Dangerous Spouse Pics
- Thread starter Dangerspouse
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Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Thanks guys!
:cheerful:
:cheerful:
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
For this week's challenge, "Bokeh", I wanted to try Front Bokeh as I've always liked the effect since seeing it on some fashion shoot vid a year or so ago. Up til then when I wanted bokeh I always reflexively put it behind the subject. It's nice, but I think it's nifty when some of the bokeh circles cover the subject but are transparent enough to just give a color cast.
I wanted to get my wife to sit for this, but she wasn't having it
. So I got the next most human thing in our house: a giant nutcracker crafted from clay flower pots. He got stood on a chair in front of our dining room curtains with two soft boxes trained at 45 degree angles. A bit of a Dutch Angle tilt with the tripod, as pure vertical was kind of uninteresting. For the bokeh, I grabbed a string of Christmas lights.
The first string of lights were all white (the colored string was in the attic and I was too lazy to dig them out). However they were tiny LED lights mounted flush against the sockets like little baby spotlights. No protrusion at all so they sent out very directional beams. I had to work to get them all pointed at the lens, or they wouldn't show. After numerous frustrating attempts, I finally got several at once oriented the correct way and took the shot:
Because they were so tiny they had to be pushed almost right up to the lens glass, and that created the problem of making the wires visible as dark shadows between them that you can see. Additionally, I didn't find it very festive. Time to stop being lazy. Up the attic I went.
The more traditional lights were much easier to work with, and I liked the multitude of colors, but here too I had to be careful not to let the wires get enough light on them to ruin the shot:
That was caused by the light string being held too far from the lens. Far enough that the wires were being illuminated by the edges of the soft boxes. It took some finagling, but I did eventually figure out how to keep a mat of loose lights fairly flat and find the sweet spot to hold them between the lens and the light source. I took about 10 decent shots, and this one ended up being the one I thought had the best distribution of lights for the composition. It's the one I entered:
That was a fun challenge. Kudos to last week's winner Peter7100 for suggesting it!
I wanted to get my wife to sit for this, but she wasn't having it
. So I got the next most human thing in our house: a giant nutcracker crafted from clay flower pots. He got stood on a chair in front of our dining room curtains with two soft boxes trained at 45 degree angles. A bit of a Dutch Angle tilt with the tripod, as pure vertical was kind of uninteresting. For the bokeh, I grabbed a string of Christmas lights.The first string of lights were all white (the colored string was in the attic and I was too lazy to dig them out). However they were tiny LED lights mounted flush against the sockets like little baby spotlights. No protrusion at all so they sent out very directional beams. I had to work to get them all pointed at the lens, or they wouldn't show. After numerous frustrating attempts, I finally got several at once oriented the correct way and took the shot:
Because they were so tiny they had to be pushed almost right up to the lens glass, and that created the problem of making the wires visible as dark shadows between them that you can see. Additionally, I didn't find it very festive. Time to stop being lazy. Up the attic I went.
The more traditional lights were much easier to work with, and I liked the multitude of colors, but here too I had to be careful not to let the wires get enough light on them to ruin the shot:
That was caused by the light string being held too far from the lens. Far enough that the wires were being illuminated by the edges of the soft boxes. It took some finagling, but I did eventually figure out how to keep a mat of loose lights fairly flat and find the sweet spot to hold them between the lens and the light source. I took about 10 decent shots, and this one ended up being the one I thought had the best distribution of lights for the composition. It's the one I entered:
That was a fun challenge. Kudos to last week's winner Peter7100 for suggesting it!
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NestorStura
Senior Member
Great shots, Tom!!!
It's always great to read your experience. Thanks.
Néstor
Enviado desde mi RMX1931 mediante Tapatalk
It's always great to read your experience. Thanks.
Néstor
Enviado desde mi RMX1931 mediante Tapatalk
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
NestorStura
Senior Member
Yes, thanks God, a lot of work and healthy.Wow, thank you very much, Nestor! I hope you and yours are all well
Hope you and family too!
Néstor
Enviado desde mi RMX1931 mediante Tapatalk
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I've always liked the paintings of Rene Magritte, the Belgian surrealist. I have several framed prints of some of his more famous works around my house that I've owned since I was young.
One of his most recognizable works is a painting of a pipe titled "The Treachery of Images", or "This is not a pipe" ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe"). It's witty because at first glance it is a pipe, but in reality it's not a pipe. It's a painting. I always got a kick out of that.
He also did a painting of a landscape, with the canvas in the window looking out at the exact landscape.
So when I saw this week's theme was "Looking Out", I thought it would be fun to try a surrealist spin of my own using an actual surrealist print. Since it's snowing AGAIN here, and my wife is not happy about it, I had the idea to have her look at the landscape print as if she were dreaming it was actually spring or summer. So she's looking at a painting of a landscape that has a painting of a landscape over an actual landscape. I called it "Ceci n'est pas une fenêtre" ("This is not a window") as an homage. Since yes, I am that pretentious
I put the print over one of the two windows at our kitchen table, and had her stare at it while I snapped from several angles and focal lengths. At the end I narrowed it down to these two:
.
It was a tough call for me. I really like the first picture's overall composition, filling the frame. But I thought I almost lined up the print almost too perfectly, making it look like a split-screen composite.
And I liked having a bit more of my wife showing in the second shot, and preferred her more contemplative expression. But I didn't like seeing my neighbor's house, and cropping it out made it look awkward. On the other hand, seeing the top of the framed poster made it more obvious what was going on, and less split-screen looking.
In the end, I went with #1.
I'll note that it was a bit of a technical challenge. There were two different light temperatures to deal with (soft box behind my wife to highlight her hair and bring the poster out of shadow, and sunlight coming in through window). And controlling reflections off the glass fronted poster took a fair amount of manipulation (I was too lazy to dig out my CPF, lol).
Anyway, it was a lot of fun setting this up. Win, lose, or draw I was a good day of shooting
One of his most recognizable works is a painting of a pipe titled "The Treachery of Images", or "This is not a pipe" ("Ceci n'est pas une pipe"). It's witty because at first glance it is a pipe, but in reality it's not a pipe. It's a painting. I always got a kick out of that.
He also did a painting of a landscape, with the canvas in the window looking out at the exact landscape.
So when I saw this week's theme was "Looking Out", I thought it would be fun to try a surrealist spin of my own using an actual surrealist print. Since it's snowing AGAIN here, and my wife is not happy about it, I had the idea to have her look at the landscape print as if she were dreaming it was actually spring or summer. So she's looking at a painting of a landscape that has a painting of a landscape over an actual landscape. I called it "Ceci n'est pas une fenêtre" ("This is not a window") as an homage. Since yes, I am that pretentious
I put the print over one of the two windows at our kitchen table, and had her stare at it while I snapped from several angles and focal lengths. At the end I narrowed it down to these two:
.
It was a tough call for me. I really like the first picture's overall composition, filling the frame. But I thought I almost lined up the print almost too perfectly, making it look like a split-screen composite.
And I liked having a bit more of my wife showing in the second shot, and preferred her more contemplative expression. But I didn't like seeing my neighbor's house, and cropping it out made it look awkward. On the other hand, seeing the top of the framed poster made it more obvious what was going on, and less split-screen looking.
In the end, I went with #1.
I'll note that it was a bit of a technical challenge. There were two different light temperatures to deal with (soft box behind my wife to highlight her hair and bring the poster out of shadow, and sunlight coming in through window). And controlling reflections off the glass fronted poster took a fair amount of manipulation (I was too lazy to dig out my CPF, lol).
Anyway, it was a lot of fun setting this up. Win, lose, or draw I was a good day of shooting
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I've been in quite a photography funk the last couple of weeks. I don't know what it is, but I just haven't felt like pulling the camera out. However after work yesterday I forced myself to stick a lens on the ol' Nikon and have a go at this week's challenge. Maybe immersing myself in the process would get me over the hump.
The theme this week was "Yellow". I didn't want to do the stereotypical yellow fruit composition, so I searched for other things around the house that fit the category. My wife races motorcycles, and one of her dirt bikes is bright yellow. I thought of posing her on it in a yellow-streaked helmet and matching jersey. But then I saw a few other objects that looked more interesting. One was a tiny little rubber sheep my wife keeps on her desk as a hand-squeeze stress reliever. The other was a heavy duty outdoor electrical extension cord. Both were bright yellow.
I started with the sheep, which looked funny head-on done high key on a white drop cloth. In fact, I'm kinda sorry I deleted those pics now. But at the time I decided it needed more elements, so I found a yellow parts basket and flipped it upside down to look like a fence and placed both on a green woolen blanket that I bunched into rolling contours. It still needed something though, so scouring around I found my old Monopoly game and snagged the wheelbarrow piece from it. And voila, a yellow sheep escaping from a toy farm:
That took a bit more work than I thought it would. The tray and the sheep were both the same shade of yellow, so they almost blended together. But I had this set up in a light box, and by moving and angling the baby spotlights on the outside of the box I was able to direct some shadows and shading to differentiate them (I think I may have made the sheep just a tad too bright while trying to do that, though). Then it was just a matter of seeing what different apertures produced. Wide open was way too shallow a DOF, and anything much over f/7 made the tray look obviously like a tray. I settled on f/7.1 as the sweet spot.
Then to the extension cord.
I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw it, so the only thing was to figure out the setup. I decided to go low key so the yellow would really pop. I hung my black drop cloth over the kitchen table window - the same table you see my wife sitting at in my previous post - and turned all the lights out. I went with a single soft box pointed right at my face, since I wanted it kind of dramatic with shadows and highlights. Then it was just a matter of holding the cord with my hand high enough up so it curved into a snake shape, but not so high up that it was in the shot. With the other hand I fired off the IR remote trigger on a 2-second timer. At less than 1/50th of a second I had a lot of blurry pictures as either my head, the cord, or both moved, but I did finally get several keepers. (9-point AF-F mode.)
In PP I had fun changing the color of my eyes and teeth. The hat is naturally that color. This was the first one I processed:
But then I realized I preferred this shot, after initially dismissing it because I cut off the bottom portion of my chin and the cord wasn't as long:
It just seems like a better composition overall, so that's the one I entered. Even though the hat brim cast more of a shadow and made the eye change less obvious, I just liked it more.
I realized as I was doing all this just how much fun I was having trying to figure all the elements out in order to get the result I wanted. Hopefully it was enough fun that it got me out of my rut!
The theme this week was "Yellow". I didn't want to do the stereotypical yellow fruit composition, so I searched for other things around the house that fit the category. My wife races motorcycles, and one of her dirt bikes is bright yellow. I thought of posing her on it in a yellow-streaked helmet and matching jersey. But then I saw a few other objects that looked more interesting. One was a tiny little rubber sheep my wife keeps on her desk as a hand-squeeze stress reliever. The other was a heavy duty outdoor electrical extension cord. Both were bright yellow.
I started with the sheep, which looked funny head-on done high key on a white drop cloth. In fact, I'm kinda sorry I deleted those pics now. But at the time I decided it needed more elements, so I found a yellow parts basket and flipped it upside down to look like a fence and placed both on a green woolen blanket that I bunched into rolling contours. It still needed something though, so scouring around I found my old Monopoly game and snagged the wheelbarrow piece from it. And voila, a yellow sheep escaping from a toy farm:
That took a bit more work than I thought it would. The tray and the sheep were both the same shade of yellow, so they almost blended together. But I had this set up in a light box, and by moving and angling the baby spotlights on the outside of the box I was able to direct some shadows and shading to differentiate them (I think I may have made the sheep just a tad too bright while trying to do that, though). Then it was just a matter of seeing what different apertures produced. Wide open was way too shallow a DOF, and anything much over f/7 made the tray look obviously like a tray. I settled on f/7.1 as the sweet spot.
Then to the extension cord.
I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I saw it, so the only thing was to figure out the setup. I decided to go low key so the yellow would really pop. I hung my black drop cloth over the kitchen table window - the same table you see my wife sitting at in my previous post - and turned all the lights out. I went with a single soft box pointed right at my face, since I wanted it kind of dramatic with shadows and highlights. Then it was just a matter of holding the cord with my hand high enough up so it curved into a snake shape, but not so high up that it was in the shot. With the other hand I fired off the IR remote trigger on a 2-second timer. At less than 1/50th of a second I had a lot of blurry pictures as either my head, the cord, or both moved, but I did finally get several keepers. (9-point AF-F mode.)
In PP I had fun changing the color of my eyes and teeth. The hat is naturally that color. This was the first one I processed:
But then I realized I preferred this shot, after initially dismissing it because I cut off the bottom portion of my chin and the cord wasn't as long:
It just seems like a better composition overall, so that's the one I entered. Even though the hat brim cast more of a shadow and made the eye change less obvious, I just liked it more.
I realized as I was doing all this just how much fun I was having trying to figure all the elements out in order to get the result I wanted. Hopefully it was enough fun that it got me out of my rut!
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Been a busy week at work, so I didn't get a chance to take any flower pics earlier for the weekly challenge. But today, Saturday, I got a break so I gave it a shot. Of course the weather, which had been sunny and mild all week, turned overnight. I woke this morning to drizzle and cold, and no light. But around 11 o'clock the skies cleared a bit, and even though it wasn't Golden Hour light I thought I'd give it a shot.
I wanted to trek into the woods and see if anything had bloomed in an interesting setting, but it was pretty muddy and I worried for my non-weather sealed D5500. We have daffodils ringing the front of our house, and they're pretty. But they're also done to death. I nixed that idea.
Until I spotted some tiny little white flowers coming up a few feet in front of them. And I mean, these things are tiny. I wouldn't have noticed them if I weren't kneeling on the ground trying to see if it was worth shooting the daffodils anyway.
I thought it would be interesting to get my 40mm macro out and seeing if I could grab a pic of them with the daffs in the background. I tried hyperfocal distance focusing, but I couldn't really pull it off. So I decided first just to focus on some mid-point flowers with a shallow DOF, making them stand out in relief from the foreground and background (daffodils):
Then I tried isolating just a few of the little flowers, but to get the number in focus that I wanted I had to focus stack two shots. These were the two:
.
Merged and PP'd (including reducing some of the Dutch Tilt that didn't look as good as I thought it would):
I dunno. Neither of them really grab me, so I'll hold of on entering either until I see if tomorrow's weather is better. If not, or I just get lazy (which has been known to happen, believe it or not) I'll have to decide which of those two I should toss into the challenge. Decisions, decisions.....
I wanted to trek into the woods and see if anything had bloomed in an interesting setting, but it was pretty muddy and I worried for my non-weather sealed D5500. We have daffodils ringing the front of our house, and they're pretty. But they're also done to death. I nixed that idea.
Until I spotted some tiny little white flowers coming up a few feet in front of them. And I mean, these things are tiny. I wouldn't have noticed them if I weren't kneeling on the ground trying to see if it was worth shooting the daffodils anyway.
I thought it would be interesting to get my 40mm macro out and seeing if I could grab a pic of them with the daffs in the background. I tried hyperfocal distance focusing, but I couldn't really pull it off. So I decided first just to focus on some mid-point flowers with a shallow DOF, making them stand out in relief from the foreground and background (daffodils):
Then I tried isolating just a few of the little flowers, but to get the number in focus that I wanted I had to focus stack two shots. These were the two:
.
Merged and PP'd (including reducing some of the Dutch Tilt that didn't look as good as I thought it would):
I dunno. Neither of them really grab me, so I'll hold of on entering either until I see if tomorrow's weather is better. If not, or I just get lazy (which has been known to happen, believe it or not) I'll have to decide which of those two I should toss into the challenge. Decisions, decisions.....
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I've had pets pretty much all my life. Mostly cats and dogs, but also the odd fish, lizard, ant farm, sea monkeys, and even once a red legged tarantula. But since our last corgi died a couple of years ago and his cat sister disappeared shortly afterwards, our house has been devoid of animal life (except us).
A few weeks ago my wife started lobbying again for another pet. Specifically a cat. She liked when our previous cat curled up on her lap while she read at night before going to bed, and wanted another "cuddle muffin". I agreed, but with one stipulation: it had to be an older animal. Now that I'm getting to be of a certain age I don't want to still be scooping out litter boxes 10 - 15 years from now as I enter my retirement. She agreed.
So of course last week she came home with a 1 year old cat.
"It cuddled with me" she said. "Cuddled!"
So now we have a 1 year old cat and it looks like my golden retirement years are going to be very stinky indeed.
I have to say though, this is a VERY affectionate cat. The day wifey arrived home from the shelter, he came out of the carrier and immediately ran over to me to be petted. We've named him "Dell", because he's a real laptop. So, wifey got her wish. She also got a cat tree and some toys.
The only annoying thing so far is that when I get up for work at 4 am he insists on shadowing me, including to my radio studio in the basement. So now I have a co-host:
That was the very first morning after he arrived. No acclimation time at all.
Yesterday I snapped a few pics once wifey assembled the cat tree, including some shallow DOF portraits just for giggles:
This cat has the most amazing glowing eyes, made all the more dramatic by the inky black fur surrounding them. Like a lot of cats' eyes, the color varies depending on the light. This one's eyes often seem a shade of green, but with the bounce flash I was using they came out golden every time. Weird.
I want to see if I can get a good low key shot of him with a black backdrop. I watched a product photography video a while back where the instructor showed how to shoot a jet black object against a jet black background and still make it stand out. He used a statue of a black cat. I want to try the real thing. Wish me luck!
Now if you'll excuse me, I see a certain litterbox needs scooping. Again....
edit: in the picture of the cat with the clock, I decided to try the "High Contrast" treatment in Lightroom. Seeing here, I don't think I like it. The cat was dark enough without it. Lesson learned.
A few weeks ago my wife started lobbying again for another pet. Specifically a cat. She liked when our previous cat curled up on her lap while she read at night before going to bed, and wanted another "cuddle muffin". I agreed, but with one stipulation: it had to be an older animal. Now that I'm getting to be of a certain age I don't want to still be scooping out litter boxes 10 - 15 years from now as I enter my retirement. She agreed.
So of course last week she came home with a 1 year old cat.
"It cuddled with me" she said. "Cuddled!"
So now we have a 1 year old cat and it looks like my golden retirement years are going to be very stinky indeed.
I have to say though, this is a VERY affectionate cat. The day wifey arrived home from the shelter, he came out of the carrier and immediately ran over to me to be petted. We've named him "Dell", because he's a real laptop. So, wifey got her wish. She also got a cat tree and some toys.
The only annoying thing so far is that when I get up for work at 4 am he insists on shadowing me, including to my radio studio in the basement. So now I have a co-host:
That was the very first morning after he arrived. No acclimation time at all.
Yesterday I snapped a few pics once wifey assembled the cat tree, including some shallow DOF portraits just for giggles:
This cat has the most amazing glowing eyes, made all the more dramatic by the inky black fur surrounding them. Like a lot of cats' eyes, the color varies depending on the light. This one's eyes often seem a shade of green, but with the bounce flash I was using they came out golden every time. Weird.
I want to see if I can get a good low key shot of him with a black backdrop. I watched a product photography video a while back where the instructor showed how to shoot a jet black object against a jet black background and still make it stand out. He used a statue of a black cat. I want to try the real thing. Wish me luck!
Now if you'll excuse me, I see a certain litterbox needs scooping. Again....
edit: in the picture of the cat with the clock, I decided to try the "High Contrast" treatment in Lightroom. Seeing here, I don't think I like it. The cat was dark enough without it. Lesson learned.
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Dangerspouse
Senior Member
To be fair, Debbie was an excellent tarantula, as far as they go.
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I got up before the sun this morning to see if I could catch a couple of Golden Hour shots of a decrepit barn a few miles from my house. Most of the year it's hidden by the trees and undergrowth that have sprung up around it, but in the winter and early spring it's more visible. There is a large hill to one side, and that's where the sun crested. I first positioned myself with the sun to my back, but because of foliage I couldn't get the whole barn in - although I may go back another morning and choose a farther vantage point. So what I did first was shoot into the sun, with a 9-shot HDR:
I liked that a lot, so I gave it a B&W and sepia treatment just to see:
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I like those also. They both kinda give it an Old Timey feel, and accentuate the decrepitude I think.
I did the same thing with a front-lit picture of one side of the structure. Compositionally, I think this may be my favorite:
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On my way back I stopped across the road from a tree I've always liked. It sits right along the far edge of a local ranch, and really stands out as a white sparkle in the middle of a dark strand. I really want to come back and get this one in the snow. Anyway, some of the cattle were grazing, and I managed to get one in the shot more or less ok:
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Just down the road from there a bit is a really nice local park, with a walking trail, a playground for the little kids, and quite a few ball fields - 2 baseball diamonds, a football field, two soccer pitches, and several basketball courts. Although the sun was now getting well overhead, I decided to try a panorama while standing on the trail overlooking the two soccer fields. This is 8 stitched shots:
All in all a fun morning out. I even got home before my wife woke up! Win/win :applouse:
I liked that a lot, so I gave it a B&W and sepia treatment just to see:
.
I like those also. They both kinda give it an Old Timey feel, and accentuate the decrepitude I think.
I did the same thing with a front-lit picture of one side of the structure. Compositionally, I think this may be my favorite:
.
On my way back I stopped across the road from a tree I've always liked. It sits right along the far edge of a local ranch, and really stands out as a white sparkle in the middle of a dark strand. I really want to come back and get this one in the snow. Anyway, some of the cattle were grazing, and I managed to get one in the shot more or less ok:
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.
Just down the road from there a bit is a really nice local park, with a walking trail, a playground for the little kids, and quite a few ball fields - 2 baseball diamonds, a football field, two soccer pitches, and several basketball courts. Although the sun was now getting well overhead, I decided to try a panorama while standing on the trail overlooking the two soccer fields. This is 8 stitched shots:
All in all a fun morning out. I even got home before my wife woke up! Win/win :applouse:
Attachments
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I saw our newly adopted cat staring out our back bay window this morning, and when I looked out it looked like a couple of squirrels were running in circles around a dog. They were in my adjoining neighbor's yard, on the driveway next to his shed. But when I looked closer it turned out to be a fox with a couple of her kits scampering about. As I watched, several other kits emerged from under the raised floor of the shed. I counted 5 total. By the time I reached my camera, all but one of the kits had returned to the den. I was lucky to get this off just before mom and the remaining pup joined them.
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Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Went out yesterday during a break in the rains to get some pictures of the gate to our local state park, which hasn't opened yet for the season. Not sure yet if I'll use any of these for this week's challenge ("Gates").
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Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Went down to our local cemetery yesterday because they have a really nifty wrought iron gate that would have made great shot (I think) for the "Gate" challenge this week. But when I got there, the gate was open and a service was being held right behind it. I didn't want to be so crass as to intrude on the mourners with my camera, so I drove around the far side of the grounds to see what I could find. There were a few large mausoleums, some of which had faux gate fronts which were solid but shaped like gated entries. Most were metal which had oxidized into various shades of green-blue. I used this as my entry, a detail of one of the hinges and a pull bar. I like the following B&W treatment of it, too:
Afterwards I wandered around a bit more and took some general shots, but it was starting to rain so I couldn't stay long.
There were a few others, but those are my favorites. Shame the skies weren't blue, but oh well. Appropriate weather for a cemetery, I suppose....
Afterwards I wandered around a bit more and took some general shots, but it was starting to rain so I couldn't stay long.
There were a few others, but those are my favorites. Shame the skies weren't blue, but oh well. Appropriate weather for a cemetery, I suppose....
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I figured it was about time I tried the Multi Flash function on my speedlight, so I gave it a shot for this week's "Coins" challenge. It was a lot tougher than I expected, because the coin kept wobbling into and out of the focal plane. I literally bruised my thumb flicking that heavy silver dollar so many times until I finally got some keepers. Here's a couple of them:
Just testing the light:
Nice, but just outside the focal plane, and that also gave light fall-off:
This is what an awful lot of them looked like:
I did get a few where the flashes went off as the coin was settling down, and I liked those a lot. This was my favorite, and the one I entered:
Just testing the light:
Nice, but just outside the focal plane, and that also gave light fall-off:
This is what an awful lot of them looked like:
I did get a few where the flashes went off as the coin was settling down, and I liked those a lot. This was my favorite, and the one I entered:
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Practicing some things for the "Macro-ish" challenge this week. Got a few things on the card, but this is the first I processed: a dandelion head with the 40mm Micro f/2.8. The second shot is the setup.
