LPS#3 - Study 2

LiquidAir

Trying out a different direction

Lemonscape

Nikolai

LiquidAir,

LiquidAir wrote:

Trying out a different direction

Lemonscape

I think it's irregular enough. Light is also very cool (you always manage to set a great light, you dawg:-)
However, the image looks soft/oof. Maybe the DOF's too shallow. I would not mind to the whatever's left of lemon surface razor sharp, since lemon's irregular surface adds to the subject.

HTH

LiquidAir

Nikolai wrote:

I think it's irregular enough. Light is also very cool (you always manage to set a great light, you dawg:-)
However, the image looks soft/oof. Maybe the DOF's too shallow. I would not mind to the whatever's left of lemon surface razor sharp, since lemon's irregular surface adds to the subject.

HTH

Thanks. Lighting with strobes is relatively new gig for me, but I am having a lot of fun with it.

You are right about the softnesss. There are actually three problems contributing to it. One is that the DoF does not get all the way to the horizon of the lemon. The second problem is the the specular highlights are blowing out into little stars which make it look soft. The third is this was shot with my 24-105 and a 9mm extender because I currently don't have a macro lens.

On the DoF issue, I am going to try focusing a bit deeper into the lemon to see if I can get the horizon sharp. I am already at f/16 so if I can possibly avoid it, I'd rather not stop down any more.

As for the blown out highlights, they are around 3 stops brighter than the yellow parts of the lemon. Exposing for them gives me noise problems in the rest of the lemon. I may try this shot as an HDR to see how that works out.

Finally, on the lens issue, I need to test the extender on my 85 and 135 to see if they are sharper than the 24-105.

As for the lens issue, I am going to experiment with the extender on the 85mm and the 135mm to see if either of them are better.

ChrisJ

Interesting shot, it reminds me of a moonscape in yellow. Great job on getting such a thin crescent. There's nothing in the rules about blending exposures, so that might be an option to control the highlights.

JillG

This is beautiful. I like the softness but the highlights bother me. Interesting things you're going to try. I'd like to see the new shots.

Jill

Nikolai

ChrisJ wrote:

Interesting shot, it reminds me of a moonscape in yellow. Great job on getting such a thin crescent. There's nothing in the rules about blending exposures, so that might be an option to control the highlights.

And there is nothing in the rules about focus stacking either, so you may continue use your 24-105 and just rock the focus rings a few times.

LiquidAir

Nikolai wrote:

And there is nothing in the rules about focus stacking either, so you may continue use your 24-105 and just rock the focus rings a few times.

I'll try that too. Once I have a setup I like on the tripod I'll take lots of shots at different settings and pick and choose. Since the lemon generally gets brighter with distance from the camera I may get lucky and not need to stack very many shots.

Swartzy

A very interesting idea
Nice part about shooting this is you won't have to worry about it getting soft in room temp

I really like the lighting and wondering if there be a "better" irregular way? Watching to see the next series.

LiquidAir

Here's a new version.



I took 5 shots bracketing by adjusting the flash power. In the end I only used two: one normally exposed and the other 4 stops darker. I then essentially obliterated the highlights in the normally exposed one and used the underexposed one to bring them back at a more reasonable level. Definitely a test of my medicore Photoshop skills.

LiquidAir

I compared the new version to the old and decided that the layered version is missing some of the snap the old on had. This is the normalliy exposed shot run through my standard workflow (no layering):



I ran the layered one directly though ACR into Photoshop so it missed all my calibrated develop settings in Lightroom. I thought that wouldn't matter for a nearly monochromatic image, but it seems to. Without the calibrated procesing the lemon appears to have taken on a decidedly orange tone. Hmmm. I may want to revisit that version yet again. Sigh.

LiquidAir

Swartzy wrote:

Nice part about shooting this is you won't have to worry about it getting soft in room temp

, ya. Compared to the chilled shot, this was supposed to be an easy one. The lemon sits still and it doesn't melt. And the lighting is vastly simpler too... just a flash and a lemon sitting on a table. I guess the price for a simple subject is more time sweating the details.

LiquidAir

Here is another pass at combining two exposures to tone down the blown out specular reflections:



I realized as I was processing this shot that those highlights really are supposed to be white because surface reflections take on the color of the light source which, of course, is white. What makes the surface look shiny is exactly that: a blend of the lemon color with reflections of the white lights. D'oh. Anyhow, I hope this version makes the highlights look a little less outlandish without leaving the lemon looking too dull.

On a side note: I do most of my Photoshop work in LAB because most of the processing I do is easier there, however this particular job turned out to be dramatically simpler in RGB. I still have a lot to learn about Photoshop...