Challenge: Minimalism II (Minimal Editing I*)
Collection: People
Camera: Canon PowerShot S2 IS
Location: Basement
Date: Jan 25, 2007
Aperture: 3.5
ISO: 50
Shutter: 1/25s
Galleries: Family, Emotive
Date Uploaded: Jan 25, 2007
|
My daughter's eyes and nothing but her eyes. I saw a similar photo elsewhere and wanted to try it. I've got something sort of like it in my self-portraits collection, but there the lighting was flash.
This shot really pushed my abilities, so it was a great learning experience. Knowing I couldn't even crop really forced me to think about composition, DOF, and lighting. I like editing, too, but I look forward to more challenges with these rules!
The setup was my daughter sitting on the floor. I wrapped and pinned the sleeves of my green wool sweater around a ladderback chair to create the slit. I had two lights
1) to image left, even with her eyes, that produced the catchlight and put a little light on the sweater so it wouldn't be pure black
2) one to image right on the floor, with another sweater in front of it to prevent a second catchlight. Got it too close to the light and ended up melting it a little (Daddy, do you smell something burning?).
I was zoomed in about halfway, so the DOF was pretty shallow, which was what I wanted to throw the slit out of focus. And the slit was only about an inch tall, with her eyes a good foot behind it. So the angle was pretty tight, and she had to keep her head in just the right spot. To allow for slight variations in distance between takes, I used focus bracketing to take 3 shots each time: right on the chosen focal distance, a little in front, and a little behind.
I set the timer to a 5 second delay so I wouldn't shake it.
She was very patient; this took 80 shots or so, 3 at a time. We only hit on the idea of her widening her eyes in the last few. It was also tough because the lamp to image left was only about a foot from her face, so it bothered her eyes. Each take was: "Close your eyes," then I'd press the shutter down, then "okay, bug eyes, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it" and click, click, click.
For editing, I had to choose between "sharpen more" and "sharpen." Although it's allowed, twice with either one was too much. I went with "sharpen more." |
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
