13 November 2013

FLASH!

An interesting thing happens when you have to do an entire assignment in one day. You'll take pictures of anything:


















f/8.0
1/125
ISO 100
31mm lens (~47mm equivalent)

This was taken in a dark room, bouncing the flash off the ceiling. I've cropped it a little. Hard to compose a shot in the dark. I also toned down the highlights and lightened the shadows just to smooth out the transition from top to bottom. The cool thing about using flash as the only light source is that the color comes out almost perfectly. I don't think I white balanced this at all.


















f/9.5
1/60
ISO 400
31mm lens (~47mm equivalent)

Another bounce flash shot, again taken in a dark room. Flight suits. I should have arranged them instead of just leaving them as they were. Maybe move the orange suit on top so it's not right over the orange suits below. I don't know. 


















f/22
1/180
ISO 100
50mm lens (~75mm equivalent)

Last bounce flash shot. Dark room again, this time with a low ceiling. This one was significantly underexposed, but I like how it lightened up when I adjusted the exposure in photoshop. There isn't much contrast, but I like how Scout blends into the blanket. I think it brings her eyes and nose out. Also note that Scout has learned to use a pillow like a person would.

But here's what I mean when I say you'll photograph anything when you're desperate:

























f/4.5
1/180
ISO 800
50mm lens (~75mm equivalent)

This is a fill slash shot. That's a daiquiri, except it's almost entirely rum because too much lime juice would have given it a urine-like hue. It's strongly backlit by a high-output fluorescent, with paper masking the tubes. I'm directing the camera flash directly at the glass. 

It was fun playing with this one. In the end I bled a lot of light and color out of it to emphasize things like the texture of the paper and the condensation on the glass. I had to crop heavily to get a white-only background. I didn't have enough blank paper readily at hand. Not an interesting photo, but don't you want a drink now?

And here is the direct result of drinking that daiquiri:
















f/11
1/180
ISO 400
50mm lens (~75mm equivalent)

That's my direct flash shot. I stuffed the pig with paper, mounted it on a shovel, and doused it in diesel. The shot was taken at night, from a low angle to exclude snow and brush. The black background came out great. The flames came out great. I never did get the pig to talk.

I would have liked to get a greater variety of shots to work with, but you would not believe how fast this thing burned. The flash only managed to charge four times before the pig was totally unrecognizable. Still, it turns out that direct flash on flames works pretty well.

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