Names For The College Fest

Bulbs ... Sometimes it takes

In the previous post I was photographing on the detail of the filament of a bulb. In fact the day started with the goal of full photo, and even more;)
Some time ago I saw a series of photos of a light bulb, which recognized perfectly the filament, on a colored background. I liked a lot, mainly for heavily loaded colors, but does not satisfy me one thing: the light bulb was not complete.
I thought how nice it would be a light bulb full of thread, but still turned on.
information, I discovered that someone made a picture like using an optical bench and the good old film. So without using Photoshop. I then realized that the photographer had used two fixed copper wire, welded behind the bulb, with the support function is to nourish the bulb.
But since I do not like playing with electric current (I often do stupid things, and I went well too many times) I preferred to use a method may be less "elegant": the photomontage.
Indeed, if we could get a shot to the top of the light bulb, and one of the thread, all without moving (as possible) the bulb itself, you could mount the two shots together without any problems.
In addition, I decided I wanted to many versions of this bulb, with a background in a different color every time. So I bought the cards
50x70cm, of different colors to use as wallpaper. I then modified a table lamp by removing the hood to capture the light bulb to the side and I set up a little in September The idea is to illuminate the background with the flash and the light bulb "will shine its light" through the filament. The light produced by the bulb, however, is too strong, and it is difficult to mix it well with that produced by the flash. So I procured a Dimmer, one of those things that allow you to reduce and regulate the intensity of the bulbs. I made a couple of tests with the flash off to decide the intensity of the light bulb and the shutter speed (I kept fixed to the aperture f/11, to get good depth of field and stress too much flash). I then added the flash light in the background. In these cases it is essential to work in manual, manual and when I say everything I mean in manual exposure, focus, flash, white balance ...
With some testing I managed to get a satisfactory result, and then I started: I took a picture to the background color for each bulb in its possession, changing the card from time to time.

for taking the bottom I hung the light bulb, trying to move as little as possible from the old location. Moving a lot, in fact, not only do you have to redo the composition (what is not), but you may need to redo focus (many targets by varying the focus also changes the effective focal length, which means that the object will be larger or smaller (in the frame) depending on the distance of focus. I managed to hang the bulb so you have to change the focus of only a few millimeters, so you can easily recover the difference in size of the bulb.
Plus, if you vary much the position of the bulb with the background then you will notice differences color when you are going to assemble the two parts: the background illuminating from below with the flash close rather not create a solid background, but a gradient of brightness, then we would have the two parts of bulb with backgrounds of different brightness, which is recoverable, perhaps, but just spending a lot of time in front of computer ...
Here one click to any colored background.
more, wanting to avoid having to do it all again for differences in brightness or other errors, I decided to photograph every color background alone, without bulb, without altering the settings of the machine. In the end I have not needed it.

The result, at the end of the shooting phase (lasting about a couple of Oretta) is this:

Top:

And the bottom:

regards also the photo on your computer monitor is known that the flash light bouncing in the background has also hit the walls that are next to my desk, creating beautiful reflections that better define the contours of the bulb. This is luck ...

Combining the two images I noticed that because of the shift of focus was necessary to enlarge the image slightly in the lower part, but I've gotten anyway, with a magnification of 4%. Turns out even a small discrepancy in the background, due to the slight movement of the bulb (dovendola unscrew the bulb has risen by about one centimeter), but this has happened only a few colors. However I solved the problem by blurring the layer mask much of the two images.

In any case, it enlarges the image slightly lower, with the upper ranks, and layer masks, take the best from each.

is repeated for all the other colors, you crop each image in square format and joining them into a single table ... et voila:

Benefit Of Dried Mango

cu ... Fortunately ... Last day in Nice

Yesterday I was doing some shooting a light bulb for a little thing on my mind for a while '(soon to complete the info, stay tuned!).
Clicking on any detail of the filament, with the 70-200 happened to me a curious thing, if we want an error. The flash would illuminate the background has encountered an obstacle that I had forgotten right there, and then the background is not received at all the light that was intended. Poor thing:)
The result was a picture waaay more beautiful than I had in mind. Some of the light that has passed over the obstacle hit the blue colored background, in fact, blue. For a bizarre game of bounces the light hit the side of the bulb, creating a very soft reflection that defines the boundary. After moving the barrier to make the photo I had in mind I tried again to recreate the situation using the bounce flash side, but without success.

Here is a photo as I wanted to do:

Jpeg converted from 16-bit TIFF converted from RAW with no change in the middle.

is instead the "wrong":

E 'is pretty much out of the car, I just removed the blue reflection on the socket, and the reflection on the upper contour of the bulb. Although the flare of the filament have been removed, to make the picture a bit 'cleaner. Black was already there, as well as saturated colors (the machine was set to "Vivid", but I do not have further increased the saturation).

do not know, I've always liked these pictures, and this particular one because I made it: D

Seriously, I like the color contrast between the filament, hot and cold glass, the background black and outline just mentioned can make it look like an ordinary light bulb object almost "alien".

What can I say, I hope in future to do more photos so "wrong"!

Congratulation For Friends Marriage

My 10 days (poor) to Nice are about to end, and in this vacation I got to try to fund the D300s bought.
What can I say, is simply fantastic, the jump from the D40 is bigger than I expected, and all features have proved more useful than expected. To begin the
Live View: I avoid back pain when a photographer with the camera on a tripod. My tripod is roughly as tall as me with the column all the way up, but did not get up because it never loses stability, then I have to use normal lower 25-30 cm, and this sometimes leads to pain back. In addition I can calmly choose the composition, without having to "stick" to look through the viewfinder. Who says that Live View is unnecessary and takes away the pleasure of photography with the camera forgive me but I was wrong.
L ' artificial horizon allows to level the camera when there are clear references to it by eye. Ok, the sensor is not very precise, sometimes the abbreviation swing on his own, but still very useful. The grid in the viewfinder
can accurately align the camera in the frame when there are references (eg the horizon), even when shooting freehand. With the D40 I had the horizon often wrong, because I had no references in the viewfinder. Now it happens almost! The shutter delay
postpone the opening of a second faster than the shutter raised, greatly reducing vibration when shooting on a tripod. I did the test with a 70-300 at 300mm, and using the self-timer 2-second shutter delay the more the image is very sharp. The
automatic bracketing (which the D40 does not have) allows for shooting in HDR without bothering to change the shutter speed after each frame (which among other things move so slightly to the door frame). Plus, if you have a hand a bit 'firm, or a stable support (such as a wall or the like) you can take all 3, 5, 7 or 9 pictures in the exhibition range by setting the high-speed burst (7 fps) and holding the shutter button!

back to my stay in Nice I shot a lot for the city, and I found really beautiful places.
For starters available in the early morning I made the huge effort to put up early (at 5:45) to photograph the sunrise from the beach.

D300s Nikkor 18-70 +, free-hand (then you'll see what it was occupied by the tripod!)

With Luke ( www.lucagaraffa.it ) we photographed the sunset from Promenade des Anglais, but we were not entirely satisfied. We then tried to photograph it from vantage points on the hill west of Nice, but unfortunately here in France, the terraces are closed to the public at strange hours, and then half an hour before sunset we saw thrown out by an official of the town!
To console (in any case it was a cloudy day ...) we went on the rocks to try a few drops of water and some night in Nice.

had some decent picture we've moved into the city, looking for a bit 'of life, and we made some shots at the fountain at the end of the Place Massena (of course with the front lens full of droplets, part of the sea and in part of the fountain ...)

D300s + Nikkor 18-70, on a tripod

We then decided to make a gitarella night to reach the Tête de Chien (near La Turbie) to make a breathtaking view of the Bay of Angels. According to my sources it from that height on a windy day you can see up to Saint-Tropez on the one hand, and up to Finale Ligure other. At the top we found ... the fog! Some fast shot (not beautiful) and the Principality of Monaco street on the way back. Coming back we took some pictures to the town of Eze.
But the best thing all night was undoubtedly the discovery of a place on the hill, from which you can see perfectly the airport! For two years I'm looking for the perfect place to photograph aircraft departing from or arriving, and from there you can fine!

D300s + Nikkor 70-300 VR on a tripod, self timer to 2 seconds + 1 second exposure delayed

The luminous trail that goes up is an aircraft departing from runway 04R, while the other trail is a plane landing (not at the same time!) on the same track. I removed the wake of a third plane in the queue for landing. This image is the result of two exposures of 30 seconds, f16, ISO 200 each, then combined with Photoshop to get one in the wake of the plane landing. The take-off in the wake of that it is present in the first exposure.

you soon with more photos of Nice and some news! :)