Wedding Photographer, Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Posts tagged abstract
Danbo Walks the Line
Dec 11th
Danbo Walks the Line
I’ve got a bit of a side project at the moment taking photos of these crazy little Japanese toys called Danbo (Japanese for cardboard, I think). They are off a cartoon as far as I can gather and they make great photo subjects. There are quite a few of these types of photos out there on the web so I thought I’d add a couple more. Macrophotography is great for cold, rainy days, as I’ve said before, if the light isn’t great outside or you just can’t really be bothered braving the cold, a cool indoor subject works really well, better than shots of the dog/cat next to the fire anyway. If you have a few flashes and some off camera triggers (either a flash cord, sky ports or pocket wizards) it opens up loads of options and helps you get to grips using small flashes without the stress of having a model, wondering why you keep taking a photo and then scratching your head as you look at the LCD screen. In this shot the Danbo was lit from camera right and the guitar neck was lit from above, I wanted the rest of the room to be dark, as it was a bit messy and I wasn’t in the mood to tidy up! This was taken with a 50mm f1.4 at f/2 ISO100 1/160 with both flashes on about 1/32 power.
Abstract Photographic Art: Parabolas
Sep 21st
ISO200, 16mm, f/2.8, 48 seconds
Hey folks, saw this abstract art technique recently and thought I’d put it out there if you didn’t know about it. Light trails can make some great images, all you need is a tripod and a small light (and a camera, obviously). It relies on opening the shutter for several seconds and drawing something with a little pen light. This technique is pretty similar. You need to be in a really dark room and have a shutter release cable attached as some exposures can run into minutes.
ISO100, 16mm, f/11 172 Seconds
All you do is hang a small pen light from the ceiling, I just used a bit of duck tape to hold the string and torch up. Lie the camera flat on the floor directly below the light and try and get the focus locked on to the light and then set it to manual focus. Set the camera to Bulb mode (B) or manual (M, manual mode will only allow 30 seconds maximum so if you have a cable release, use bulb), ISO at 100 and aperture may vary depending on the brightness of the torch. In the photos here I used f/2.8 as the first torch was very dim then when I swapped torches I had to use f/11, if you do a few test shots first you’ll get an idea of the aperture needed. Once everything is set to go, turn off the lights and set the light swinging, open the shutter for say 1-2 minutes and see what you get. I used a wide angle here so I could use a long piece of string but it depends on what you have available.
ISO100, 16mm, f/11 159 Seconds
The result is and abstract parabolic swirl. You can use lightroom to adjust any colours either with white balance or split toning and maybe increase the blacks to make sure no light has spilled onto any surrounding furniture. Good luck if you try it folks, varying the starting direction will massively alter the end result.
