Is my son an alien?

StevenV

I noticed that the light on the ceiling of our front hallway cast an interesting pattern, so I had my son stand in the "right" place and shot a few frames.


larger version at http://static.flickr.com/21/98723779_f1ab6b1f0a_o.jpg
Canon EOS 10D, 2006:02:10 23:19. Shutter: 0.7 sec, Aperture: 6.7, ISO: 100.
Exposure mode: Av, Flash: External E-TTL, Metering mode: Evaluative
Lens: 28 to 80mm, Focal length: 43mm
CFn 15: Shutter curtain sync: 2nd-curtain sync

It's not a great picture by any stretch of the imagination, and I welcome comments and critique, but specifically I noticed something.

Here are two 100% crops. I was focused on his eye, and it looks reasonably sharp.


http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2871/crw1386eye4bn.jpg

The top of his head, though, looks blurry as though I'd moved the camera - certainly possible with that slow a shutter speed but then why don't I see that in the eye? At f6.7 I wouldn't have expected that narrow a DoF.


http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5605/crw1386head1th.jpg

Did I move?
Is it an artifact of the bright light behind him?
Am I mistaken about DoF w/that f-stop?
Is his head naturally blurry around the edges? :
Are there aliens in our midst?

Whaddya think?

StevenV

StevenV wrote:

Did I move?

After further review, I think that was the case. This is from the same set, different camera settings. Faster shutter, no blur.


Canon EOS 10D, 2006:02:10 23:17.
Shutter: 1/60 sec, Aperture: 4, ISO: 100
Flash: Auto, Focal length: 43mm

David_S85

Cool demonstration with that ceiling lamp.

Your son is not an alien. Real aliens absorb light rather than scatter or reflect light. :uhoh

rahmonster

Wow that reminds me of paintings of angels in churches. Very cool

ian408

What a cool trick!

Try the coffee filter WB trick. Using a white filter, take a shot and use it to
set the custom WB. Then re-shoot.

Scott_Quier

ian408 wrote:

What a cool trick!

Try the coffee filter WB trick. Using a white filter, take a shot and use it to
set the custom WB. Then re-shoot.

OK, I'll bite. What's "the coffee filter WB trick"?

Thanks

StevenV

I believe he's talking about it as a cheap, easily portable, "known white" with which to set custom WB.

ian408

Scott_Quier wrote:

OK, I'll bite. What's "the coffee filter WB trick"?

Thanks

If you've heard of an Expodisc, this is roughly equivalent and much cheaper
and is used to set a white balance.

iyacyas

ian408 wrote:

If you've heard of an Expodisc, this is roughly equivalent and much cheaper
and is used to set a white balance.

Great.....couldn't you have posted this before I bought mine? :


/.m

HeldDown

If you can find an old Pringles lid -- the ones that are semi-opaque, not clear -- they are an even more effective Ghettexpodisc than the coffee filters!

Jamoke

Back on Topic
To address the original question - what caused the detail and the blur.

I'm a 3D guy. Everything that I analyze, I analyze with all the spacial locations in mind. My take is that it was the shutter speed, and that either you or he rotated with the eye as the centerpoint of rotation. So either he sat up in his chair, while rotating his face forward... Or you rotated by moving the camera either up or down, and exactly compensated by rotating about his eye, or the center of the picture.

Nice picture though. good little puzzler.

ian408

HeldDown wrote:

If you can find an old Pringles lid -- the ones that are semi-opaque, not clear -- they are an even more effective Ghettexpodisc than the coffee filters!

But you'd have to buy a can of pringles to get that. The coffee filters
can be ripped off from work(sux)