Red Storms

[Manfred M]

My mentor suggested I try reds and oranges with very, very heavy smoke. In addition, he suggested I obliterate the line where the table top mirror and back-lit piece of Plexiglas merge to create a more nebulous look and feel.

Finally he suggested using a 4:5 aspect ratio.

[mugge]

I do like this. The right lower corner is not defined, which I like.
Cheers Ole

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Manfred,

This is fascinating, thanks for sharing. Interesting that you've processed so the left-most ball's reflection is as sharply defined in contrast as the 'real' image above it, this is what makes it work I think.

My only thought/suggestion is that, for me, it feels just a tad too close to the bottom edge of frame. I'd have almost doubled the distance between that LH ball's reflection and the bottom edge.

HTH, Dave

[Chataignier]

Hi Manfred,

This is fascinating, thanks for sharing. Interesting that you've processed so the left-most ball's reflection is as sharply defined in contrast as the 'real' image above it, this is what makes it work I think.

My only thought/suggestion is that, for me, it feels just a tad too close to the bottom edge of frame. I'd have almost doubled the distance between that LH ball's reflection and the bottom edge.

HTH, Dave

...and in so doing, made it a square crop.

[Dave Humphries]

...and in so doing, made it a square crop.

Ooops, yeah, I forgot the criteria of the defined 5:4 aspect ratio - my personality is to crop for the composition, not be dictated to.

[Chataignier]

I agree, square is good in my opinion.

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the comments Ole, Dave and David.

This piece is very much experimental and I hope to incorporate some of your ideas into some of the shooting I plan to do over the next couple of weeks.

The multi-coloured background and smoke were inspired by some of the shots that have been published from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The scene is starting to move more in that direction, as can be seen by the version posted here.

I have been trying to shoot from a fairly low perspective and concentrated on the actual crystal spheres, rather than their reflections. I think this is the first time that I did not cut off the bottom and agree I need to get more along the bottom.

I've also been changing the colours I use. When I first started out, I was working with complementary colours when I gelled the lights and I have now started working with analogous colours. That seems a bit easier on the eyes.

I've also been playing around on where to inject the smoke from. When I started out, the smoke came from the side and now I have the smoke machine sitting just below the camera lens and that gives a completely different look. The smoke is the challenging part and that is the hardest part to control. I need layers of smoke, and the closer it is to the camera (and farther away from the light source) the darker it gets. Unfortunately, the smoke machine is a very crude tool and it is hard to get the smoke in the right amount and in the right place at the same time. I have some more ideas on that...

Here is another version of this image.