Playing with shadows

2012-10-02 Thread luiz felipe
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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Re: Playing with shadows

2012-10-01 Thread Bruce Walker
I like the effect like you show here, but I agree that sharper edged
shadows would be great.

To get a sharp shadow you want your light rays parallel, so setup the
flash as far away as you can and yet still control it and get enough
light. No modifiers on it, except try the grid.


On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 4:07 PM, Larry Colen  wrote:
> 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.
>
> --
> Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
> PDML@pdml.net
> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow 
> the directions.



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Playing with shadows

2012-10-01 Thread Larry Colen
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.

--
Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est





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