Bad duckie photos - please vote.

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

04/09/2005 12:55:03 AM · #1

A few people (in and out of DPC have asked how I did this shot, particularly the flames)

Where all the bad duckies go...

A few people have asked out I did the duckie shot...so I thought I'd post a "how i done it"

INGREDIENTS:
One rubber ducky (of the bad persuasion)
5 green grapes
Dental floss
A couple of chopsticks and a straw
A big blue bowl
Water
a dozen candles
and more...

The results...

(This is the photo edited shot, the lines from the dental floss have been removed.)

The Setup...

There you can see how things were arranged. notice the reflections of the candle flames on the bowl. in some ways, I wonder if this one would have done better in the challenge than any of the actual results?

I filled the bowl with water and the rubber ducky, who still insisted on floating. So I weighted him down with the equivalent of a heavy washer and a screw.

I then threaded a sewing needle and ran the dental floss thru the grapes. Which I drew faces upon with a blue Sharpie. I hung the grapes in varying distances from a couple chopsticks and a straw. I added the Halogen desklamp above to brighten the seen. And then I arranged the candles so as to have their flames reflect atop of the grape heads in a hellish fashion. Later I arranged a couple more to make it appear that the duck's horns were afire. The end result were the following photos...

It is a challenge getting clarity when photographing "thru" a colored and textured glass bowl, i truly wish I had more time to get a better final shot. One problem that plagued me were tiny bubbles that formed on the inside of the bowl. I need to find a way to avoid bubbles of air inside the water in future shots. I believe this was due to cold water. Next time I will use hot water and let it sit. Thankfully, using some sharpening and noise correction filters I was able to reduce it so that when I resized to the 640x480 submission size, the bubbles had all but disappeared.

Original takes....

PHOTO I:

(this one came out more clearly but did the flames did not show as well as I would have liked)

PHOTO II:

(this one captured more of the feel I wanted, and I had managed to align all the candles as desired, this required me to hold a candle up in the air behind me)

Sadly, what hurt this shot was "time" I got home from work and spent three hours on it but I had to stop before perfection as the clock approached midnight....

------------

Although this one did not get the flames as brilliantly, this was my original submission in this challenge. (As I felt it would score better.) My friends and family all prefered the other one as they felt it more truly captured the concept. I switched it at the last second. Literally, the web page told me the entry time was over. Then I decided I was better off and was glad it didn't get re-submitted. I knew it'd do better. But then when I looked, the alternate did get taken. So this was the one I felt would score better. Although it doesn't quite capture the feel of the concept as well.

Please let me know which one you prefer, or even better what you'd rate each one...thanks...this was a hard bomb for me. I happen to be a collector of rubber duckies, I spent 3 solid hours composing this shot while sick as a dog only to have it bomb hard. I think if I had an hour or two more I could have gotten the shot I truly wanted. The one I saw in my head...

Message edited by author 2005-04-15 14:00:51.

tolovemoon

Canon EOS Rebel SL1

04/09/2005 03:27:49 AM · #2

The top one is better I think... its a commical image thats for sure..

04/09/2005 02:34:16 PM · #3

It was a tough call, the top was the clearer photo. The bottom more hellish...

srbrubaker

Nikon Coolpix 8700

04/09/2005 03:20:52 PM · #4

Yum, roasted duck with grapes. Have to try that one.

I think the bottom one conveys the idea much more clearly, even if it lacks a certain chilly crispness that the top one posesses.

04/15/2005 10:19:05 AM · #5

I also had the candles aligned to be flames on the horns of the devil ducky on the bottom one and I liked that extra flare...

Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF

04/15/2005 01:57:51 PM · #6

Edited to include in top post...

Message edited by author 2005-04-15 13:58:24.

saracat

Pentax K10D

04/15/2005 02:41:46 PM · #7

For future reference, if you don't want bubbles in your water, use boiled and cooled water. Don't know why it works, just seems to.