Larry, interesting image(s). I do like it as is, feel the top of the
bike expands and may perfectly blur as expands. Just me, of course.
You may get sharper shadows and proper light intensity somehow focusing
the light. One assignment long ago was to cast a perfectly round and
crisp patch of light on a model - even the bare flash head was too soft
and the output too weak, so I rented a continuous light "cannon" and
managed to project trough the door. The photo can't be shown now (not
scheduled to scan and post since it was an assignment with clear and
directed briefing based on previously published fashion shot, not {my
own idea} image) but the model's shadow is crisp as it gets over the
background. It does get softer on the far side - but still sharper than
otherwise.
I remember some fresnel attachments for modifying camera flashes that
allow wildlife photographers to fill distant subjects. Believe they are
plastic, not needing to stand modeling lights. My Sinar had a fresnel
attachment, needed with tilted and shifted wide angles - may be another
source. Don't know if it will work, maybe you could try to project a
flash light with a wide angle and normal lenses to prove the concept -
I'd try it tonight if I get my flashlights to work ;-).
Moving the light source far is a try, but it also would change the kind
of projection of the shadow - paralel light rays means shadow of the
same size, distortion provided only by the angle between light, bike and
the floor. Hey, almost forgot the focus zone of the tilted camera... you
have some choices to do.
I'm curious, do post the next set.
lf
--
luiz felipe
luiz.felipe at luizfelipe.fot.br
Larry's light experiments:
When I sit out at night on the bench by the river in my back yard, I
keep noticing the shadow cast by my bicycle onto the dance floor. Last
night, I put my strobe on the upstairs back porch, with the shade to
direct the light, and got some photos of the shadows cast. I'm not
entirely pleased with the results, I'd like sharper shadows all of the
way around.
I had thought about putting the grid on the strobe, another possibility
is taking the shade off (almost the opposite) which would make the light
source smaller, and therfore sharper/harder. Another possibility would
be some foil over the end of a shade with a smaller hold in the middle,
for an even smaller relative light source.
Has anyone tried something along these lines? Or have other
suggestions?
For reference, here is a shot from last night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/8042908138/in/set-72157631665170226
note that the shadows are nice and sharp at the bottom, but a bit fuzzy
and rough at top.
There are also probably other things I could do by setting the light up
along the 30-50 foot length of the dance floor and deck, rather than the
20 foot width, and shooting down from a ladder to get a higher angle.
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