Painting with light

[GI Jane]

So while some of the guys are playing with regulators, batteries, solar panels, dc to dc chargers etc... all too much for me, I decided to start playing with flash, light boxes, the wet weather demanded an indoors shoot..... Mrs Hoppy was throwing out some sunflowers I think she photographed to death , I grabbed them and took them home... Mr Hoppy asked me if I was depressed, taking home dead flowers... duh .. but I was looking for the distressed look of some sunflowers... Amazing the effect of playing with light... I purposefully chose a textured backing wall so that I could assess the impact of the shadows as I moved flashes and light boxes around... I used a 7d and a 100mm macro lens, and canon flash speedlights indoors... and of course added some b&w...

oops sorry need to resize...

[ChrisF]

ag nee antie ...

son het lankal gesak, kan nie nou met die solar speel nie ..... nou sit ek net en wag vir die pikkies ....

[GI Jane]

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I don't think the last 2 photo's work at all.. I had the light behind the flowers, lighting the wall behind them and the texture is over done, expecially in the b&w one..


Anyway that's my van Gogh impression for the weekend, I definitely will not me chopping my left (or is it right) ear off...

[Mud Dog]

Nice pics Val ..... always enjoy a little experimentation myself. Not such a big CGI fan, prefer the naturally captured look.



Oh BTW, those flowers lasted awfully long ...... from 2012 till 2013!!!

[GI Jane]

Thanks Andy, a bit clueless with flash, think I slept though those studio lectures, and also found the old flashes seriously difficult to work with when I used film. Seems the technology is less complicated or maybe I grew a few more brain cells since then.. ...

[Mud Dog]

Yeah, flashes much easier to work with nowadays ....don't have to refer to those little tables that used to be printed on the rear of the flash. And the wireless remote units are great for side lighting or depth.

Anyway, that still doesn't explain why some of those pics (all the same subject matter) are dated 2012 and others dated 2013? .... did you do this at midnight on New Years Eve instead of partying!??

[Hoppy]

They still look depressing and dead, thought you would photoshop them alive.

Nice pics, like the third from last

[ChrisF]

Val vertel so bietjie meer. Watter flashes het jy gebruik ? Hoeveel flashes? Watter triggers ?

het jy ETTL gebruik, of oorgegaan full manual op die flash ?

[GI Jane]

Sorry was lost in the moment when I was playing on the computer and got my years muddled, luckily I did'nt have them in 2015, then I would seriously have lost the plot... Will change them, thanks anyway for the observation....

[GI Jane]

Val vertel so bietjie meer. Watter flashes het jy gebruik ? Hoeveel flashes? Watter triggers ?

het jy ETTL gebruik, of oorgegaan full manual op die flash ?

I've got 2x 600EX-RT and the ST-E3-RT trigger, and a soft box. Used one flash in the soft box on a light stand, on the flowers, had some sidelighting from a window, and moved the other flash around, using bounced and then to force some different shadows at angles on the flowers. Just wanted to experiment with different lighting setup... Ek het baie foto's geneem net n paar opgesit, maar het ETTL en manual, ook rondgespeel met die flash exp comp. op verskillende flashes..

[ChrisF]

nog so paar goed om mee te speel ....


- op ETTL, stel die flash power ...

- "Gels" ....



off-camera flash is sekerlik n veld vir die kunstiges .... :)

[Polarbear2008]

Nicely done Val!

The light technique makes a big difference to photos! Softer light tends not to destroy the detail or texture of the photo, where straight light will wash out the colours and obliterate the detial, as you no doubt found when you tried different approaches!

[CasKru]

I think those flowers need a bit of Sunshine D

[GI Jane]

Hey Cassie, I still have them in a vase without water, going to do another van Gogh impression when they are even more crumpled...

[CasKru]

Hey Cassie, I still have them in a vase without water, going to do another van Gogh impression when they are even more crumpled...

And who said dead flowers aren't pretty anyway

[Willem01]

Hi Tannie Val daai flashes het daai blommetjies moeg gemaak shame kyk net hoe hang hulle....

Goed om altyd iemand te sien wat hulle toerusting ten volle gebruik...mooi phodies

[Mud Dog]

Hey Cassie, I still have them in a vase without water, going to do another van Gogh impression when they are even more crumpled...

Did this ever materialise?

Beautiful full moon again last night .... Looked awesome when magnified as it rose .... we were out visiting and I found myself wishing I had my camera and tripod. When we returned home some time later it was high in the sky and I found myself peering at it through the thick foliage of a fan palm. The urge to go get the camera was overwhelming. Now a camera doesn't lie exactly, but it also doesn't process light like our eyes and grey matter, so even with a bit of experimenting, I was unable to do justice to the visual experience. This is the closest I could come to capturing the "fairy lights" as the light reflected off the shiny leaves.

One of the problems I was having was focus ..... too dark to see nicely (fir me anyway) and the auto was unable to pick it up either. That coupled with the foliage moving in the light breeze left me with a rather 'soft' result. I'm certain that the 'bulb' exposure without a remote shutter release would have produced some 'shake' as well.

[GI Jane]

Hi Andy, sorry been very, very busy WORKING, with still lots to do. But a moment for photography. What I do when it is very dark and I am having a problem auto-focusing, is I shine torch light on the area of focus when relatively close and then autofocus initially and then switch to manual focus to fine tune it manually. Then I leave it on manual focus because then it is correctly focused turn off the torch light and take the shot... light breeze always a pain, and a tripod irritating but follows my camera bag wherever.

Managed to get to the beach late yesterday afternoon with a camera for some shots of the fog lifting during sunset, and when I get a moment will load a few dramatic ones...

The sunflowers had lost all their petals by the time I had a chance to take some more shots and they looked pitiful so I allowed them to go where all sunflowers that have had their day go...

Back to the grindstone for now...

[GI Jane]

First some quick shots.. from last night

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[Mud Dog]

Wow, the swirl of those clouds really is dramatic. Love the first 2 shots best. I'm thinking you must have a pretty fast lens to achieve a fast enough shutter speed to "freeze" the water and the person silhouette in that diminished light. Really nice pics!

[GI Jane]

Thanks Andy. I have found that the 5diii is amazing in low light. I also played around with the ISO so that I could have a faster shutter speed in some of the low light. When I arrived at the beach and the mist/fog rolled in I thought I was wasting my time down there, but I saw there was bright sunlight down Gordons Bay way so I decided to hang around and see if the fog lifted and patience paid off.

[Mud Dog]

Ja look, if you're not professionally involved in photography it's not worth the cost of the upper range equipment .... problem is that no sooner have you bought something that's decent and above entry level, when newer tech products emerge ... a bit like computers. When I bought my 450D it was a pretty decent unit but if I go above 400 ISO the pics start getting grainy, and I don't have any fast lenses that could compensate either. Boils down to cost and priorities for me .... just wish I could afford to upgrade.

[optirite]

Painting with light ... at Kubu Island, Botswana.

[Mud Dog]

Beautiful! The rural night skies are always bright and fascinating. Love the three sets of baobabs.

[GI Jane]

Wow!!! Mike that looks amazing... did you take that?

[optirite]

Wow!!! Mike that looks amazing... did you take that?

Yip.
Another

[GI Jane]

what light did you use to light up the foreground and boababs? Love the shots..

[X-Dors]

Pragtige fot's Val gaan ook so n bietjie op n reendag speel . hier is n paar wat ek met my Nikon se selective colour funksie op n trou mee gespeel het.En by Klein Tafelberg geneem het

[GI Jane]

Great shots Kobus, Thanks. I also love playing around with bringing some color back into a black and white shot to give it some emphasis.. That thick sand at Klein Tafelberg, brings back memories, of Hoppy co-driver, telling me to put foot and keep it flat.. some hair raising thick sandy corners, sliding out all over the place was great fun though..

[optirite]

what light did you use to light up the foreground and boababs? Love the shots..

1x 4cell maglite torch.