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Upcoming Jack-O-Lantern themed shoots
Oct 14, 2018 19:22:58 #
This entire shoot was a learning experience for me. Here are some preliminary edits and some updated information. Well, I didn't get a chance to find popcorn tins, so we went with real pumpkins. In hind site, I'm glad I did. I purchased a 100 mm E Series lens for the purpose of this shoot and other potential products. It turned about to be in excellent condition and cost with shipping $70.00.
The biggest change in plans was placing the pumpkins on a stone wall. I didn't get a chance to make the tripod stands so I took two drum thrones to the shoot to place the pumpkins on. I tried draping them with black material but everywhere I made a test shot, the pumpkins looked silly. I wanted the effect of the pumpkins floating in the air and it just didn't work out. The stone wall put the pumpkins slightly above where I initially wanted them and also reflected a lot of light, becoming a key part of the photo so it changed my concept entirely. Another hurdle, the 100 mm lens on my D7000 (150 mm effective) put me about 35 feet away from the model. Working in the dark, this led to a lot of bad shots I would count a three count and then trigger the camera, but I didn't have enough light to really direct the model and reviewing the shots on the camera was also pretty impossible.
I used variations of two main setups. The initial setup was this - I had two variable output led lamps on stands about 3 feet off the pavement off to the side at 45 degrees to the model. They were filtered orange. I had two radio flashes set directly above the LED lights at about 5 feet shooting through white umbrellas at 1/32 power. For the second variation I turned the flashes off and dialed up the LED light sources for more illumination. For the last few images I turned the camera to portrait orientation and just concentrated on the model with one pumpkin. If you pixel peep on any of these, you'll see that they are just really well organized noise. I plan on attempting this shoot again in my own back yard with a single pumpkin in the next few days. I really blew the settings. My plan was to shoot with a wide aperture but I had tremendous focusing issues with that shallow depth of field. As I kept bumping up the F stop to get better depth of field I had to bump up the ISO. Still they were generally under exposed and getting them to the level I wanted to display added a lot of noise. Live and learn.
The biggest change in plans was placing the pumpkins on a stone wall. I didn't get a chance to make the tripod stands so I took two drum thrones to the shoot to place the pumpkins on. I tried draping them with black material but everywhere I made a test shot, the pumpkins looked silly. I wanted the effect of the pumpkins floating in the air and it just didn't work out. The stone wall put the pumpkins slightly above where I initially wanted them and also reflected a lot of light, becoming a key part of the photo so it changed my concept entirely. Another hurdle, the 100 mm lens on my D7000 (150 mm effective) put me about 35 feet away from the model. Working in the dark, this led to a lot of bad shots I would count a three count and then trigger the camera, but I didn't have enough light to really direct the model and reviewing the shots on the camera was also pretty impossible.
I used variations of two main setups. The initial setup was this - I had two variable output led lamps on stands about 3 feet off the pavement off to the side at 45 degrees to the model. They were filtered orange. I had two radio flashes set directly above the LED lights at about 5 feet shooting through white umbrellas at 1/32 power. For the second variation I turned the flashes off and dialed up the LED light sources for more illumination. For the last few images I turned the camera to portrait orientation and just concentrated on the model with one pumpkin. If you pixel peep on any of these, you'll see that they are just really well organized noise. I plan on attempting this shoot again in my own back yard with a single pumpkin in the next few days. I really blew the settings. My plan was to shoot with a wide aperture but I had tremendous focusing issues with that shallow depth of field. As I kept bumping up the F stop to get better depth of field I had to bump up the ISO. Still they were generally under exposed and getting them to the level I wanted to display added a lot of noise. Live and learn.
Oct 14, 2018 21:18:58 #
Oct 14, 2018 23:17:20 #
Thurber Mingus wrote:
They aren't perfect but I like them, especially the warm tone on the last two!
Thanks!
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Oct 17, 2018 07:09:43 #
RogStrix
Loc: UK
I can see that LED candles would not have the same effect, lol! last one is my favourite.
Oct 18, 2018 13:40:11 #
Clearly the hottest thing in these photos is NOT the pumpkins - Great job!
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