Thread: LGK Photography Challenge #2

Here is my first try at this challenge... Im trying to figure out how to use a light box.

Nice additions, peeps. And FBJ--or I guess it's now FKJ--those new ones are impressive! Absolutely professional quality images.

Originally Posted by OTTo VoN BLoTTo

Nice additions, peeps. And FBJ--or I guess it's now FKJ--those new ones are impressive! Absolutely professional quality images.

Thanks, OVB. I'm not sure if it's the blah mood I've been in today or what, but I really had a hard time deciding to put those up. My wife eventually talked me into posting them here (which is funny because she gave me the ideas for them to begin with). As I said, it might be my down mood (due to the weather, I think), but those pictures just don't excite me as much as they should to have been put up here. I appreciate the compliment, though.

Since I'm here, a round of comments:

Unruely,

I'm glad you're here. The two working titles to your first pic made me laugh. Take more pictures, dammit!

BigJoe,

That, sir, is a coooool image. I don't know exactly what it is (some sort of amplifier?), but the circles and blue cast fit the theme to a 'T'. With those exposure parameters, I imagine you were going for the "blown-out" light in the upper right hand corner. Nicely done.

Otto,

Where was that pic last week? It fit just as well in the last Challenge as it does in this one! Major props! Hand-held? That pic would look KILLER from atop a tripod! Cut down that hint of camera-shake blur.

Imamonsta,

DARTS!!! Great use of the circles! Vibrant colors! I like the "lomo" look!

Deuce,

Lightbox! Awesome! I want one! That pic is money! I like the arrangement of the chips, obviously stacked, but random enough with the different stack heights and loose chips here and there. I'd like to know what settings you used, as I think tightening the aperture down a stop or two would bring the chip closest to the camera into focus and make the image damned near pefect!

Signs

(Note that I don't shoot film, but I did try and do this as realistically as possible, i.e. shooting in the order I wanted them to appear, and not cropping. It is clear I didn't think about the portrait orientations not reading well in a contact sheet until I was laying it all up. I did cheat a little, I shot 40 frames for this, so I cut 10 out, and I did move a few around so that shots of similar subjects would be on the same strip)

Red, green, yellow


Circle, square, triangle (kinda):

Forgot to mention the lighting for both triptychs, AB800 camera right shooting through a 60" umbrella, (almost directly above subjects, and almost touching them as well, just out of frame), bare AB800 camera left, pretty much level with camera to get a little reflection off the fruit / veggies. All shot 5D + ef 135 f/2 at f/11 (the peas were shot with the 24-70 because I had to be more on top of them), 1/100th, iso 100 (some might be iso 50)

Red Kitchen bowl:

70mm, 1/1250 sec, f/2.8, iso 200 - I just filled a bowl up with water, put it on the kitchen table, which has a south facing window, so the bowl is back lit, cranked up the shutter speed and manually fired the shutter as a dripped water in from a turkey baster.
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Retouch: Removed the dust with the healing brush


8 Second Stop Light:

135mm, 8 sec, f/14, iso50 - Waited for sunset (and it actually ended up being quite a bit after sunset to finally get dark enough but not too dark), camera on a tripod with a cable release. I found an intersection with both an interesting light, as well as no cross walk buttons so the light change interval would be constant. Once the light turned green, I started my stopwatch and opened my shutter when there were 2 seconds of green left, the yellow lasted 3 seconds, and red was what ever was left over (in this case, 3 seconds).

5 South:

135mm, 6 sec, f/6.3, iso50 - Lightroom adjustments: boosted red saturation, reduced yellow, dialed down the color temp, cropped off the top portion. I really wanted to do this shot downtown (there are no fences on the bridges, and the background would have been more interesting), but was feeling under the weather, so I wasn't up for much gallivanting around. The most interesting thing about this image is that a car with LED tail lights drove by, and you can see them pulsing (several times a second) in the second lane from the right.
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Retouch - Changed the crop and played with the exposure of the signs so they aren't so burnt out:

Sign pushed:

Originally Posted by FlyKoharski'sJock

How'd you do the "film contact sheet" layup, Sam?

Oh, and thanks for knockin' 30 ideas off my list in one photograph. :P

I had a few old contact sheets laying around (I think from an old college dark room class), scanned one it, created a layer mask to hide the old images, and dropped these in there.

Yeah, I wanted to get those up fast, because I knew that was going to be a popular one However, I don't think that others couldn't try signs as well.

Alright, now that I have my images, I can do a round of commenting.

FBJ / FKJ:
Really nice stuff here. You must be in a grumpy mood not to like these. I really love the "Wetro" image, that 70-200 has beautiful bokeh. The crayons are fantastic as well. Very simple yet very strong. Very well lit, you are really working the off camera flash and the results have been great. Now the real question, where those cupcakes special for this challenge? Or do you guys normally eat blue cupcakes on a red counter

Ruely:
I think it fits very well. My only crit on this image would be that there is a bit of unused space on the left side of the fame, and it makes me want to pan the the right just a touch. But I like the story the image (and the title) tells Looking forward to seeing the true primary idea!

Big Joe:
Great image! It is hard to critique this shot, but if I had to say something, the only thing I would say is I wonder if a longer lens might suit this image a little better. This is just personal preference, but I think the more orthographic view that a longer lens (and having the camera further from the subject) would give you would really work here. As it is now, it feels a little "wide angle" where you can see the side of stuff at the edge of frame. With a longer lens, it would be more front on, which I think would just bump up the slickness quotient a hair. I do really like the shot.

OVB:
Glenn is right, it could have worked in either challenge. It makes me want to be sitting out on the lanai (or to even have a lanai). Nice first image, looking forward to the other ideas you have coming.

imamonsta:
Nice choice of the dart board. I'm currious though what you did to get the lomo look. Can we see a before and after?

Deuce:
Nice use of the light box. How are you lighting the light box? I wonder if you were to only light if from one side, if you would still get the really nice soft light quality that the light box gives you, but would add a little directionality to the lighting. Very nice though, nice arrangement of the subject.

Nice images so far, looking forward to seeing more!

Originally Posted by ValleyFan

Ruely:
I think it fits very well. My only crit on this image would be that there is a bit of unused space on the left side of the fame, and it makes me want to pan the the right just a touch. But I like the story the image (and the title) tells Looking forward to seeing the true primary idea!

Damn Ghettocam! Glenn stole my idea. I stole the crayons from my kid Friday night and nothing was working. LOL teh search moves along...

Loving everyones pics posted so far. You guys are so uber.

Originally Posted by ValleyFan

Imamonsta:
Nice choice of the dart board. I'm currious though what you did to get the lomo look. Can we see a before and after?

here is a tutorial for the steps, http://www.flickr.com/groups/technique/discuss/12082/, i dont have the original with me, but ill post it later tonight. Basically the Lomo effect boosts the saturation and contrast and also adds a vignette which are how the cameras naturally produce photos, rad little german cameras. There are alot of before and afters in the comments of the tutorial

Originally Posted by FlyKoharski'sJock

BigJoe,

That, sir, is a coooool image. I don't know exactly what it is (some sort of amplifier?), but the circles and blue cast fit the theme to a 'T'. With those exposure parameters, I imagine you were going for the "blown-out" light in the upper right hand corner. Nicely done.

woops. I should have captioned it. It's only my table radio.