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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 5: Opposites (Hosted by Denise Wall) >> Challenge 5: Eligible Gallery > Richer and Poorer
*by Mark Hensley
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08-DEC-2003 Mark Hensley

Richer and Poorer
*by Mark Hensley

Canon EOS 10D
1/160s f/8.0 at 30.0mm iso400 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time08-Dec-2003 18:59:40
MakeCanon
ModelEOS 10D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length30 mm
Exposure Time1/160 sec
Aperturef/8
ISO Equivalent400
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Olaf.dk 18-Dec-2003 17:09
Mark, I see. I experienced a black background that wouldn't come out black in my "Heads or tails"-shot - so I know your frustration... In your situation, where you couldn't get your wife to play along, time permitting I think I would have tried to go out and shoot some out-of-focus street scenes - by myself - and made a composite in photoshop. Of course making the composite would be a lot easier had the background been completly black in the first place... --Olaf
Mark Hensley 13-Dec-2003 14:12
Olaf, you rock,

I wanted to actually go to a town setting with an brick wall and a dirty piece of sidewalk or street, but my wife thought that was a litle over board. I think that is fantastic that you imagined the better shot just as I had envisioned it as well. Since my wife wasn't going along with a road trip I used the black piece of paper. Unfortunately I didn't have a large piece so we had to keep it tight and thus the background isn't far enough back to make it fade in both color and focus. I agree with your thoughts completely.

My complete idea was to do the following but it was simplified to the image above. I wanted my wife to get complete deck out in her fake furs and what not, then have a bunch of shopping bags from fancy stores in her arms. She would then being throwing the coins to the young dirty waif but do it with an almost "you dont exsist look in her face". This shot would have required the dirty street scene that I wanted and you envisioned.

Thanks again.

I'll be working on geting better lighting and backdrops.

Mark Hensley
Olaf.dk 13-Dec-2003 10:21
Mark, I really like your idea! My critique of this picture (*) would be on the exposure and the background. The background makes it look too "set up" in my view. Would have been so much more powerful with an out of focus urban scene in the background! Another alternative would be no background at all, that is all white or all black. I really like the shot anyway, for what it is expressing - great idea! Also, I love the position and blurring of the coins, perfect timing and shutter speed! --Olaf
Mark Hensley 09-Dec-2003 02:30
Hi Scott,

This was the best shot I got and my models were a little restless, (Wife, son). So I went with this one. I can go back and see if I can recover some of the detail in the glove. I think I might be able to pull a little more out. But as I mentioned on DPreview this is why I have been asking about lighting. This was shot using two halogen work lights for a total of 1200 watts. These were fixed to a single pole in normal work light config so I couldn't even use them from both sides.

Thanks for your comments and encouragement. Doing these challenges have been a lot of fun. I wanted to get this one in before I went out of town for a few days. I have one more idea but I'm not sure that I will be able to get it done before the deadline.

Thanks again,

PS: What would be your thoughts on better backgrounds.

Mark Hensley
Scott Hopkins09-Dec-2003 02:17
Wow mark...awesome idea....this turned out great! One minor comment (*)The glove is a little overexposed, but it is a very very minor thing. Great job!