Dancing Smoke Update

Since I am practically newbie when it comes to editing in Photoshop Elements, which has a fairly steep learning curve, it took me good part of a day to figure out how to put different colors into same smoke. I learn the best by just hacking at it on my own, this way I will remember the technique for very long time. Of course I had a great help from fellow blogger The Bonnie 5, very talented photographer, and also my books on PSE7. This was real fun project and I am sure that I will return to it once it warms up, I was shooting in a garage where it was just above freezing. Now I have to find another indoor project to shoot. Maybe I will clean basement instead…nah, not fun!

Strawberry Drop Revisited

I had another go at strobing a strawberry dropped into wine glass. After about 60 drops or shots I have managed to capture one that is presentable. It is incredible how close it is to have a so-so picture, really lousy one and one you want to print, it is such a small fraction of a second. Patience and persistence are paramount to this type of photography.

More Strobe Photography

As I was working my way through a book on Canon strobe (electronic camera flash) I always came back to photograph on the cover – raspberry dropped into a glass of water. It is a stunning composition but there isn’t any detailed description as to how the picture was taken, just a passing note that 2 strobes were used hooked to radio trigger. I took it as a challenge and after about 5 hours of experimenting I have managed to get somewhat similar image. No raspberries in refrigerator so I used frozen strawberry. I am sure that I could have taken better picture but I ate my prop. I’ll be perfecting the technique once I buy some fresh strawberries.

Oops…I forgot to clean the wine glass in between shots!

My setup. One flash was placed behind and to the right of camera and second flash behind white screen. The flash on left is one from behind. Both flashes were triggered by radio trigger that was mounted on camera’s hot shoe.

I have tied steel nut to a string and then lowered the nut to position where the strawberry will be dropped. When the nut was dead still I focused on it manually and I was ready for the drops.

Book that challenged me.

Strobe Photography – Part 2

I did more strobe pixs of water droplets but this time instead of white card to bounce flash I used old calendar page with yellow sunflowers and white daisies. It came out pretty good. Later on I took my camera, strobe and tripod outside to take some early morning pictures of dew on peach tree branches and leaves. Then I packed my gear and drove to Lake Lisgard to take some foggy morning photographs. It was a good day.

The cedar that reflects in dew drop is only 1 meter behind the twig.

50mm Macro, f/16, 1/16sec., ISO 800, off camera flash at 1/32 power fired from left side.

Lake Lisgar at 9 o'clock.

Sunrise on Lake Lisgar

18mm lens, f/10, 1/400sec, ISO 100, CP filter

Strech of Trans-Canada Trail system.

Strobe Photography - More Fun with Camera

As I was surfing YouTube I came across interesting movie about photographing water droplets. Since I had everything needed for this specialised form of photography, generally called “strobing”, I just had to try it. I needed solid tripod, flash, radio strobe trigger set and lots of time on hand. The fact that I also have a light tent for close-ups was big advantage. Here are the results. Watch the video on YouTube to see how the set-up and focusing works.

In this shot I used Cloudy White Balance setting. Rest of the photographs were taken with Tungsten White Balance.

Canon Rebel T1i, Manual mode, 1/60 shutter, Macro lens 50mm 1:3.5 set at f/16 and 1:3 magnification, ISO 400, Yongnuo Digital flash YN468 at 1/16 power, Jianisi PT-04TM radio trigger, Cullmann 2904 tripod and head.