Thread: It's here! LGK PHOTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE #1

Originally Posted by FlyBoeingJets

Those are cool, PM! I like the second one most. How'd you light them and shoot them? Tripod? Handheld? I can't see any EXIF in your lightroom gallery.

Thanks Glenn. I'm still flying blind and struggling with Lightroom. I may be harassing you with some question about it shortly I'm pretty sure.

Here's the info on the pics:

Scalloped Sunset: Just angled sunlight coming through a scalloped window on my front door. Nothing special, but thought it looked interesting when framed without context.

Transistor: Framed and focused against the bathroom mirror, then I turned off the lights and shot at 1/20th at F/4.5 ISO 1600 while "washing" the yellow glass with a flashlight. I took about 5 shots with less than favorable results, but this image got just enough light in the right places.

Love Letters To Tonga: Found this great bottle in my cabinet. Frosted, embossed, and etched all over. Went to storage and dug out an old light table, covered it in black, cut a small hole to let the light through and placed the bottle on top of the hole. I added ice cold water to the bottle to make it sweat and shot against a black backdrop.
#1 = 2 sec at f/14 ISO 100. Handheld (and by handheld, I mean I used a tripod)
#2 & #3 = 2 sec at f/45 ISO 100. Tripod

I also started to experiment with a laser (one of those laser thermometers, actually), and found that when I shot the laser into the back of the bottle, the glass refracted it nicely and created some interesting results. The red splotches on #2 are me messing around and accidentally missing the bottle and lighting the black cover of the light box. Nice accident I think, because that lava looking splotch added some drama to the shot.

All of my photos will be taken with my Canon Powershot A95 (a decent quality point & shoot) that I somehow have managed not to break it or lose it over several thousand miles of travel through cities, deserts, and forests, over mountains and oceans over the past couple years...


Yes, I am trying to jinx myself into losing it so I have an excuse to upgrade

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My first two submissions were taken downtown prior to the Dallas game:


Across from the Bonaventure



Union Bank reflected in it's shiny neighbor

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Second set of submissions. Found some bright ass light in my closet, set it up on the kitchen counter, turned off all the lights, set the mode to macro, and toyed around with some ideas (and beer):


Glass chess Set Behind the Counter in a Small Town



Cheap Beer, but Beer Nonetheless



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$2 wine... not sure which picture I like better, so I'll put up both for now. Again, slight cropping, upped contrast, etc.


I want to photoshop the glare off of the wall, but in the spirit of this post, the focus is on the actual shot...


I like the glare in the upper-left...

Originally Posted by PuckMonkey

Thanks Glenn. I'm still flying blind and struggling with Lightroom. I may be harassing you with some question about it shortly I'm pretty sure.

Here's the info on the pics:

Scalloped Sunset: Just angled sunlight coming through a scalloped window on my front door. Nothing special, but thought it looked interesting when framed without context.

Transistor: Framed and focused against the bathroom mirror, then I turned off the lights and shot at 1/20th at F/4.5 ISO 1600 while "washing" the yellow glass with a flashlight. I took about 5 shots with less than favorable results, but this image got just enough light in the right places.

Love Letters To Tonga: Found this great bottle in my cabinet. Frosted, embossed, and etched all over. Went to storage and dug out an old light table, covered it in black, cut a small hole to let the light through and placed the bottle on top of the hole. I added ice cold water to the bottle to make it sweat and shot against a black backdrop.
#1 = 2 sec at f/14 ISO 100. Handheld
#2 & #3 = 2 sec at f/45 ISO 100. Tripod

I also started to experiment with a laser (one of those laser thermometers, actually), and found that when I shot the laser into the back of the bottle, the glass refracted it nicely and created some interesting results. The red splotches on #2 are me messing around and accidentally missing the bottle and lighting the black cover of the light box. Nice accident I think, because that lava looking splotch added some drama to the shot.

Some creative technique there, to say the least. And you've gotta love those happy accidents. Mine cost me a bit yesterday, but I actually liked the pictures of the broken bits of crystal better than I liked the glasses!

As far as Lightroom goes, it'll all come together when you figure out a workflow that works for you.

Watti,

YOU STOLE MY IDEA!!

I like the composition of your first two. I don't think the contrast is necessarily too over-the-top, either. The downside to the P&S is their small, noisy sensors. There's a little bit visible in the blue skies, but nothing that you could have helped.

Good stuff so far!

here are my first entries...just looking at nocturn's first shot, i want to put something behind my first shot to make the color more interesting...





red lamp


thanks for all the feedback guys. I jacked up the contrast and lowered the sharpness in the 1st pic and just resized the second one.

Nice first pic KoD. Super clean resolution.

What is the second item? Christmas ornament?

Great entries by everybody so far

Glenn- Awesome shots! Love the cracked glass on the autopilot and the tags under your 'Disaster!' pic are hilarious

\_==oIxxI - That's a view all of us can relate to... I had a similar idea of laying glasses on a newspaper or book and trying to pick up some distortion through the lenses. Also like Glenn said, the photoshop possibilities with that are endless.

Nocturn - Don't give up on the Orion idea. Your crescent moon shot is awesome! I've noticed when I take my telescope up to Mt. Pinos that on moonless nights, it's so dark I can see the stars reflected off my windshield. I've always wondered if it'd be possible to pick that up on "film." If you decide to keep trying for it, I look forward to the results. In 80 years when my student loans are paid off, I'm hoping to upgrade to a DSLR to compliment my telescope(s)...

Puckmonkey's pictures are making me thirsty.

Nocturn,

That crescent moon shot is off the freakin' hook! It has a really cool three-dimensional feel to it...like there's a sphere in the middle of the image that just pops off the page. What is an LX200, anyhow? Reflector telescope?

KOD,

That first image is interesting! Ever thought about shifting it to grayscale and jacking up the contrast? I wonder how that would look...

Glad everyone's getting into this!!

Oh, Hey! I guess it's time for me to get started!