photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
ctfchallenge | all galleries >> The Best of CTF Challenges >> Best of 2007 > 3rd: Light Box!
by Kelly Bellis
previous | next
13-DEC-2007 Kelly Bellis

3rd: Light Box!
by Kelly Bellis

Ellsworth, Maine

Setup: All in camera; flashlight tracing box with two pops for hands.
Messed with white balance and tint in Adobe Camera Raw.


other sizes: small medium original auto
comment | share
ctfchallenge17-Dec-2007 20:12
Hmpf, have to admit: this is great...grrrr....and I hate myself, not having had this idea as well :o)
perfectly done!!!
Cheers, Armin
Maurice Allain17-Dec-2007 00:47
Cleverly done and works really well, I wondered how you kept the edges so straight, thanks for revealing your method. I'm amazed how well the exposure worked out..
ctfchallenge17-Dec-2007 00:07
Thanks all for commenting. - Kelly
Bruce T Jones16-Dec-2007 21:21
Sounds like a lot of work to me . . . came out very nicely. -- Bruce
ctfchallenge14-Dec-2007 07:44
wow. another great creation and incredible effort from you Kelly! very nice - b.c.
ctfchallenge14-Dec-2007 07:22
amazing thought and effort - Debi
ctfchallenge14-Dec-2007 06:09
This is wonderful Kelly; you certainly have imagination! -mcbit
ctfchallenge13-Dec-2007 22:14
What talent! Incredible smoke ring. Well done. -tv
ctfchallenge13-Dec-2007 20:20
Thank you Mikey, Jano and dtallakson for your remarks.

Jano, this is one long exposure and the only hands involved are mine - With the camera set on bulb, I began the exposure in nearly complete darkness. I tried keeping the bottom of the 12" long vertically oriented Mag-Light on the corners of the box as I traced each of the 12 edges while I also tried to keep ducked down low enough so as to not get into the picture. This crude pantograph allowed me to have a three dimensional pattern to trace while the black box (what my Seagate external drive came packaged in) stayed in the dark. This proved to be the most difficult aspect as the whole dance was quite awkward. Once the outline of the six faces were traced, I took the 580EX in manual mode set at 1/64 power and flashed first my left hand and then the right hand and stopped the exposure. It took about three dozen attempts before this morning's light began to break in: 1) drawing a halfway decent box and 2) positioning my hands in the right place. - Kelly
ctfchallenge13-Dec-2007 18:56
Wow! This is really cool! Very well done! dtallakson
janewigginsphotography13-Dec-2007 18:53
This is kewl... so who was holding the flashlight, and the cam...and is those your hands? Or maybe just lots of helpers :) jano
ctfchallenge13-Dec-2007 16:12
Excellent!! Good job creating an illusionist look to this image. "WOW", is about the most I can say here. Just plain super!! Cheers, -mikey