Day 26: July 2010 Photo-a-Day Thread

[carregwen]

Inspired by Rob's rubber balls, I felt I should shoot my own;

Doesn't count. It's not a marital aid. Although the word 'rubbers' comes to mind for some reason.

[PopsPhotos]

Pops, the first shot really rocks - the delicate feather against the blast of red flowers, with nice bokeh background: it's all there. The second makes me smile, but I must say things are a little cluttered. But I know what it's like: cats do what they do, and the photographer has to deal with it.

Cheers,
Rick

I wish i knew how to get rid of the blown out highlight at the base of the feather, but I do like the rest of the shot. Cats is clutter. I threw that one in just on a whimsy. Chessie is a fun cat.

Pops

[carregwen]

I wish i knew how to get rid of the blown out highlight at the base of the feather...

Pops

The blown highlight must have shown as a 'blinky' on the camera viewscreen when you took it. I would have switched to spot metering or centre-weighted and centred it on the bright area. The rest of the shot would have been darker, but you could have used 'fill light' in Photoshop RAW edit.

[Antonio Correia]

The first is well done, António, but I like the second even better. The darkened sky and the darker colors in the sea (tide out, maybe?) make it a much more interesting composition. Cheers, Rick

Thank you Peter
I think the tide was up. Just because it was down this morning and the last shot was done at the end of the day.
Two very different lighting conditions...

[Antonio Correia]

Someone asked me to see the factory.

I asked the palm trees not to move for 30 secs.

[Dave Humphries]

Nice capture, Dave: how did you light this? It seems to have some light from above, as well as from the direction of the camera.

Awww Rick, don't ask me to reveal just how lazy I was ...

Nikon D5000 + Nikkor 105mm f2.8 VR2 macro: 1/60s f/4 at iso1600 & PSE6

I perched the ball on top of a thermos flask (it was just standing there doing nothing) and stood that in front of the stainless steel cooker hob backplate.

It was lit by a 6 foot fluorescent tube (above and a little behind camera), plus a dim tungsten rim light came from the cooker hood

Nothing from below, or from the camera direction, except reflected fill from the light coloured kitchen - anything you are seeing is just PP burning (or is it dodging?)

It 'floats' due to PP cloning, not being captured in motion hence the "PSE6" added to the EXIF
The only crop was off the sides to make it square, I'm loving this lens.

I did try taking some with flash, but 'natural' (hah!) was better.

I also tried it in several other locations, but I could see they weren't working, so some conscious effort did go into the composition and lighting, in addition to about 30 mins PP.

Not a quality match to Steve's scouring pad pictures though, he takes far more trouble, but at 23:18:54, I get even lazier than my normal

Thanks,

[rick55]

Nothing from below, or from the camera direction, except reflected fill from the light coloured kitchen - anything you are seeing is just PP burning (or is it dodging?)

Interesting - that fill in the front, especially below, must be coming from light-colored surfaces. It's probably an interesting exercise to do everything with ambient in a room like that - like being inside a light box.

Cheers,
Rick

[Dave Humphries]

Interesting - that fill in the front, especially below, must be coming from light-colored surfaces. It's probably an interesting exercise to do everything with ambient in a room like that - like being inside a light box.

Yes, it is all white (some a bit grubby) and the floor is pale laminate.

Lighting is bright but 'spotty' Tungsten Halogen one end and the flood from tube the other, not ideal.

Just noticed I didn't WB the shot
Not as if I didn't have a reference (white band)

In hindsight, I wish I had put a sheet of A4 in front to fill a little more

[PopsPhotos]

Pops

The blown highlight must have shown as a 'blinky' on the camera viewscreen when you took it. I would have switched to spot metering or centre-weighted and centred it on the bright area. The rest of the shot would have been darker, but you could have used 'fill light' in Photoshop RAW edit.

Rob, I saw the blinkies, but the feather was on the wind and I didn't get another chance, unless I chased the silly thing into the rodeo bull's pasture. I was shooting the riot of this month's blooms on the Blaze Rose, when this feather came wafting through. I caught it, put it in place and shot. Then it was off on its journey, again.

Pops

[Klickit]

Pops - your sunset shot - I do like the wee detail in the bottom left of the irrigator. It adds something. Nicely seen and captured.

[PopsPhotos]

Thank you Kit. That is the very reason I took a shot of what was otherwise a rather blah evening.

Pops