DSS #26 Modify the Light Unofficial Feedback Thread

hawkeye978 · June 1, 2009

Here is the official gallery to give your C&C for DSS#26

Gallery Found Here..

This unofficial feedback thread is a catch-all of sorts, lets make it happen:thumb

Anyway, Lets get #26 Feedback started!!

This thread is:

a place to post a list of your top ten favorites. (be heard, and let everyone know what images moved you.)
a place to post your "the making of my image"
a place to ask someone "how did they do that?"(for us all to see:D )

Feedback is an important part of the photographic process. While those selected as finalists get feedback from the judges and those who vote, others are never quite sure where they stand. So share your thoughts both in this thread and with comments in the actual gallery. Constructive criticism should always be welcome.

As pointed out last month it's easy to post thumbnails (with help from our Moderator).

With the image selected in the gallery, copy its URL from your browser, add "-Th.jpg" to the end, delete the jumble of numbers and letters preceding the hashtag (#), change "gallery" to "photos" and that's it.

Example

Change this url

http://challenges.smugmug.com/gallery/7821877_VUfQz#508585564_r5YQB

To this

http://challenges.smugmug.com/photos/508585564_r5YQB-Th.jpg

Happy Feedbacking :scratch

dnie · June 1, 2009

Great Job Everyone!! Outstanding work once again.
I had too many favorites... so here are some of them in the order entered.

ghinson - Brant Point Light
MarkR - Bottled Light
benjer - nifty rays to light yer 'maters
DsrtVW - Moonlight on Barnwood
JeffGroves – Heat
coscorrosa - Sunset at the Palouse
nightpixels - Mono Lake Tufas at Sunset
KevXman – Illumination
Eia - The Lord will give them light
sherstone - Simply Citrus
The Curious Camel - Inner Child
KatMitchell - UMBRA

divamum · June 1, 2009

Do we really have to whittle it down? Can't I just post the entire gallery as favorites?!

Such consistently high quality shots. As I said elsewhere, it just goes to prove that quality photography is all about LIGHT.

Here are a few of my favorites, in gallery order, but seriously - I could have picked a completely different set of photos and still feel they were my "favorites"!

KevXman · June 1, 2009

So many great photos! Easily could have picked more for my favs, but narrowed it down to 10 after going back and forth on several. Good round everyone.

Good luck to all who entered.
— Kevin

dlplumer · June 1, 2009

This has to be one of the best batch of photos I have seen here. They are all amazing, and some are truly spectacular; so many talented photographers here.

I will slowly post my comments in the entry gallery.

Dan

:D

bf2015 · June 1, 2009

It's amazing to see all of the different interpretations. I think these are some of the best entries that I've seen since I've been following the challenges (not long, but still...)!

It was fascinating and also really "workshop" and educational-like for me to participate in and follow many of the C&C forums from start to finish. And for me, that's what these challenges are all about because I have a lot to learn and there are some talented masters here willing to share their knowledge.

My favs this round in order of entry:

KevXman · June 1, 2009

Illumination – How I did it.
I had always wanted to do something with a stained glass setting. When this challenge came up I figured it was time to give it a shot. I spent most of my lunches at the National Cathedral in Washington DC last week trying to get the image that I had in mind with just the right exposure. Either the interior was just right and the window was blown out or the window was just right and the interior was too dark. After many attempts, and learning a few things about my camera (D300), I ended up using the multiple exposure tract. Here are the 4 exposure that I used to get to the final product.

Working in Photoshop, I combined the first three and played with Layer Attributes, Exposure, Curves, Saturation, and Levels to get the interior look that I wanted. I also cropped at this time.

As you can see, the window is still a little blown out.

I then took the darkest exposure, which was metered for the window, and masked out the stained glass.

Playing with the layer opacity and color saturation, I came up with what I felt looked good with the interior and window together.

I thought that this looked pretty good as is, but felt that it just needed a little something more for that little added oompf. I know, I'll add some sun beams coming from the window.

So, I copied the window layer. applied the mask and applied a motion blur.

I ran the distance up as far as it would go, it still wasn't far enough for what I had in mind, and played with the angle until it was pointing in the direction that I wanted.

I did the Apply Motion Blur 1 or 2 more times to get the distance on the sun beams that I wanted. Then I played with color saturation and layer opacity until I was satified that it didn't look too fake. According to some of the comments that I have recieved, I think I got pretty close, but it still needed a little tweaking. After some cloning, dodging/burning, and another slight crop, tah dah.

Illumination

And there you have my "How I Did It". Thanks for looking.
— Kevin

bf2015 · June 1, 2009

KevXman wrote:

And there you have my "How I Did It". Thanks for looking.
— Kevin

Wow! I still have a lot to learn! Brilliant! Very much appreciated for the How-To. Wish more would post here as well.

thegreenegg · June 1, 2009

My Top 10 in order they are in the gallery
Awesome pictures guys- great job

Passage - 2310
dreamcometrue- Tulip in the spotlight
richtersl - Chrysler Building in NYC
MikeK - Floral Eclipse
JeffGroves - Heat
coscorrosa - Sunset at the Palouse
nightpixels - Mono Lake Tufas at Sunset
Muddogbob - Lost in Deep Thought & Dark Shadows
CAPTURED2H - EARLY MORNING INNER GLOW, SOMETIMES IT'S A LITTLE SLOW
sherstone - Simply Citrus

p.s.-thanks kevxmen for liking my photo

Eia · June 1, 2009

Well I sure hope I can get back to this. I’ll be flying east tomorrow; I have been called away as my Dad is having emergency surgery. Fortunately I will have computer access back there.

Saying that; this is a most difficult challenge because there are exceptional photos entered. I can't imagine having to judge this one. It is going to be difficult to choose the top ten so I had to make sure 'modified light' was in the forefront of my mind.

My top ten in no particular order – as difficult as it is to choose:

JAG- Glow In The Dark Universe
JeffGroves – Heat
Muddogbob - Lost in Deep Thought & Dark Shadows
nightpixels - Mono Lake Tufas at Sunset
moose135 - Day is Done
CAPTURED2H - EARLY MORNING INNER GLOW, SOMETIMES IT'S A LITTLE SLOW
sherstone - Simply Citrus
KatMitchell – UMBRA
cmurph – RoughBoys
dlplumer - Two Jack Lake

Katmitchell · June 1, 2009

Eia wrote:

Well I sure hope I can get back to this. I’ll be flying east tomorrow; I have been called away as my Dad is having emergency surgery. Fortunately I will have computer access back there.

Saying that; this is a most difficult challenge because there are exceptional photos entered. I can't imagine having to judge this one. It is going to be difficult to choose the top ten so I had to make sure 'modified light' was in the forefront of my mind.

Sorry to hear about your Dad, Eia... I do hope everything goes well for him. I do hope you have a safe journey East.

Kat

Katmitchell · June 1, 2009

Well, with the time it takes me to fumble around and produce little thumbnail photos here, I have decided to just utilize the entry gallery for my comments on the entries... Already left one on each photo....

This round was a challenge for sure and I learned a lot and had fun.. The support was super and you all are a wonderful support team....

Since I have been here, this has to be "the" most challenging round yet, not to mention the stoutest competition too.. Everyone did a wonderful job in my opinion.. and I learned a lot from seeing your work..

Kevin: Thanks for the share on the technique... I had no idea you could produce beams that way in PS,,, I did it the hard way with the line tool.. Nice to learn that... and thanks..

Kat

MarkR · June 1, 2009

How I did it
Thank you to those who've left feedback regarding my entry! I've made my own comments in the Challenge gallery. I don't envy the judges!

They say a good magician never reveals his tricks, but I'm a mediocre photographer, and therefore exempt from that rule.

I started with my homemade lightbox (old diaper box, diffusers made of white t-shirts, lots of tape.)

I turned the lightbox upside down (so a diffuser edge was facing the bottom) onto a glass table we had in the back.

Underneath said table, I had my super-duper gooseneck desk lamp, with foil "hat"* to allow me to direct and control light, similar to a snoot. The precarious balancing of the lamp on a Marilyn Manson lunchbox is strictly optional, btw.

At Target, there was a set of four "miniature vases" (that's what it said on the package!) next to the shot glasses, which was what I was originally going to use. One of the vases was chipped, so I ended up not using it. Total expenditure: $4.

To each vase I added two teaspoons of water, and a drop of McCormick food coloring. Two drops for the red, otherwise it looked weirdly pinkish-orange.

Into the lightbox I put black construction paper which had holes cut into the bottom that were slightly smaller than the bottom of the bottles.

Construction paper was not the best material to use for this project, btw. as it was too reflective. I tried to use a heavy black t-shirt, but it allowed too much light through it. My wife suggested black felt, but I was already $4 over budget for this project

The bottles (with water and food coloring) were put over the holes in the paper, and the lamp underneath the glass table was turned on. The results were better than I could have hoped for!

It was then just a matter of doing test shots and blocking stray reflections using cardboard and an old tablecloth, trying different angles, etc.

Post processing was pretty much limited to minor tone changes to darken the darks, get rid of some stray reflections, and brighten the bottles slightly.

*see? There was a foil hat used in the making of this image. Conspiracy theorists, take note!

Katmitchell · June 1, 2009

uh huh.. I knew you were in cahoots with the aliens...

Thanks for the share... the light box in action ... cool.....

Kat

JAG · June 1, 2009

There are too many awsome photos in the gallery so I am going to say everyone gets on my list! Super work and I agree with those who have said the quality of work is getting astoudingly better each round!

Thank you for those who left comments in the gallery and who picked me in the favs!

My how too is so simple and I didn't take pics of the setup but how I did it was written in my original thread at the begining.... http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=131231

WhatSheSaw · June 2, 2009

Thanks to those who shared their techniques.

And thanks to those who commented.

At one point I thought I might have a chance.

WhatSheSaw · June 2, 2009

OK. What did I do wrong. When I click on it, I go to the thumbnail.

Benjer · June 2, 2009

WhatSheSaw wrote:

OK. What did I do wrong. When I click on it, I go to the thumbnail.

"IMG" should be all caps, like this:

imagenameblahblahblah

WhatSheSaw · June 2, 2009

Thanks, but it still didn't work.

Benjer · June 2, 2009

rainmaker, rays 'n 'maters
Oh, in case anyone's interested in how I did the tomato shot, it wasn't as simple as it looks! I mentioned a little about it in my C&C thread, but here's the story.

I was initially inspired by a sudden late evening sun shower - the golden light of the low sun turned the gentle rain into spectacular golden sparkles everywhere. I ran to get my camera but by the time I got back outside the rain had all but stopped and a big dark cloud covered the sun. So I thought I'd try to simulate what I saw with an off-camera flash and spray hose.

I went out to the backyard garden, which though nice and green, didn't have much to photograph. So I grabbed some tomatoes from the 'fridge and piled them on an upturned tin tub, then grabbed the hose and did my best to make it look like rain. Tried several attempts with the flash but it wasn't very convincing as sunlight, and the backlight left heavy shadows in front.

Just when I was about to give up, the clouds parted and I had a few seconds of sun before the next batch of clouds rolled in. I fired off a few shots, holding the flash up front for fill, and ended up with only one with the right combination of sun and "rain." Had to tweak the saturation and contrast quite a bit, since the original exposure was set without the fill. It was a fun learning experience, and I managed to keep the camera dry in the process!

sherstone · June 2, 2009

absolutely amazing!!!!
This round brought forth some outstanding images the bar is being set higher and higher each time!
I will eventually take the time to make some comments on my favorites but for now I thought some of you might be interested in a behind the scenes look at "Simply Citrus".
Simply Citrus was born, after my wife suggested going back to the basics since the last several rounds my projects have been increasingly complex.

No tricks and no PS wizardry this time around - my goal was to be in camera except for color, tone, and contrast adjustments and my prerequisite burning and dodging.
Modify the light..... well what immediately came to mind for me was a snoot, one of my favorite light modifiers. Then to top that off why not modify it a second time by projecting the color of a subject through itself.
Three slices about 1/2 in thick, a paper towel to soak up most of the drippings, some rough watercolor paper and some black felt to fashion a snoot on the flash.

Here is what it looks like with the flash firing from this angle.

And....
this is what I ended up with straight out of Lightroom.

Mostly some localized contrast adjustments, dodging and burning plus some minor cloning to fix an odd bump in the shape of the orange and lemon on the bottom.

One of the comments in the gallery mentions that the fruits looked like they had dried out in the fridge. I'm not sure why this was interpreted but the fruit is only about 20 min from being sliced here.

Once again thanks for all the amazing comments and thanks to those who put "Simply Citrus" in their top ten picks.

This group is so... AWESOME!

sherstone · June 2, 2009

MarkR wrote:

I started with my homemade lightbox (old diaper box, diffusers made of white t-shirts, lots of tape.)

.....

*see? There was a foil hat used in the making of this image. Conspiracy theorists, take note!

Such a cool behind the scenes, Thanks MarkR!
I like how you said that you had already gone $4 over budget !!!!!

sherstone · June 2, 2009

KevXman wrote:

I had always wanted to do something with a stained glass setting.

.....

And there you have my "How I Did It". Thanks for looking.
— Kevin

I agree I think you pulled off the light rays VERY well!
One of my favorites this round for sure.

Lustu · June 2, 2009

This is pretty cool to share all backstage tricks, tks for everybody doing that. I gonna do it with mine, the "Sorcery".
I used a laser pen and a pack of cigarettes...

The pen I found in a mall last week does not only make one ray, but multiple ones, like in night clubs :ivar
The tricky part was to make these rays visible. One bad idea was to make a campfire in the room, I chose to use the smokes of a cigarette

So I raised a speedlight with a snoot above me, setup the camera to 5sec f/9, and hid the pen and the cigarette in my hands.
This one was rejected as we can see the cigarette

_MG_6589 - Version 2 (3).jpg

But you get it now :

MarkR · June 2, 2009

sherstone wrote:

Such a cool behind the scenes, Thanks MarkR!
I like how you said that you had already gone $4 over budget !!!!!

Thanks. Looking at your behind the scenes, I may have to invest in some black felt! I get paid Friday ...

I already know this next challenge is going to cost at least $1.29 in materials. :cry

travelways · June 2, 2009

Uff.... what a difficult round to judge, in addition to my not so extended experience....

I could hardly choose 20 top photos from all the fantastic entries and from those it was even
more difficult to limit my favorites to only 10.

Here they are in order of my personal preference:

I don't know what the final results will be though...

jeffgroves · June 2, 2009

Not enough heat ;0
So, I guess that I didn't put enough heat on that pitch to get it in the finals.

I wasn't expecting it really. Man, there really were some awesome photos entered this time around.

Congratulations to everyone that entered, all winners in my book! Thanks to everyone who provided me with feedback prior to the event and thanks to everyone that left me a comment.

While I didn't document my shoot, I can tell you that I used a simple two strobe setup with a grid snoot on camera left and fill light on camera right.

More importantly, several asked how I was able to hold the baseball after setting the ball of fire. I will say that after several shots, it started to bother the tip of my index finger, which is why it is more bent in this shot (don't worry, my shutter finger will live for another challenge).

So here is how I did it and where I found the inspiration to create this shot. http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-fireballs-you-can-hold-in-your-hand-110568/ (I used sandpaper to prepare the baseball, so it would absorb the fluid).

Again, congratulations to all that entered!

manbou · June 2, 2009

jeffgroves wrote:

So, I guess that I didn't put enough heat on that pitch to get it in the finals. I wasn't expecting it really. Man, there really were some awesome photos entered this time around.

I thought you had a winner, Jeff. You wuz robbed!

Llywellyn · June 2, 2009

jeffgroves wrote:

More importantly, several asked how I was able to hold the baseball after setting the ball of fire.

You held a fireball in your hand ... dude.

richtersl · June 2, 2009

Llywellyn wrote:

You held a fireball in your hand ... dude.

I just want ya'll to realize that this is coming from a woman who set ice on fire.

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/167709#359424268_Sbtzk

Katmitchell · June 2, 2009

sherstone wrote:

This round brought forth some outstanding images the bar is being set higher and higher each time!
I will eventually take the time to make some comments on my favorites but for now I thought some of you might be interested in a behind the scenes look at "Simply Citrus".
Simply Citrus was born, after my wife suggested going back to the basics since the last several rounds my projects have been increasingly complex.

No tricks and no PS wizardry this time around - my goal was to be in camera except for color, tone, and contrast adjustments and my prerequisite burning and dodging.
Modify the light..... well what immediately came to mind for me was a snoot, one of my favorite light modifiers. Then to top that off why not modify it a second time by projecting the color of a subject through itself.
Three slices about 1/2 in thick, a paper towel to soak up most of the drippings, some rough watercolor paper and some black felt to fashion a snoot on the flash.

Hi Sean,, always learning by watching you carefully... always running to your site to study your work, and your composite set-ups too.. you have been an inspiration from the time I joined up, and I learn so much... So, thanks for sharing..... Oh yeah, and I have to agree with the "wifey" on this one... its a good idea to target exercise "all" your talent muscles and keep a balance... so kuddos to you for having such a friend in a wife.....:ivar

Kat

DSS #26 Modify the Light Unofficial Feedback Thread

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