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Day 07
Day 07
darnok


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED
Location: South Africa, Pretoria
Date: May 7, 2007
Aperture: 11
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/250
Galleries: Still Life, Black and White
Date Uploaded: May 7, 2007

Viewed: 250
Comments: 4
Favorites: 0

 A shoe.

Lighting: A manual flash unit camera left (higher than camera), optically triggered by the built-in flash in manual mode (1/128 power). Piece of cardboard taped to side of flash to limit light spillage on background. Covered a white area in background with a shirt. A4 sheet of paper behind subject to provide a little back lighting.

Post processing: Nothing much to say here. Converted from RAW. Since the shoe was black and there was therefore no colour in the picture, I desaturated to ensure I only had grey tones. Curves adjustment layer for a slight increase in contrast.

JunieMoon: I liked the form of the shoe and how the light hits it.Felt it would look intresting against a black background. I only have a single flash at the moment (a really old one with no adjustable settings, full power only). Will rectify that when I have time, going to make some out of a whole bunch of disposable cameras. I do have a reflector, so that sort of works as a extra light source. The built-in flash that I use to trigger the slave does not cause a problem, because at 1/128 power it's barely bright enough to light up the metal parts a bit.

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AuthorThread
 05/08/2007 08:53:59 PM
The low-key adds interest to this. Nice!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/08/2007 09:42:38 AM
Wonderful job on the lighting! The dark tones of the shoe doesn't get lost in the dark tones of the background because the object is perfectly illuminated to show all the details in texture and the shape outline. It is the outline and details of textures that really pop visually off the page. The balance of tones and contrasts in your photograph is wonderful because the dark tones of the shoe COULD have been lost in the dark tones of the backdrop.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/07/2007 07:42:34 PM
Now, what were you trying to achieve? Did you want texture of the shoe and laces or did you want to show contrasts in light. That makes a difference where you place your light. One thing you might have considered is manually triggering the flash unit as placed behind the subject and pointing at a light backdrop. Using your camera flash, you could deflect the light perhaps to the right with the flash unit triggering behind the shoe. This might give more separation between the background and the shoe. It is hard to get decent light with one flash unit. You need at least two, and the one on the camera is always a problem because you don't want it to be really strong. Anyway, I will look up my info on still lives and see if I can give you a few light set ups.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/07/2007 03:09:45 PM
Love the simplicity and in the same time the perfect execution of this shot
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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