Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
Friday Slide Show: An Experiment
9 July 2021
We thought we would try a little experiment. It required just a few little props, one desk lamp, a camera, a macro converter and, well, us. What could go wrong?
If nothing went wrong in experiments, they wouldn't be any fun. They would resemble chores like mowing the lawn. You wouldn't quite know how they'd turn out but you'd have a pretty good idea.
We had no idea.
We did have some thoughts, though. One was to arrange for a dark background. The other was to use the light dramatically. These weren't going to be product shots. We were going for an outer space look (and still people wonder why aliens will have nothing to do with earthlings). Not a lot of light required.
But lots of spheres.
So what went wrong?
Anything round would do. Would catch the light, would show some texture, might even be a bit translucent or reflective or just shiny. The visual fun would all be in the variety.
So what went wrong?
Well, shooting macro, we didn't get crisp edges on the balls. We'd have had to stopped down our aperture to improve them and even then. So we let that fault stand.
And with a manual exposure of 1/25 second at f8 (or f5.6) and ISO 200, these pups were going to be dark. But since the captures were Raw files, that didn't bother us. We knew we could easily brighten them up.
Then there was that light. A single warm LED of all things. Meaning everything had a yellow cast.
With those challenges in front of us, we stumbled around the studio in the dark looking for round things and carrying armfuls of them back to the camera. Unless you're a juggler, that can be hazardous. But we managed to surive without breaking anything.
You can guess what most of these are, we suspect. But one or two may be puzzling. That (and the upside-down captions) just makes a game of it.
See how you do. With all the lights on.
