Macro Daisy

Daisy

I hadn't used the macro lens for a while so decided to pull it out earlier this afternoon. As usual, I didn't have any particular subject in mind and decided to photograph whatever I found. These small Daisies seem to be all over the place at the moment so I photographed a few of them.

More photographs inside.

Daisy

As usual with macro photography, the biggest challenge for me was composing the photograph while  holding the Canon 430EX II with one hand and the camera in the other. I probably should have gone into the house brought a light stand or a tripod to make life a bit easier.

Daisy

These photographs were taken with the Canon 7D and the 100mm macro lens. For lighting I used a handheld 430 EXII. The photographs were taken at an aperture of around f14-16. The flash was firing at 1/8 or 1/16th. I didn't use ETTL for this shot. I set the power of the flash manually and moved the flash around until I was happy with the level of light. The photographs were taken at 1/250.

50/52 - The Pianist's Hands

The Pianist's Hands

This is the 50th entry for my project. I've got two weeks to go and I'm looking forward to doing something different. Possibly another project 52 focusing on macro photography. 

I used a basic two light setup for this shot. One for the base exposure and a second strobe was used as a key light.

Lighting setup shots inside.

 Lighting setup - The Pianist's Hands

A Canon 580 EX II was used as the main light for the photograph above. It  was fired at 1/8th into  a reflective umbrella which was positioned above the piano. I also used a CTO gel on the flash to warm up the light a bit.

The key light was a Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/32 through a homemade snoot, directly at the pianist's hands. This flash was also fired through a 1/2 CTB gel to cool down the colour of the highlight.

45/52 - Ace

Ace

I was quite sure that the strings on a Tennis racquet could be used to produce bokeh if lit from the correct angle. I decided to test this out yesterday and produced a couple of photographs which doubled up as this week's entry for my project. The main problem which I had to contend with was working out an angle which produced bokeh as well as a half decent composition for the photograph itself.

Lighting setup shots inside.

Lighting Setup - Ace

This again was a two light setup.

The main light was a bare Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/64th from camera left. This light was used to light the closer edge of the racquet. I placed a white foam-core board at a slight angle under the racquet to bounce the light from the 430 EX II back onto the under side of the racquet and create some separation on the black bottom edge. The effect is subtle and can be seen on the bottom edge of the racquet on the right hand side of the "Wilson" sticker. If I hadn't placed the white foam-core board under the racquet, this section would have been black and would have merged into the background.

The bokeh was created by a Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/128th from in front of the camera and slightly to the left. This flash had a CTB gel on it. The light from this flash also created the highlights on the further edge of the racquet.

I used a black foam-core board as the background.

44/52 - Measure

Measure

This weeks entry for my project 52 is a photograph of a set of measuring spoons. I used a slate cheese board as the background as it added a texture to the photograph. I used a two light setup for this photograph.setup shots and explanation after the jump.

Lighting setup - Measure

The main light for this shot was a Canon 580 EX II. I fired it at 1/2 at the ceiling to light the image evenly.

The key light was a Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/64th and zoomed to 105mm from the top of the frame. It created the highlights on the spoons and brought out the texture of the slate plate.

36/52 - Tune Up

Tune Up

Firstly, sorry for the delay between my last post and this one. I was away in Sri Lanka on a months holiday and just got back (with about 130 GB of images to process). I tried to keep the project going while I was away but with the trips and the fact that I didn't have a computer with me made things a bit difficult. However I did shoot a couple of shots, this one included, specifically for the project.

Lighting info and setup shots after the jump.

Lighting setup - Tune Up

This was a two light setup and I wanted to focus on the tuning pegs of the guitar. 

The main light for this shot came from a canon 580 EX II fired at 1/64th through a 1/2 CTO gel.  The flash was fired from camera right.

The key light was a Canon 430 EX II also fired at 1/64th from camera left through a 1/2 CTB gel.

In order to get a dark background I used a black towel to hide the patterns on the table cloth.

If I were to shoot this photograph again I'd use a slightly smaller aperture to increase the depth of field. I used an aperture of F4.0 for this one.

33/52 - The Macro

The Macro

I photographed my macro lens for this weeks entry. The challenge with this photograph was controlling the specular highlight on the lens itself. I had thought the process through and was happy with the fact that I had to actually use only one light setup. At lest I seem to be learning something! I used a two light setup for this one.

Lighting setup shots after the jump.

Lighting setup - The Macro

The lens was lit using a snooted Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/8th through a 1/2 CTB gel. I used the snoot because I only wanted a section of the lens to be lit. The highlight on the edge of the lens was created by this flash.

The specular highlight on the lens was created by a Canon 580 EX II fired at 1/32 into a white foam-core board on the right of the frame. 

23/52 - Longines

Longines

I decided to use the macro lens to photograph my wife's watch as this week's shot for the project. I still haven't used the tripod for macro shots and it's pretty tough without it. The depth of field is so shallow that the slightest movement blurs the image. I used a straight-forward one light setup for this shot.

Setup shot, inside.

Setup - Longines

I used a Canon 430 EX II fired at 1/8th from camera right to light the watch. The light was bounced off a white foam-core board placed just out of frame on the left of the camera. The shot was taken from directly above the watch.

14/52 - Coke

Coke

This photograph appeared on strobist a while ago and I was amazed at how "different" it was. I had never seen "Coke" photographed like this before. I have been meaning to try and reproduce this shot since then but hadn't got around to it for one reason or another. Since the point of my project 52 is to learn to light, I thought of shooting it for this weeks entry.

Lighting info and setup shots inside.

Coke - Setup shot

This again was a basic two light setup.

The Canon 580 EX II was fired at 1/8 through a CTO gel and a shoot through umbrella, from camera left.

I bounced the light from the Canon 430 EX II , fired at 1/32, off a white foam-core board placed behind the subject.

The photograph was taken from above the glass.

If I shoot this again, I'd probably use a macro lens to make the bubbles more prominent. I used the 24-105mm lens for this and wasn't able to get closer because of the lens's minimum focusing distance. The hardest part of taking this photograph was getting the bubbles to look right.

9/52 - Tennis

Tennis

With December coming to an end and the Australian open kicking off early next year, I figured I'd shoot something Tennis related. I had seen a similar photograph taken by David Hobby a while ago and had been waiting for an opportunity to try the lighting technique he used. This is the result.

Read on for lighting info and setup shots.

Tennis - The lighting setup

The photograph above was a single exposure lit by two strobes. A snooted Canon 430 EX II was fired at 1/64th through a 1/2 CTO gel to light up the ball. The light was bounced using a white foam-core board and a white A4 sheet from below the ball to light up the shadow areas.

A Canon 580 EX II was fired at 1/32 through a green gel at a black background (I didn't have a black foam-core board so I just "dressed" a white board in a black t-shirt).

The total exposure time was 6 seconds. The in-built wireless flash control on the 7D was used to fire the Canon 430 EX II. As soon as the Canon 430 EX II fired, I zoomed in a bit and manually fired the Canon 580 EX II with a cactus trigger. I then zoomed in again and triggered the 580 EX to create a ring around the ball. I repeated the process to create each of the rings around the ball.

The only post processing I did was cloning out the bottle which I had placed the ball on.

4/52 - Asics

Asics 

To be honest, I found it a bit hard to come up with an idea for this weeks shot.... and I'm only in week 4! God knows how the guys who are doing 365s manage.... The process of actually taking a photograph isn't hard but coming up with a half decent idea isn't as easy as it seems. I had just come back home after a game of Tennis and figured my shoes were as good a subject as any. I decided to go for warm colours with the lighting. Maybe I'll try cooler colours next week.

Setup shot and lighting info inside.

Lighting setup shot for the Asics image above

The lighting was pretty straight forward for this one. I used a collapsed reflective umbrella again (without a flash in the setup shot) and placed it slightly behind the shoes on the left of the camera. The flash zoomed at 24mm and was fired at 1/8th into the umbrella. I used a full CTO Gel on the flash to warm up the foreground.

A white cardboard box was placed just out of frame on camera right and used to bounce the light from the umbrella and fill the shadow areas on the right hand side of the shoes.

A snooted flash was fired at 1/16th at the chair to light up the background. I used the chair to add a bit of interest to the background of the image as I felt the white wall was a bit boring. The spaces on the back of the chair created some light patterns on the wall which worked pretty well. A light Red gel was used on this flash.