weekly Photo 52 - 2012 - Donnie - Week 33 TIME - posted Tuesday 21st August

i like this its different, sometimes its hard to think of something for the themes, but i like this it makes me smile
 
Just finished going through as many of the "Shiny" threads I could find before finally posting my own shot which is late I know, but if I left it another week I'd have to have a penalty due to my own rules.

Right, had very little inspiration for a shot for shiny until last night when I finally took this.


Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 10 - Shiny by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

Here's the description of the shot.

For this shot I placed a very clean wine glass on a black background (bedsheet especially bought for the purpose) and gently filled with water as it helps cause a bit of refraction in the light trail.

I then set up the tripod, pre focused on the stem and recomposed. Camera was set on manual mode, f stop was set on 22, iso at 100 and started with a test shot at 5 seconds using a keyring size maglite torch.

Standing so the torch was on, behind the glass but pointing toward the camera I triggered the shot with my remote release. On review of the shot on the lcd it was obvious that I either needed to drop the f stop to let more light in or increase the exposure time. I opted for the latter for 2 reasons.

1. Dropping the f stop would risk the sharpness of the image
and
2. Longer exposure time meant more chance of a more pleasing light trail.

And I was right, I took 3 more shots literally and got this one which I was particularly pleased with.

In post, I slightly adjusted the levels to ensure black really was black and cleaned up a small amount of stray light near the base of the glass and one dust spot on the upper part of the glass which I'd missed.

Then I added a hue / saturation layer to cool the light trail until I was happy and finally cropped the shot to what you see now.
 

Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 12 - Magical by Donnie Canning, on Flickr

Setting up the magician was easy enough but making sure he was looking at the "audience" was necessary as well as making sure his wand was in the left hand. If it had been in the right hand I think it would have spoiled the composition.

Next was getting the stormtrooper to "float". For this I simply folded some white card and using a little blutak balanced him on it.

The figures were placed on a roll of white wallpaper and placed so there was an infinity curve.

I set the camera on M with a shutter speed of 1/200th to sync with my flash (off camera and firing at the background).

Once I was happy with this I took a couple of test shots and was happy other than the fact that the figures looked a little flat lighting wise, the needed some fill in light. However as another flash would have been way too much I opted for 2 reflectors (table place mats wrapped in tin foil) and positioned both until I was happy with the amount of light.

Opening the image in Camera Raw I boosted the contrast a little as well as the clarity then opened in photoshop.

Here, I copied the layer before doing any work, allowing me to go back to the original just in case.

First I evened the white colouring of the background as everything in front of the figures was a definite light grey. I tried using a levels layer to adjust this but it had too much effect on the stormtrooper washing him out completely.
To get round this I made another new layer and filled it with white and added a layer mask. This allowed me to brush the figures back into the picture without any of the background at all.

Now I flattened the image as a new layer but it was missing something, first there was too much of a gap between the figures so a quick cut and paste allowed me to move them a little closer then the only thing to do was to create a shadow under both figures, especially under the floating one to give it some depth and reality so to speak.
To do this I used a brush of the desired size and opacity set to about 20%
 
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Good work on both shiny and magical Paul :thumbs:
You have handled the lighting well on shiny, it has a crisp, sharp look to it. My only suggestion would be to have brought the light around the front of the glass too. Very creative though and a different take on the theme.

Magical :thumbs: a fun take on the theme, good lighting, particularly like the inclusion of the shadow. I like your back story too, lets the viewer in on your thought processes in creating the photograph. Iain
 
Lego magician eh!
All these 52'ers doing this hard work making me feel guilty this week.
 
I love shiny, the light just adds to the shot. Have to say I'm not a fan of lego but the stormtrooper looks a bit odd to me, I think the white on his upper edge is either blown or blended into the bg too much. Clever idea though, next time do it for real tee hee (that Dynamo bloke would be useful)
 
Hi Paul



simply love your image for Shiny , great imagination & slightly out of the box thinking...appreciate the write up...got it added to my ever growing list of " want to try's" . Can see that large on a shiny base & hung on a wall in a club :clap:

Magical....yet more great processing...neat idea mister :thumbs:
 
Win: Triffic pic. Looks well and conveys the theme perfectly.

Shiny: Lovely picture. Really like this, a lot.

Magical: Lego me again and well used. Not always easy to put something together, but you did it right.


What are we like? Ruff tuff scooterboys getting all arty farty. :lol:
 
Shiny - Definitely like this. Very clever

Magical - Another one to make me smile.

What I also like is you sharing how you've gone about taking and pp'ing these images. :thumbs:
 
Thanks all for the comments.

Fullfast, Blakester & Delta - I promised myself I'd try to be as descriptive as possible on how I did my shots, precisely to allow others to see what I did and how, as well as hopefully be a pointer to encourage others to try similar themes or ideas :)

Blakester, on shiny, I tried a few with the light infront, as in twirled all around the glass but it just didnt look right. Not sure why, think it kinda detracted from the definition of the glass itself :shrug:

Gramps, don't feel guilty at all mate, to me this was a short cut shot, Im getting into some of the lego type shots for some reason and immediately when magical came up I thought that should be doable with lego :nuts:

Sturisoma, yea I see what you mean, I think it was nearly blending into the background. As I said in the description of my workflow I tried to use a levels layer but that was really bad and this was as close as I could get it, also I darkened it a little on the legs too with the burn tool.

Blondie, on shiny, hanging on a club wall..........very kind. And I wish!

Bilko, scooterboys and arty farty? Not words that sit together that well eh? :bonk:
 
Another "just in" shot before the next week is announced tomorrow!:thumbs:

Hope ye like, all comments and critique welcome!


Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 13 - Vice by Donnie Canning, on Flickr


I was pretty sure that I was going to shoot my workbench vice but came up with this idea only a few hours ago.

Don't worry, it's all props! Even the "heroine" is bicarbonate of soda.

So, I set this up in my living room with the lights off, other than the fishtank which is throwing a little light onto the syringe side and I'm not unhappy with that.

A diffused flash was placed in front of me on a low table set at 1/32 power.

Then focus was on the hands and "drugs".

In photoshop I then copied the layer, did some burning around the edges and some on the upper torso as well as the legs to draw the eye to the drugs.

Copying the layer again I selected the quick mask tool and a medium soft edge brush and set the opacity at 85%. With that brush I drew from the hand with the spoon to the syringe. Pressing Q shows the marching ants selection and then I applied a lens blur filter leaving only the hands and syringe in focus.

Then yet another copy layer to which I applied a high pass filter and then changed the mode to overlay which sharpened the hands a little more.
 
Very good shot. I like the low light. Gives the right feel to the picture.

I was contemplating Coke or Horse, but time got the better of me. I couldn't get a syringe either.
 
Thanks all. I'm pretty chuffed with it considering it was done on the sofa at home in about 20 minutes.

If I'm honest I would have loved to have found an urban graffiti'd bus shelter but thought it could be a bit dodgy late on a friday :suspect:
 
I love your vice shot! Great composition, and just the right lighting for me.
 
'Magical' - like your work with the lego men. The shadow is a nice touch.

'Vice' - Dark image.. captures the seedier side of life and the dirty world of illicit drugs. Really good explanation too which is useful, looks like you have put a lot of thought into it. Nice work :thumbs:

Nick
 
Blooming 'eck, missed a few of yours :thinking:

Money, like it, really like it. Great composition, well lit and I really like the slight motion blur on the top penny.

Win, nicely set up and humorous. The composition I'm not keen on. I'd rather there were just two...perhaps the camera looking over one, with cards in view, facing his opponent :thinking:

Shiny, nice idea. I'd prefer the light to be more uniform. parts of the glass look very sharp (the rim for example) and parts look quite blurred (lower section of the glass for example).

Magic, nice idea and well executed. Just looks a bit bright for me.

Vice, absolute cracker. Really well set up and executed. Well exposed and nice DOF. A very minor point for me - I'd rather no light above and behind your head.

Overall, nice set with some great ideas.

Cheers.
 
Hi Paul


hmmmm....well thought out & pp'd for Vice....it's interesting to read your "how I did this" as I've no idea about layers & masks

Focus is just where you wanted it & is very effective..possibly a little more light on the syringe though ?

Belter of a shot :clap:
 
Hi Paul..

good shot for vice, tis very dark and needed to be. sounds like you're a whizz on PP aswell!!
 
Paul, that vice shot is a belter, well thought out and even better executed, thanks for the explanations as well, they really help to see how you've pulled them off
 
Cheers all, I was rather pleased with the vice shot as it was almost a last minute idea, a bit like the idea I've had this morning for entrance which Ive not managed to shoot yet.

Blinking woke up at 5.30 this morning and not been able to get back to sleep!
 
Love to hear how you approached & processed the image. It's great when a plan comes together! The photo got a reaction from me, which is what it is all about.
 

Photo 52 - 2012 - Week 14 - Entrance by Donnie Canning, on Flickr


I'm 2 days late now with this one as I just could not for the life of me think of something other than a picture of a door, or a gate or something similar.
It's not that I was bothered about that, I just couldn't find one locally that would do it justice.

So, for some reason this morning (a Sunday I hasten to add) I wake up with this idea at 5.30am! Can I get back to sleep, can I heck!

So, rather than shoot an "Entrance" my brain came up (finally) with "Entrance" as in to entrance someone. (Look into the eyes, not around the eyes.....)

The setup.
I've had this pocket watch since the wife bought it for me when I was 21 and the chain is one of her necklaces for effect.

So, I basically set up my flash and newly acquired softbox in front of me at 1/16th power to be triggered wirelessly.

Then the camera was set up on another tripod and prefocussed to where I was going to be standing.

After that it was a case of taking a couple of shots to ensure the composition was right, I did try to get the watch on a swing but it was never quite right so went with this shot.

In post I
--> copied the layer
--> used the spot healing brush to get rid of any marks or stray bits of hair etc
--> used the clone tool to get rid of a stray bit of the background that didn't match
--> copied another layer and used a gaussian blur on the whole layer, added a layer mask, inverted the mask then painted in the blur to smooth the skin a little (I have quite a rugged forehead under this light)
--> copied another layer and applied a high pass filter then changed the blending mode to overlay
-->added a brightness / contrast layer to bring out the sleeves of the shirt a little.

I think if I was to shoot this again I would do it on a coloured background other than black as my shirt does make it look like a bit of a floating head and hands :-)
 
Hi Paul, love the set up, yes the eyes are the entrance to the soul, and i think you've already hit on the main issue with this in that you fade into the background, well set up and well executed
 
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