Not Enough Darkenss * by ctfchallenge


31-OCT-2004	Pops

There is not enough darkness in all the universe to put out the light of one small flame.

Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel
1/40s f/4.5 at 85.0mm iso400 hide exif

other sizes: small medium original auto

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Rod		02-Nov-2004 19:17
Nugar, at my age I avoid bright white lights especially when they're at the end of long tunnels :-) Yes, if I was shooting a light bulb I would expect it to detailed & well exposed there's no point in shooting it otherwise. In a tutorial somewhere I bet there's a lesson on shooting flames without blown highlights, there must be a way. The only thing I can think of is to shoot it in bright sunlight as shooting in a bright room doesn't work I tried it last night :-) I'm fairly laid back so I'm not on a serious mission but I do like to have a chat & blown highlights & frames make wonderful talking points as you can see. Poor ole Pops will think his shot has created a storm:-) Don't worry Pops your shot is a ripper.

Nugar		02-Nov-2004 13:32
It may be BHLs, but for Moby Dick's sake, it's a light source! You would surely not expect detail on a lightbulb, for instance, except underexposing all other areas. Here if you aim for the white area, everything else will seem too dark. On a side not, have you been abducted by an UFO? Bright lights and all? That might explain the white/BHLs aversion! LOL :-P (Just kidding of course) (Oh and was the mothership framed????)

Rod		02-Nov-2004 12:07
Nugar you're taking a lot longer to convert than I thought :-) Pops I hope you don't mind the BLH chat we're having as your BLH doesn't detract much from your excellent shot at all. No, flames don't have any white in them at all (only in digital sensors) so I don't know what Byron’s on about. Back to Nugar there's not one iota of detail in the white part of the flame its blown mate. I downloaded it into PS & it's what you would call 255 :-) Now for Lee :-) I think the match works really well right where Pops framed it, here in the challenges we see a lot of framing to the left & right & it can be a bit cliché. There are times when we can put subjects bang in the middle & it works, as I think Pops does here. Did I miss anyone?

Don Ellis		02-Nov-2004 06:52
Too much to read, especially by this light... which I like a lot. I see a lot of matches. This is one of the better ones.

ctfchallenge		02-Nov-2004 06:34
I agree with Nugar...I don't see any BHL's. To me it's the correct flame color. -Byron

ctfchallenge		02-Nov-2004 00:59
Pops, Just a thought, would this picture benefit from a tighter 2x4 crop. I think it would create less negative space and result in a more close up image. You might even consider putting the match on the right third of the page to create a less static image. Since the match bends to the left. Just my 2 cents. theFly

ctfchallenge		01-Nov-2004 23:35
Pops... nice! white, bhl... 6 of one... it's wonderful none-the-less. dorys

Nugar		01-Nov-2004 13:56
I think the real question here is what is a blown highlight and what is white. What we identify normally as BHLs are areas of pure white, where there doesn't remain any detail. But here... I have to ask do match flames have white areas? If so, why consider white as BHL and not just as "white"? So when is white white and when is it a BHL? Even here at my job's lousy monitor, I can see the subtle blue and redish tones, so is this correctly or incorrectly exposed?

Guest		01-Nov-2004 12:53
The room was brightly lit with flourencent lights in the ceiling and a 150W incandescent lamp clamped close to the match. A black background was used. You can tell the general lighting by the small amount of unburnt match stick at the bottom of the picture. Exposure was problematic. Too much one way and the subtle blues, reds and yellows get lost, too much the other way and everything gets blown out. I had to compromise somewhere and this is it. Besides, I'm a lazy photographer, I could have shot hundreds of burning matches at different exposures but I didn't have the time or inclination. Maybe I'll experiment later this week.

Rod		01-Nov-2004 10:46
Pops was this shot in a darkened room? I'm wondering if it was shot in a light room you may not get the blown highlight. The match looks really good.

Techo		01-Nov-2004 03:41
Very nice :-) the match shows the different stages of burning. Is the 300d really good at iso 400? because that shot looks great. Thanks.

ctfchallenge		31-Oct-2004 22:29
That's because Darkness doesn't really exist... only the absense of light. Cold also doesn't exist because there is absolute zero, but heat is infinite... so as winter comes upon us, remember... it's not cold either... there's just an absense of heat. -Byron

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