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Ed Knepley | all galleries >> Photo a Day (PAD) since 5/04 >> dec_09_pad > 12/13/09 - Trying to be Creative
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13-DEC-2009

12/13/09 - Trying to be Creative

No Photoshop. Done entirely in camera (except for RAW to JPEG conversion in NX2). It's an in camera double exposure with a twist. One exposure is of this scene in sharp focus. The 2nd exposure is the same scene (camera locked down on tripod to keep everything registered) totally out of focus and shot at f/2.8. At this point, this would be just about what you'd do to create an Orton Technique (Google it) image. Here's where the twist came in. I placed a piece of black paper with a small heart cut out of the center directly over the entire lens face to make this 2nd exposure. This, in effect, changed the shape of my wide open lens aperture from a circle to a heart. Now, the out of focus specular highlights that we'd normally see as circles from the out of focus lights appear as hearts instead. I had planned to just do the heart shaped exposure but when I came across this scene I wanted the toy soldier to be more distinct than just the glowing blur I'd get from the totally out of focus shot - solution: do a double exposure and take the best of both worlds. This is my first attempt at this; needs some more work.

Nikon D300
1/25s f/2.8 at 75.0mm iso1600 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Earl Misanchuk14-Dec-2009 14:11
Great idea, Ed.