs of spring.

I guess a mission to look for Skunk Cabbage should be in order!

PS-- I did find skunk cabbage when I went out on Tuesday for my walk.

Light Play

I couldn't resist taking some time in the afternoon day to set up my Creative Room of Wonders stuff and try some things out.

Morris had to help of course.
I thought I'd take a shot of what I was doing and the simple things that I set up in the spare bedroom to play with the camera and some lights.

So at first I used the method of trying to get a nearly black backround with just the settings in the camera.
It wasn't hard.

I referenced this article by Glyn Dewis: The Invisible Black Blackdrop Photography Technique.

I didn't totally want the backdrop to be black because I don't have the flash equipment. I thought I'd experiment with his idea and see what I could do.

I moved the exposure so that the photo was nearly black. Then I put my camera on a 2 second delay and used an LED flash light to try and light up the flowers from different angles.

There is my hand right there holding up the flash light.

I took several shots and then put them through my old CS2 photomerge.
This is an archiac way of doing things similar to photo stacking and using 'light painting' at the same time. I was able to mask out my hand and then crop the photo.

I ended up with the following.

Well that was nothing to actually write home about. But, I did get an interesting combined shot. It was worth exploring some more.

I did the same thing with some toys.

This was actually quite fun. The hard part is getting a strong enough flashlight and lighting up the right areas. The above shot is probably 4 or 5 shots combined.

Then I thought, why not use a lamp?

Well I did have fun and I was able to edit out the lamp with masking tools.
However I didn't really think I ended up with anything brilliant here either.

So I took this photo into ON1 10.5 for some fun.
Much better...

I then went back to the other flower photo and decided if I could do anything more impressive.
Not sure if this fits that bill or not.
I would need to totally redo this shot as I missed lighting up the top flower and I think no amount of fiddling or editing will fix that.
But I did learn something important about light painting. Don't move the camera until you have reviewed all of the shots.

However, I did go into back to just concentrating on a nice shot of the blue and white cup.
But of course I came up with 3 versions.

When I get some free time, it looks like it is back to the drawing board for me!