Indoor Stuff/Creativity/Play

Generally around this time of year, I get stuck inside not because of bad weather, but because I am tired of the scenery outdoors.

I get weary of the same black/brown/white scenery that is being offered up outside and in the woods.

So I get out my craft stuff and start making a mess. I am all over the place. I can be painting a skull or thinking about photographing Still Life. The table can be littered with various paints, my 'craft' table has projects and 'stuff' all over it.

However, I am getting better and not leaving a mess in the house all of the time. I don't like clutter, so by the end of the day, I generally tidy up and put things away. The house is too tiny to clutter up all the surfaces.

I started messing around with the white skull. It looked nice in all white, but I wanted to add shades of silver and grey. The pearl white showed up very nice and the black looked out of place. 

Hubby liked the black on the skull and asked for more of it. In the photo below, the various shades of grey and white do show up. I turned the light box on its side and used a white tea towel. I kept moving things around...

I ended up using masking tape to attach the tea towel to the sides of the box.

--- of course, Farmer Bob was very helpful in taking care of things....

The towel experiment didn't work out so well so I went back to the basic white plastic back drop.

Hmmm. This sort of sucked too. However, there is always a possibility of a little editing to help out. I used ON1 and made the shot into more of a High Key shot which eliminated the box edges.

The result was satisfactory, so I went on to experiment with a tiny pitcher I'd picked up ages ago at an indoor flea market. 

the set up...

the shot...

the edit...

I actually liked the slight textures from the towel in this shot. It felt right. Of course, I should have had something else in the shot, but I was just experimenting with light and exposure.

I experimented with different lights and different ways to diffuse or soften the light. I wanted to use things that I had on hand. Below is a flashlight with an amber pill bottle as a diffuser, a plastic cap on another light, and even bubble wrap!

Rich walked by and just shook his head. 

However, before it got too bright out, I decided to see what the purple light and bubble wrap over the flashlight would do.

Purple light in back, flashlight in my hand from
the right.

What it looked like with the curtains opened and taken with my very crappy cell phone:

And now I have to deal with this...
somebody wants to get out and explore....

You can't use up creativity

the more you have

the more you use...

Maya Angelou

Lighting and Still Life.

I explored some side lighting this week for week four of my Still Life studies. The above shot was a test shot with my Olympus OMD M5 to see if I could make it work in a still life situation.

The answer is yes.

I shot these on a plastic tub with a white sheet thrown on top of it.  The tub is full of things that we are temporarily storing due to the upcoming remodel of our house.  I layered a photo of cracked paint over it and the lettering.

Here is a shot with my Nikon D5200.

Original

I like the harsh shadows created in this shot and the coffee cup handle.  I'm pretty sure that I won't do a white sheet again as this one has nice wrinkles in it but the lines show up in a disturbing way.
So I decided to try some layering.

Icky!  This layer just makes the sheet look dirty and cast a yellowish shadow over everything.

So onward.  

Better but the sheet still takes away from this shot.

One more edit to take the eyes away from that?

Better, but I should have changed things up for this shot.  I say "DO over!"

While studying light and side lighting, we were to try diffused lighting also. So I set my little .10 cent birdy up on the dresser near the window and dropped a gauzy shower curtain over the window.

I went for the black backround and bottom.  I used a black poster board and curved it so the subject sat with total black around it.

I took a few shots [Nikon D5200].  And I really like this.  It doesn't follow the rule of thirds nor is there a limited depth of focus, but I wanted everything to be in focus this week.  

Bucking the lesson, so to speak.

Yes!  I like this!

I saw no reason to change a thing.  I like the diffused light, I like the white on black, I like the subtle shades of pink, the reflection in the glass dish, and the starkness of the image.

For me? Perfect!