Liquid Fire

[Loose Canon]

Darn near forgot how to load a photograph!

[NorthernFocus]

That's crazy looking. Nicely done.

[Wavelength]

Fascinating idea

[Rita]

Very cool idea!

[Bob44]

Nice work on this interesting photo!

[madcrow]

Great image, sharp with lots of detail. Very well executed.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[mknittle]

Now that's cool

[Geoff F]

Yes this works well and it is nice to see something completely different.

[Dave Humphries]

Darn near forgot how to load a photograph!

But you've not forgotten how to shoot and process great images Terry.

[Tony M]

That's really nice Terry. I'd love to know what magic you did to produce this lovely work.

Tony

[Loose Canon]

Thank you for viewing and commenting guys!

If I may? A very Happy Holidays to everyone here at CiC! Olde Timers of course, and especially to the New Members I am seeing who are producing some awesome stuff! Its great to see!

It’s been a while since I have posted a shot, or for that matter posted a comment. I have done a lot of shoots that I couldn’t post here for various reasons. And, as happens to all of us, Life has happened while I was making other plans! But I have been enjoying everyone’s posts all the while.

That's really nice Terry. I'd love to know what magic you did to produce this lovely work.

I would be happy to break down what I did Tony! I always even take BTS shots for all my projects! Thank you for asking!

But be warned? I might get a little windy?

[Loose Canon]

That's really nice Terry. I'd love to know what magic you did to produce this lovely work.

The shot is a composite of six. The lighter, the splash, and the four drops which I took from the inventory of splash shots I took for this session. All shot against the same background for consistency.

All shots were done with four lights in the studio (aka garage!).

For all shots, one BG light wearing a 7” reflector fired about 2.5’ behind a translucent BG drop.

The Lighter.



The lighter was hung in mid air on a boom arm by a piece of stiff wire taped to it’s backside and was lit by three lights. With the wire I could angle the lighter how I wanted it and it would stay put! One light behind the subject and camera right of the BG as a rim light and wearing barn doors to direct the light and keep it from the camera lens.

Two others as “key” and ‘fill’ lights, though these terms are subjective in this case. For portraiture, its how its done. For an object, it’s more of a designation because they will be adjusted more according to not only fill, shadow, but where they place highlights. Not so much a lighting ratio and light meters don’t apply here! Both wore strip boxes and were fired behind diffusion panels to boot! These boxes are internally baffled (double diffusion) with the additional diffusion of firing through diffusion panels in front of them. Additionally, the boxes were angled against the panels. Of note Tony? Firing diffuse lights through a diffusion panel turns that panel into a huge light source. The light source becomes the diffusion panel and the options open up. You can fire the light straight into it, you can angle it for a gradient, back off from it, put the strip box right against it, a ton of cool choices!

The strip you see facing the camera lights the front of the lighter and gives the highlight down the front curve of the lighter. Because it is angled in respect to the diffusion panel, but lights the entire panel, it gives that highlight and “wraps” some light around the lighter. The way one lights a panel is what will reflect off the subject. The strip on camera right gives the highlight down the rear of the lighter and that is pretty much its only purpose. Seems incidental but is a critical part of this lighting scheme. The rim light takes up any slack!

In the BTS shot, the big piece of white foam core was placed by hand to camera right of the lighter as I fired the camera remotely to bounce some light back into the scene and kill any reflection of the crap on the wall! Could've used black if I didn't want to bounce light but still kill any reflections. (in other words I held it there and took the shot!). It’s just sitting where I put it when I put it down after the shot.

The Splash.



The splash was pretty much lit with the same light positions. The exceptions are that I gelled the lights with yellow and orange gels in hopes of giving colored highlights, no strip boxes, and kept the strobes powered down as much as I could to keep the duration fast to stop the motion. If I find there is not enough light at lower power levels I compensate by bumping the ISO. I shoot splashes relatively stopped down so that I get a pretty good DoF. In this case I shot @ f11.

Once I got a splash I liked and thought would work it took a bit of manipulating in post to shape it up a bit. Here is that shot pretty much SOOC.



The happy wading pool should be self explanatory, but I have a gray, white, or black tarp I can put over it if the blue color becomes a problem.

After the shoot I usually soak my bald head in it!

[bnnrcn]

Stunning image Terry !

[Loose Canon]

Thank you Binnur!

Happy Holidays to you!

[mknittle]

Thanks for the Explanation Terry.

[Loose Canon]

'welcome Mark!