Bikerbrent_RIP
Senior Member
Moving the right way! :encouragement:
Dangerous Spouse Pics
- Thread starter Dangerspouse
- Start date
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Another try, this time with studio lights (bare bulb with snoot camera-left, speedlight on low power, pointing right to bounce-fill the right side of the pic).
edit: Not sure if I prefer this one, with a little higher exposure:
edit: Not sure if I prefer this one, with a little higher exposure:
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Dangerspouse
Senior Member
For this week's "Silhouette" challenge, I decided to try something fun. My idea was to do a macro shoot of an old tiny slot car, set up against a softbox with some old Christmas fake tree clippings for foliage. Of course as soon as I started setting up, my cat decided he needed to investigate. So I decided I needed to take a shot or two:
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Once I shooed him off the table, I got down to business. This was the setup:
Then turn the softbox on, the room lights out, and...
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I had an awful lot of fun with this. I think I like #'s 2 and 3 the best, but I'm not sure. I may tweak some of the white balance in a few of the shots, and maybe lighten the last picture a little. I wanted to give it a twilight feel, but I think I went a bit too far. We'll see. I'll play around with them some more tomorrow and see what I think.
.
.
Once I shooed him off the table, I got down to business. This was the setup:
Then turn the softbox on, the room lights out, and...
.
I had an awful lot of fun with this. I think I like #'s 2 and 3 the best, but I'm not sure. I may tweak some of the white balance in a few of the shots, and maybe lighten the last picture a little. I wanted to give it a twilight feel, but I think I went a bit too far. We'll see. I'll play around with them some more tomorrow and see what I think.
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Bikerbrent_RIP
Senior Member
Close, but I like 2 and 4 the best. Number 3 comes in close!
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Awww, I like the tree! Lol...
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Tried Rick's suggestion of removing the "tree" portion of one of the shots, and adjusting the background color.
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
And a few more touches. I think this is my entry.
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Hey thanks for that, Rick! And I appreciate your suggestion to remove the foliage. Good call - that improved the overall composition :encouragement:
Peter7100
Senior Member
I was about to say no.2 with the famous Dell, until Rick came up with this masterpiece.
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
For this week's "Balls" challenge I wanted to try taking a picture of a golf ball at the moment of impact with a driver. I set up my D500 on the Gorilla Pod tripod and spread the legs til it was just above the ground, pointing at my practice mat (with a non-PGA approved but very hip SpongeBob Squarepants ball). My original plan was to put the camera into intervalometer mode, making it a one-person operation. But my wife asked if she could help, so I attached a wired remote shutter release and handed it to her with instructions to hold down the trigger once I started my downswing.
I gotta tell you, even at 10 fps it was almost impossible! Attempt after attempt, on the playback you would see 10 pictures in a row of the ball just sitting on the tee. Then the 11th picture would just be the tee, with no ball. The clubhead was going through too fast to catch! I must have taken 40 swings with her firing away, trying different swing speeds and swing plane angles. Nope. Just ball...ball...ball...ball...no ball. Every time.
Except one. It wasn't an impact shot, but it shows one is imminent. Not good enough to enter into the challenge, but I want to post it here anyway for my own reference because of the post processing. I'll try again later, hopefully with a sucessful strike!
It was a very overcast day - almost twilight darkness in the middle of the afternoon. So with a 1/3200th shutter speed and the lens open as far as it could go, I needed an ISO of 10,000. I thought the shot didn't look absolutely hideous right out of camera, all things considered (particularly given complaints I've seen in other forums about how the D500 creates too much noise at any ISO over 500...pffff). Still, it was definitely too noisy for an entry. So I decided to see what Topas DeNoise could do with it.
On another note, that clubhead must be absolutely moving. 1/3200th shutter speed is enough to freeze hummingbird wings. But here, it looks like I was shooting at 1/40th!
The following pics are first, straight out of camera, no edits. Second, run through DeNoise, with some small Lightroom adjustments:
.
I gotta tell you, even at 10 fps it was almost impossible! Attempt after attempt, on the playback you would see 10 pictures in a row of the ball just sitting on the tee. Then the 11th picture would just be the tee, with no ball. The clubhead was going through too fast to catch! I must have taken 40 swings with her firing away, trying different swing speeds and swing plane angles. Nope. Just ball...ball...ball...ball...no ball. Every time.
Except one. It wasn't an impact shot, but it shows one is imminent. Not good enough to enter into the challenge, but I want to post it here anyway for my own reference because of the post processing. I'll try again later, hopefully with a sucessful strike!
It was a very overcast day - almost twilight darkness in the middle of the afternoon. So with a 1/3200th shutter speed and the lens open as far as it could go, I needed an ISO of 10,000. I thought the shot didn't look absolutely hideous right out of camera, all things considered (particularly given complaints I've seen in other forums about how the D500 creates too much noise at any ISO over 500...pffff). Still, it was definitely too noisy for an entry. So I decided to see what Topas DeNoise could do with it.
On another note, that clubhead must be absolutely moving. 1/3200th shutter speed is enough to freeze hummingbird wings. But here, it looks like I was shooting at 1/40th!
The following pics are first, straight out of camera, no edits. Second, run through DeNoise, with some small Lightroom adjustments:
.
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Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Unidentified weeds at the base of my raspberry bush. I thought they were pretty. Tiny little suckers.
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nikonbill
Senior Member
Dangerspouse - I hope you succeed with the "ball hit", I had a similar idea where I had my wife hitting a tennis ball with her racket. I could not get something I liked due to timing. Thinking after the fact maybe a burst fired with a remote with the camera on a tripod per-focused might help starting at the correct time. I was trying to pan mine handheld due to focus distance changing on me, it was pretty hilarious 
layful:
Also, some thanks - You are inspiring me to start a "once and a while" thread here, I really enjoy looking at your thread. As soon as I have a raining day or two I will get it started. I am really growing (I think) with my photography since getting active in the weekly challenge. Following the folks here on the forum really seems to help me "see" better, composition has always been my photographic handicap. Just wanted to express my thanks to you for your inspiration - Bill
layful: Also, some thanks - You are inspiring me to start a "once and a while" thread here, I really enjoy looking at your thread. As soon as I have a raining day or two I will get it started. I am really growing (I think) with my photography since getting active in the weekly challenge. Following the folks here on the forum really seems to help me "see" better, composition has always been my photographic handicap. Just wanted to express my thanks to you for your inspiration - Bill
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Dangerspouse - I hope you succeed with the "ball hit", I had a similar idea where I had my wife hitting a tennis ball with her racket. I could not get something I liked due to timing. Thinking after the fact maybe a burst fired with a remote with the camera on a tripod per-focused might help starting at the correct time. I was trying to pan mine handheld due to focus distance changing on me, it was pretty hilarious
Also, some thanks - You are inspiring me to start a "once and a while" thread here, I really enjoy looking at your thread. As soon as I have a raining day or two I will get it started. I am really growing (I think) with my photography since getting active in the weekly challenge. Following the folks here on the forum really seems to help me "see" better, composition has always been my photographic handicap. Just wanted to express my thanks to you for your inspiration - Bill
Ha, yeah, I can see where hand holding while trying to get a shot like that would add an extra layer of difficulty. Good for you giving a try, though!
Aw, thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated. I have to say, I'm always impressed by the shots you toss up in the weekly challenges, so I think a "once in a while" space of your own is definitely called for! I hope you do, as I'd love to see what you play around with outside of the weekly entries. Go for it! :encouragement:
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I managed to get a couple of shots of this little guy on the wing as he was flitting from flower to flower in my yard. This wasn't my best shot for sharpness, but I like the composition. I was going to enter it in this week's "Stop Motion" challenge...until I had the bright idea to employ the services of my cat. That will be the next entry. Anyway, here's the flying moth. I'll post some of the others of him in the appropriate folder later:
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
For this week's "Stop Motion" challenge, I decided to bring in a pro. If there is anything more prone to looking cool mid-flight than a cat, I'd like to know. And as it so happens, I have a cat. Who likes to leap.
So I set up his cat tree in my kitchen a few feet from my kitchen island, and placed a soft box on either side of his flight path. It would have been easier for the auto focus to track Dell as he was travelling left to right across my field of view, but I wanted to see if I could get a shot of him leaping towards me. Dramatic!
Dell was more than up for it. Almost TOO up for it. I barely had time to plop him on his cat tree, sprint to the back of the island, kneel down, and grab focus before he launched himself towards me.
God bless whatever development team at Nikon came up with the D500. The two shots mid-flight where it counted were perfectly sharp. It only missed on the last couple, where the area focus points back-focused to his haunches. No matter.
Er... I should point out that Dell....missed the landing. Actually, he landed fine. But his back claws slipped off the varnished top of the island, and he slammed chest-first into the lip of the counter. You can see the spray ejecting from him on impact. He was ok though. Carnivores are tough. A scritch on head, and he was back purring like mad and wanting to play more.
Here's the setup. He jumps off that grey circular platform, into the lit zone, then descends to the top of the kitchen island. Or at least, that was the plan:
1. He arrives on the launch pad:
2. He looks to his right:
3. He looks to his left:
4. Houston, we are clear for liftoff:
5. And....LIFTOFF! WE HAVE LIFTOFF!
6. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!
7. We're a go for splashdown:
8. Uh, Houston, we have a problem....
9. ALL MEDIC PERSONEL TO THE LANDING SITE. STAT!
I love this hobby
So I set up his cat tree in my kitchen a few feet from my kitchen island, and placed a soft box on either side of his flight path. It would have been easier for the auto focus to track Dell as he was travelling left to right across my field of view, but I wanted to see if I could get a shot of him leaping towards me. Dramatic!
Dell was more than up for it. Almost TOO up for it. I barely had time to plop him on his cat tree, sprint to the back of the island, kneel down, and grab focus before he launched himself towards me.
God bless whatever development team at Nikon came up with the D500. The two shots mid-flight where it counted were perfectly sharp. It only missed on the last couple, where the area focus points back-focused to his haunches. No matter.
Er... I should point out that Dell....missed the landing. Actually, he landed fine. But his back claws slipped off the varnished top of the island, and he slammed chest-first into the lip of the counter. You can see the spray ejecting from him on impact. He was ok though. Carnivores are tough. A scritch on head, and he was back purring like mad and wanting to play more.
Here's the setup. He jumps off that grey circular platform, into the lit zone, then descends to the top of the kitchen island. Or at least, that was the plan:
1. He arrives on the launch pad:
2. He looks to his right:
3. He looks to his left:
4. Houston, we are clear for liftoff:
5. And....LIFTOFF! WE HAVE LIFTOFF!
6. WHEEEEEEEEEEE!
7. We're a go for splashdown:
8. Uh, Houston, we have a problem....
9. ALL MEDIC PERSONEL TO THE LANDING SITE. STAT!
I love this hobby
Bikerbrent_RIP
Senior Member
Great photo series of your black Cat. Glade he was not hurt in the jump.
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
Thanks Brent, I appreciate that! Lol. Yeah, he's a tough little cuss.
Dangerspouse
Senior Member
I'm wondering if anyone has an opinion on this.
When I took the shot of Dell launching off his pad, I leveled the camera to the counter top it was resting on. The perspective then made everything in the background tilt.
I kinda liked the effect at first, but then it started to irk me the more I looked at it. So I straightened the verticals in Lightroom, and that's the one I entered in the weekly challenge.
However now it's irking me again, lol. Straightening the verticals put the counter top at a wonky angle. Not wanting to run into the same problem with the verticals by re-leveling the counter top, I just cropped the bottom of the picture off. But...I'm not sure. There's no context re: where he's going to land.
So I'm curious. Which of these three do you prefer:
1. OOC
2. Straightened verticals:
3. Straight verticals with crop:
When I took the shot of Dell launching off his pad, I leveled the camera to the counter top it was resting on. The perspective then made everything in the background tilt.
I kinda liked the effect at first, but then it started to irk me the more I looked at it. So I straightened the verticals in Lightroom, and that's the one I entered in the weekly challenge.
However now it's irking me again, lol. Straightening the verticals put the counter top at a wonky angle. Not wanting to run into the same problem with the verticals by re-leveling the counter top, I just cropped the bottom of the picture off. But...I'm not sure. There's no context re: where he's going to land.
So I'm curious. Which of these three do you prefer:
1. OOC
2. Straightened verticals:
3. Straight verticals with crop: