| Author | Thread |
|
|
09/24/2007 10:57:51 AM · #1 |
First a great BIG HUG and KISS to  Konador for helping me bring my vision to life. If you haven't taken a stroll in the Tutorials section I would advise you to do so for you might find one or several tutorials that can greatly help you achieve the look you want for your photo.
Almost a year ago my eyes bestowed Konadorâs âLoveâ
 and it instantly captured my attention and fired my imagination. I knew I wanted that red heart shadow to 'be' a main element in a composition that symbolizes love and what better love story than Shakespeareâs Romeo & Juliet? I also remembered the one line from Dylan Thomasâs poem âAnd Death Shall Have No Dominionâ. The idea was now born, but I needed to get the composition right.
The first challenge was finding the death scene of Romeo & Juliet on opposite pages. Looking through numerous books in the library I could not find it. So, when you cannot find it create it! I typed the scenes and printed them on separate pages to 'be' inserted into a thick book.
Second challenge: I donât have a red filter nor did I wish to purchase one just for this shoot. Taking a page from Konadorâs book (he used a blue filter and adjusted the color in PS) I âcreatedâ mine. I scoured the house to find an object for the perfect fit inside my Polarizor Filter so that I could outline the circle on a Red plastic report cover. Now I have the insert to turn my Polarizer into a red filter!
Third was the biggest challenge that had me put things on the back burner until the Deja Challenge rolled over and I noticed Konadorâs tutorial on how he created his photo. LIGHTING!! My first two attempts were PATHETIC with deep shadows on the rings and a pale heart shadow. The reason: I took all my compositionâs elements outside in the full sunlight â specifically waiting for the time of day between 1 & 2 p.m. to get the light angle just so. I did not keep pictures of my earlier failures. Well Konadorâs Tutorial showed me my big mistake. I needed to shoot the composition at night! Ahem, well I felt foolish:-)
I read Konadorâs tutorial and set up my composition again. This time waiting for night to fall and using just the spotlight lamp to illuminate the scene.
Immediately you see the problems. Just that one light source will create a lovely heart shadow but one gets really deep shadows on the inside and outside of the rings. Not to mention the light was a deep orange/yellow cast on the old style parchment paper. A warm hue but way too dark!
So choosing another shoot with a better heart I did quite a bit of Paintshop corrections to get this:
Doing a color balance adjustment with cooler blue tones got a cleaner & crisp white light. However I still had the deep shadows on the rings. While a clean light on the page it was just too cold of a tone to convey an feeling of age: of old love well worn.
Back to the drawing board for the second night of shooting. Time to bring in the BIG GUNS.
I âbuiltâ a temporary âlight tentâ. I used a large 3 x 4 piece of wood and 4 rounded wood pieces screwed one to each corner of the large piece. Taking the white table cloth I used to bounce the light back in Painting WonderMint, I draped it over the âlegsâ leaving the front and back ends open. It took awhile to find the right combination of where to angle the lights but this is the final arrangement: With a coat hanger wire running along the back end it held the spotlight used to create the heart shadow in place until I would angle it by hand as I fired the shutter with the remote. Another 60w Natural Light bulb in the desk lamp stood just off the left of the tripod. Lastly the big 1200 Watt Halogen Worklight are angled on the right hand side at the white panel of the loose âlight tentâ. All elements were lighted much better.
There were still some shadows on the rings but no where near as deep as before, plus a wonderful gleam is caught upon their surface. Still the light was not quite the hue I needed. Back to Konadorâs Tutorial. His tutorial recommendation of adjusting the cameraâs White Balance yielded better tones. Paintshop was still utilized to get a more polished image but without Konadorâs valuable Tutorial it would have never neared the polished look the final product had.
Though 'Lovers' 'Be' Lost, Love Shall Not; And Death Shall Have No Dominion.
All told I took close to 450 shots before I hit on the right combination of camera settings & lighting. |
|
|
|
09/24/2007 11:13:31 AM · #2 |
|
|
|
09/24/2007 11:26:47 AM · #3 |
Very nicely done, both photographically and journalistically!
What a great write up on the process, and an excellent finish with the photo :) |
|
|
|
09/24/2007 11:40:41 AM · #4 |
I love reading stories about the ups and downs of getting a picture you like. Great job and great writeup.
|
|
|
|
09/24/2007 11:58:10 AM · #5 |
Most excellent! And isn't Ben Konador just the best? Did you ever try to contact him directly also? You will find he is the most helpful, kind, considerate young man you will ever find. We need more Bens in this world, that's for sure.
Deannda |
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 08/03/2025 10:30:20 AM EDT.
