I only noticed this challenge 3 hours before rolling over. Instantly, totally unbidden, this idea popped into my head. What could be easier! I had THREE HOURS to spare!
I knew we had the bulb, and I thought I could create a cutout of a silhouette to cast the shadow I wanted.
So after some arts-and-crafting, I got my little silhouette printed, cut out, and standing on a piece of paper. Only to find that the bulb did not create any usable shadow at all. I placed the cutout in profile to the camera (making it almost invisible), but it didn't cast a shadow anything like what I had envisioned. I tried shifting the bulb around, moved it further away, and raised and lowered the camera angle, but the shadow it cast was mostly blur. Plus I would eventually have to contend with cloning out the cutout profile.
So in rethinking the technique, I did away with the cutout altogether, distorted then printed the silhouette on the paper, and tried to figure out where and how to place it. In the process, I knocked over the lamp that the bulb was on, and shattered it.
Fortunately, we had another one of these bulbs, and after cleaning up the mess from the first one, got back to figuring out how to get the look I wanted. From some angles, the ink that created the "shadow" was shiny, and killed the illusion. I finally settled on this angle, and took a bunch of shots with tiny adjustments to paper/shadow angle, proximity to bulb, etc.
I chose this take because I like how the right leg shows through the bulb, which also allows the viewer to imagine a person standing there.
Sometimes last minute ideas are best!
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Place: 1 out of 20 Avg (all users): 6.8750 Avg (participants): 6.9091 Avg (non-participants): 6.8571 Views since voting: 535 Views during voting: 66 Votes: 32 Comments: 12 Favorites: 0
Wow! That is brilliant and such an impressive result! Congratulations! I am so happy you are able to shoot again! Your work is always such an inspiration!
I loved this image all along and am so impressed with your creativity - how very simple, but who would have thought of printing the show out?? Clever, clever, clever and well deserved blue.
so clever .. loved reading how you achieved this image ..
you are very committed .. lol ..
and look . it paid off . !! ..
many congrats on the ribbon .. :)
exactly .. !! ..
this is excellent .. totally satisfies the challenge and there's that element of humour and confusion .. which appeals to me a lot . :)
why??
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