How It Was Done: Pink Bubble
Yet another “How it was done” post…This time for my entry in the Canon Photo5 competition under the brief “bubblegum portrait”
This was my entry… Just incase you missed it 🙂
Anyway the brief was…
Bubblegum/Portraiture
This brief has one rule:
Feature bubble gum in a portrait. How you or your subject use the bubble gum is up to you. If you need more gum, visit your friendly local convenience store.
Note: For this competition we’re defining a portrait as any shot where a person is the main subject.
Once again it seems simple enough….
I wanted to do something that was entirely pink but a real soft kinda pastel pink which would tie in with the colour of the bubble being blown.
After a couple of days thinking about it I kept coming back to the idea of someone blowing a bubble while being surrounded by bubbles… I know it seems like an obvious conclusion to make but I wanted it to be shot and lit super well which I hoped would make the concept stand out from any other entries which used a similar premise. Not that it worked out in the end after not making it to the finals and public voting…Not that I’m bitter or anything 🙂
So I scored a reasonable sized cardboard box from recycling at work went and bought close to 100 pink balloons and 1 pink (very pink) wig.
For once Amanda was pretty stoked to be in the photo since she liked bubblegum anyway.
Using my 2 500W Electra Studio Lights both pointed at the ceiling (one of the few ways I can use them to get a softer light since they only have full and half power) I put the box in the middle of the room with a pink piece of material over it (with 2 daughters there never seems to be a shortage of pink material around) and got Amanda to lie with the head and shoulders in it.
The light was metered at f11 at 125th of a second using ISO 200.
Amanda spent quite a bit of time on the makeup which needed to be pretty thick due to the close nature of the shot… I think she did a pretty darn good job of getting what I wanted from what I told her.
Not a particularly flattering image but you get the idea how much went into it
Game on!
I ended up only blowing up about 25 Balloons and after Amanda lay in the box they were arranged around her head to make it look like she was entirely surrounded by pink bubbles.
Anyway this is how the set looked…
Again I love how budget my studio is 🙂
So after a lot of false starts and misblown bubbles we started to hit our stride… To get the angle I wanted I needed to be directly above her which required me standing on a chair and at some stages of the shoot standing on 2 chairs, which when 1 moved I nearly did some serious damage to my groin… mental note to self: when standing on 2 chairs always make sure they are well anchored.
The angle ment that you can see me taking the photo quite clearly in Amanda’s eyes
Me on 1 Chair
Me on 2 chairs
Anyway here goes some more shots that didn’t make it but that I still liked… Enjoy… Oh and if you don’t hear from me again Amanda has killed me for putting up more photos 🙂 Dont call the police it’s just the risk I take 🙂 and the girls need at least 1 parent.
Note to Amanda: Dont breath in through your nose when blowing bubble 🙂
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8, 200 ISO.
Titahi Bay Black and White
Finally got round to developing and scanning the Black and White film images taken the other week at Titahi Bay.
This was the first roll of Ilford Pan F+ 50 ISO film through the Rollei and I have to say that I like it. This week I am trying Kodak Tri-X 400 which should also be interesting to see how it comes out.
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford Pan F+ 50 ISO Film.
How It Was Done: Smokin Grater
Here goes another how it was done post, this time on my Photo5 entry I called “Smokin Grater”. The finalists are announced today sometime and then the other contestants vote on who they think should win. There are about 8000 entries so I’m not holding out too much hope of being a finalist… but you never know 🙂
For those of you who missed it here goes the image I submitted.
So the brief was as follows:
Incense/Black and White
This is a moody brief. Use smoke from the incense to create ambience and atmosphere in a black and white photo. It’s not just about shooting smoke, but capturing the essence of black and white photography in a dramatic way.
Once again this seems simple enough:
Thanks to my new scanner I can now show you my pre shoot thoughts 🙂
So the original idea was to sit a camera on a board with the lens above a hole and let the smoke rise up and around the lens. Taken from a slightly high angle where you couldn’t see the hole it would like the camera was smoking.. I also had plans to throw a stack of photos so it looked like they were exploding out of the back of the camera…
Anyway after a bit more thought I thought it would be more amusing to use a cheese grater and make it look like it was smoking due to over grating…
I really like the aesthetic of photographer Caleb Charland and wanted to try to emulate his clean images (turns out it’s really really hard to make images look as clean as his 🙂 )
So the idea was to use a long exposure to give a very hazy smoke presence…
I put a snoot on a speedlight and placed it under the table and had another speedlight bouncing off the ceiling.
After adding a pile of melted cheese (which ended up being melted by a fan heater after all else failed) I started playing around with the incense to see what kind of smoke effect I would get… About an hour later there was still no sign of smoke and I was starting to get a bit frustrated….Grrrr…
About now I throw my hands up in despair and walk away and go have a shower…
When I come back I decide to scrap what I have done and start again.
I decided to use a black background and a light globe on one of my speedlights and see what happens.
This was the first shot off the camera after setting things up… at this point things are looking up 🙂
So now its time to add some smoke and a snooted speedlight behind to highlight it with a silver bounce off to the left to reflect a bit of light back onto the grater.
This is how the setup looked at this point:
Again my studio is Soooo high-tech… 🙂
After quite a bit of playing around I found the best way to show smoke up is to backlight it… It was a lesson hard learned and if I had known this previous it would have saved me many an hour 🙂
A slight re-jigging of the composition and …
Image straight off the camera with no processing
Processed to Black and White using Adobe Lightroom with a bit of retouching in Photoshop to take out the hotspots from the incense inside the grater.
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 Lens, ISO 200. SB24 Speedlight with Globe and SB80DX with Snoot. Black reflector as backdrop and Silver reflector as bounce.
More Scanner Action: Cemetery Panos
Still playing around with the new scanner and finally getting to scan some stuff which I havent been able to scan properly before like these cemetery shots from a Noblex Swing Lens camera.
I have to say that I am a little bit disappointed with the scanner in the fact it’s not really resolving the grain as much as I would like… maybe it just needs some tweaking and more experimentation… other than that its a really kick ass piece of kit! Scanning black and white as 16 bit image rocks!
All these image were taken just after the sun went down using Delta 3200 ISO film which makes them look a bit ethereal with no shadows.
Noblex 135U Camera, Ilford Delta 3200 ISO Film.
Just Uploaded 3 Photo5 Competition Entries
finally got round to uploading some of my Canon Photo5 Entries.
Single drop of water with a picture of a cityscape inside it hanging from the head of a pin.
Bubblegum Portrait
Incense Black and White
Still have to do:
Confetti Motion
Inspired by sound
Only about a week to go so will have to crank it up to get the last two done… Wish me luck
Last 2 Canon Photo5 Images
Here go the last two images I entered into the Photo5 competition.
If you missed the earlier ones they are here
Not quite as happy with these ones cause they were a bit rushed. I would have liked to have done the spray can one in The Alley but unfortunately time was against me.
f5.6 @ 1/40 Seconds
The one below is the inspired by sound entry but basically just turned into me having a bit of fun with Xmas lights, a power drill and some LED lights. It kinda fits the brief… Sort of 🙂
f11 @ 61 Seconds
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8, 200 Iso.
Double Exposure
First incident with the Rollei giving an unexpected double exposure.
The result isn’t entirely unpleasing but would be happier if I got to pick when to double expose and not the camera 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford FP4 125 ISO Film
Couple More 360 Degree Panoramic Images
Alas the Nodal Ninja has gone back to its owner but here go another couple of pics.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, ISO 200. Nodal Ninja and Tripod. 22 Images stitched in Photoshop
Nodal Ninja 360 Degree Panoramic Images
Wow! That title is a bit of a mouthful.
This week I have had the fun experience of borrowing a Nodal Ninja (or as Amanda calls it a “Noodle Ninja”)
For those of you who don’t know what this is… It’s basically a device that enables you to pivot around the absolute centre of your lens when you are taking images to stitch together.
unfortunately WordPress doesn’t display these too well since they are really wide, but you get the idea…
All the below images are made up of 22 images stitched together with Photoshop.
Nikon D70s, 18-70mm Lens, Nodal Ninja, Induro Tripod.
Calvin and Hobbes Challenge
A friend on Facebook challenged me to recreate an image from the comic Calvin and Hobbes (Link Here)
This was my interpretation.
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 Lens, ISO 200. Two Electra 500W Studio Lights and Silver 42 Inch Reflector.
HDR
An HDR from half way up Wrights Hill in Wellington looking out towards Makara.
Slightly messy processing but liked the effect.
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8, ISO 400, Made up of 5 images
Canon Photo5 Competition Registration
Just sent off pre-registration for this years Canon EOS Photo5 competition (Click here for last years competition)
After you register they send you a small box with 5 photo briefs in it which you have to shoot. It was pretty fun and I especially enjoyed working out what I was going to shoot.
If you are in NZ or Aus registrations open on the 10th of Sept… Check it out and have a go 🙂
Last year the briefs were:
Hundreds and thousands for a Macro shot
Practically Black
Some paint powder for a “Splat” shot
A pair of cardboard glasses for a portrait
Bokeh masks to create Bokeh effects
Thought I would show last years entry (and yes I know I dont shoot canon but who cares…)
Hundreds and thousands
Splat
Practically Black
I ran out of time to do the other 2 briefs but managed to get some test shots done
Here go a couple of Bokeh test shots…
Nikon D70s, Various Lenses, ISO 200.
Darkhalide Photography 
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