Possible PA #22

[Duke]

Wasn't sure whether to post here or the "hands" thread. M38A1, please move if redundant.

Anyway... Experimenting with the theme "hands" for the current photo challenge.

I used the SB-900 in remote mode, and had it positioned to the right of the clock at 45/50 degree angle to try and separate the clocks hands from its face. I cropped this and increased the exposure by +0.50 using the gradient filter in LR2 to the lower right corner.

Compared to this one with the flash mounted onto the camera and bounced off the ceiling.

Just a minor crop to this one and a tad bit of contrast added.

 

[M38A1]

I'm good with it....

Sort of nice to see the rich tones of the wood come out with the flash off to the side. I'd guess that's more true to the real colors that way??????

As for suitability for PA#22, that's in rad's hands.

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[Tourmeister]

I really like the sense of depth in the first shot. Also, the colors are really nice. Then there is a sense of oldness because of the dust on the hands. The image of the clock conveys a real sense of elapsed time. It makes me start wondering about the past, present and future all at once. It makes me really think about the subject of time. All in all, a very cool shot!

The second shot is just flat. While the wood grain is nice and rich, the rest of the clock hardware just seems to be missing something. I think part of it is that the number ring and the gold surround piece are slightly out of focus. In the first picture, that is part of what gives the sense of depth, but in this one it just looks out of focus for no reason. Lastly, I think the straight on shot could be improved perhaps by having a soft light source off to one side at a slight angle (maybe 60 deg off the center line of the clock face axis). Unlike the first shot, this one doesn't really get me to thinking about the subject of time because it just doesn't convey a sense of time. Does that make sense?

 

[RTScott]

Good job Duke!!! Really like the first one...the second photo demonstrates why "on camera flash" is really a ray gun of death to any good photo.

Did you try shooting the flash at different strengths to see what kind of effect that would have?

For a fun flash experiment, set up the same photo, put the flash on camera and instead of bouncing off of the ceiling, place a piece of white paper or preferably a white foam board to the left, turn the flash head towards the board and then take the photo. Would be interesting how that turns out...and then try it with the flash at various strengths.

 

[Duke]

Thanks y'all...

Yeah, I just put the second picture up to demonstrate what I started with on this concept and what I ended up with after trying to get a little creative...

STScott, I will try your suggestions and see what its like. For these shots, I had the flash at its lowestest setting, I think 1/64th or something like that, and dialed my exposure comp down to -1.

 

[Janet]

I love it!