Random close-shots --C&C -- always

[ggt]

I took these mostly to practice. I looking to get the colors clear and sharp and properly lit. And, of course, the final crop visually pleasing. I used some old iridescent white curtains I had as a background with my 2 small Ott-lite full-spectrum LED craft lights on either side behind the fabric. I also used the flash on the camera.

I'm getting more and more frustrated with my Point and Click. If my kid ever gets thru college . . . .

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The EXIF shows they were taken in "portrait" mode, whatever that means. f3.5, 4.2 focal length, 1/30 exposure, iso 125.

Thanks for your time and patience!

[captivating]

These were really neat! What a great way to figure out your settings for color, lighting whatever denise

[Mike Buckley]

Your composition, post-processing and depth of field are very nice. In the last one, consider cropping to eliminate about two-thirds of the bottom piece. If your camera allows you to shoot a long exposure on a tripod (it may not), try the same type of photography without using the on-board flash.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Gretchen,

Cool subject matter here.

If I may expound a bit on what Mike has said please?

Probably your on-board light has caused some reflections that may not be advantageous to what I am given to understand you were going for.

I try to remember and always fail to understand the angle of incidence=angle of reflection credo. I have recently had a bout with this as I was doing a staff shoot with a lot of folks who wore glasses. Same theory. I was ready for it, knew it, and still had to adjust on the fly from time to time. Your cylindrical subjects are especially susceptible to this phenomenon. An on-board flash will most always reflect right back into your lens with these cylinders.

If you could have maybe upped your exposure time, or adjusted your off camera lighting, and eliminated the on-board flash, you would have allowed the color to soak into your sensor, and without the glare of the reflections. Gotten a lot more detail in the color swirls, and would have probably pleased you even more. As an aside, I think that in the first shot, and the upper middle purple cylinder, and on its upper edge, the reflection I see of what is maybe your background is kind of pleasing and helps give some depth. An option might also be a black background, but you might lose some fill there.


Again, as Mike mentioned, the crops and depths of field are very nice and you have chosen a tricky subject!

Well done and go for it!

[ggt]

Terry, Mike and Denise --thanks for your comments.

An on-board flash will most always reflect right back into your lens with these cylinders.

Yes, the EXIF said that return light was detected. It confused me at first, now I understand. I have to figure out what my Sony Point and Shoot considers a longer exposure time. As it seems to have a different language--probably user friendly--for what I think it should say. I've printed a bunch of "cheat sheets" I've found around the intertoobs, I'll have to find and consult them. I did shut-off the flash, but didn't get enough light. So I'll have to figure out how to extend the exposure time. It is all making sense . . . .

thanks again!

[Bobobird]

I like what you have done here. Nice colours and shapes. Well done.

One thing about on-board flash is that its light is usually harsh and hard to control. In situations like these where you know that the flash is going to reflect, place a piece of tissue over the flash to diffuse/soften the light.

I have my small one in the car for instant access or to carry around if the big one is not convenient or handy. A small ladies coin purse holds a stack of precut lens cleaning paper, some blu-tack, a small gorillapod, and a spare battery. At times the sunglasses are used as a polariser.

[ggt]

Ah, Bobo! I have a similar bag that clips onto my purse. It has my charger cords and accutrements, a lens cleaning wipe, mini-tripod. I put a dab of white nail polish over my flash thingy on my camera. It seems to help. I had some cotton and kleenex taped over it for a while, but the nail polish seems to work better and doesn't fall off. I haven't found a situation in which I didn't want to diffuse the flash. On one setting, there is a "slow syncro" setting for the flash --it is really the only time I've found the flash useful. Lighting seems to be my biggest challenge. (other than the obvious mental limitations )

I checked the intertoobs and found that the only real way to lengthen the exposure time is to lower the ISO --which is already at the lowest possible for the camera (125). I could probably play around with some of the low-light settings, but I don't think it will do much more. Sunglasses are a good idea, but mine are prescription --LOL. I have a polarizer that was my Dear Ole' Dad's, but I'm afraid I'll lose it and don't carry it around.

Thanks for your input.

[revi]

Perhaps to clear up a few points:

- to get softer light, your light source needs to be larger (like when using a softbox), so just putting something directly on the glass of the flash won't do much except gobbling up light.

- in this case, you don't need a longer exposure per se. But if you don't use the on-board flash, you'll have less light on the scene, and to compensate the camera will insist on a longer exposure/larger diafragma/higher ISO. To avoid unsharpness due to camera shake, you'll need to put the camera on a support (tripod is ideal, but a sack of rice or or some books so will do as well for this kind of scenes) and the best would be to use the self-timer to take the picture (touching the camera to trip the shutter will induce shake...).
There are cases where you want a long exposure, and that's when (part of) the subject is in motion and you want to use that (star trails, car light trails, 'fluffy' water, etc). Here you don't particularly want a longer exposure, but you cannot avoid it (and don't really need to).

Do try them without the camera flash, I'd guess they would come out even better

[ggt]

Revi!!! using the timer while also using the tripod -- to get rid of the little movement that pressing the button produces.

WHAT A CONCEPT!!!!

YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!!!!