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Konica Minolta Users | all galleries >> KM Challenges Hall of Fame >> HOF C1 to C5 > 3rd: "Life" by Luminus *
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06-MAR-2004 Luminus

3rd: "Life" by Luminus *

http://gallery.dominatus.net

More "Life" pictures in the A1Gallery/Life section.

Minolta DiMAGE A1
1/4s f/11.0 at 50.7mm iso100 with Flash full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Luminus 12-Mar-2004 15:18
Smatty, got it. Thanks. :) You bet I won't be idle with my camera during ohanami :)
Smatty 12-Mar-2004 08:27
Luminus,

untill very recently I was no big fan of post processing. I wanted to get the good shot right out of the cam. For work related reasons (actually, that is how I came to photography in October 2003) I had to post process some pictures. Now it really helps me, when I can't get the shot how I wanted it to be. Especially when I was in Japan, many nice buildings or sights are blocked by powerlines and streetsigns. So I am using PS to make my life a bit easier and hide my lack of photography experience and skills :)

Don't get me wrong, I love your photo and I will try to take something similar with the helpfull hints you provided. So here is you processed photo. Just for comparison. It is a direct link and not to be found in my gallery. Please let me know when you saw it, so I can erase it from my server. Have a great day and look forward to the beautiful Hanami in 2 weeks ;-) www.hamburgcam.com/Test/Incense.jpg

Cheers,
Smatty
Luminus 12-Mar-2004 03:17
Smatty, I wanted to keep the shot as original as I can without too much post-processing (but only in this case though...I want the "trick" in the trick photography to be done completely by photography)...but I would love to see your effort. I think I know where your gallery is from your dpreview signature, so I'll go have a look if you have set it up already. Thanks a lot for the kind comments and the suggestion. :)
Smatty 11-Mar-2004 14:35
Luminus,

sorry that previous message was from me :-)
Guest 11-Mar-2004 14:35
Luminus,

I wanted to try to fade out the cut off smoke in PS. I hope you do not mind that I took your photo as a sample, but it'll be some time before I can set up a smoke photo myself. I did manage to keep the smoke in the frame, and I think it looks OK. I would like to show this sample to you if you care to see it. Any way I can mail the image to you, or can I uploade it to my webspace for you to look at for a day? I looked at your other photos, too. Very nice. I just realized you are living in Japan :-) On my next trip to Japan we have to meet up and do a day of photo shooting and Yodobashi shopping ;-)
Smatty 11-Mar-2004 14:10
Luminus,

thank you for the detail info of how you got the shot. Most appreciated. Will try it for myself one day :-)
Luminus 11-Mar-2004 06:42
Thanks everyone. Here's how this was done:

Only three elements in the image: background, smoke, incense, each is independently treated and controlled (well mostly).

(1) Background: my bedroom, overhead lights and TV blasting. There is also a dark window curtain about 2~3m behind the setup. Normally it takes 1~2s shutter speed on F11 to get good exposure in this condition. I only had to turn the shutter speed down to 1/4s to completely eliminate the ambient light and make everything black.

(2) Smoke: this is back-illuminated by a 5600HS(D) in wireless mode, pointing up towards where the smoke might be. The flash in on manual, power level down to about 1/8 or 1/16. The 1/4s shutter speed also helps to get the silk-like texture of the smoke.

(3) Incense: A small reading lamp in the lower front, point towards it. At 1/4s, this is just enough to illuminate it nicely.

The A1 is on max telemacro mode about 50 cm in front of the setup. The DOF is only about 1~1.5 cm, so it was very important to have the smoke flowing in the right direction, or you will get out of focus smoke (I got lots).

That's about it. As to the theme....I thought this reminds me of the famous Macbeth line "Life is but a...". Instead of "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more", you have this lonely incense doing its thing, then burns no more; instead of "full of sound and fury", you get lots of light and smoke...all of which ultimately "signifies nothing". Absolute loneliness and darn depressing. A friend told me she became really depressed looking at these pictures in my gallery. :P
Konica Minolta Users11-Mar-2004 00:38
Gorgeous photo, though I am not sure how it fits the Alone theme. Michael Lampi
Konica Minolta Users10-Mar-2004 13:11
An exceptional visual impact photo. Note the strong contrast against the black background. Well done.
Jim Rickards
Smatty 10-Mar-2004 09:36
Luminus,

this picture and the quality is stunning. I have no experience or any tools for "studio work" This picture is nice enough for a catalouge print. Maybe you can give some info on how you set it up (light, background etc.)
There is only one thing that is borthering me a tiny bit. The smoke on the left side is cut off abruptly (in the middle of a swirl). I entered an incense picture in Challenge #3 exhibition gallery and some one called this to my attention on my photo. Of course the smoke will have to be cut off somewhere when taking the picture, but maybe a little help from photoshop could be used to make the smoke "fade out" smoothly. Just a suggestion but a great job done none the less :-)
Guest 09-Mar-2004 10:29
Nice! "Keep it simple" worked great here.
Luminus 09-Mar-2004 09:53
I didn't realize there will be comments posted here...but thank you both very much for the nice comments. Please see my newly finished gallery for more "life" pictures. ;^)
Guest 08-Mar-2004 02:57
I wish I had the technical skill to take an image like this - and the visual metaphor is powerful, too.
Claudio Gatti07-Mar-2004 16:30
Hi Luminus,

Great symbolical image with a strong graphical composition. The title tells me what you are cominicating here, and it's a very powerful concept. The subtle smoke twirls and the the contrast with the color of the incense work very well for me. Good work!

Claudio