107. Tool - June 28-July 4, 2015
Jerry-
Somehow I picked up a cold just in time for the 4th of July, so it is in an altered state that I present my "tool" photo. Back before Cindy and I had children, we used to visit antique shops and on one visit I found this wrench. So for this photo, I dug it out from my collection and laid it on a sheet of ancient wood. The lighting was with my Nikon SB700 flash with the latest version of the Byrosnoot, v 2.0. The camera was the D750 with 24-70mm at 70mm. 1/200 @ f16, ISO 100. Exposure comp -1.3.
Somehow I picked up a cold just in time for the 4th of July, so it is in an altered state that I present my "tool" photo. Back before Cindy and I had children, we used to visit antique shops and on one visit I found this wrench. So for this photo, I dug it out from my collection and laid it on a sheet of ancient wood. The lighting was with my Nikon SB700 flash with the latest version of the Byrosnoot, v 2.0. The camera was the D750 with 24-70mm at 70mm. 1/200 @ f16, ISO 100. Exposure comp -1.3.
Byron-
When I read this weeks theme I immediately thought of my Mother-In-Law's collection of old tools. I used the hand powered drill because I thought it was quite photogenic. I used the workbench in my garage as background. It has enough clutter to give it some character. I used two Joe McNally tips on this shot. I used an orange gel over the background light to give it warmth. I also shot the background light through the Byro-Snoot to control the area that was lit. I lit the subject through a softbox with a grid in front. Lighting with the grid aimed directly at the subject didn't give it the look I was after so I tilted the softbox down so the subject was lit by the edge of the light coming from the softbox. I also had a piece of white foamcore off to the right to reflect light back to the dark side of the subject.
Here are the peculiars, I mean particulars- ISO 800, f2.8, 1'200 sec. I used my 50mm f1.4 lens.
When I read this weeks theme I immediately thought of my Mother-In-Law's collection of old tools. I used the hand powered drill because I thought it was quite photogenic. I used the workbench in my garage as background. It has enough clutter to give it some character. I used two Joe McNally tips on this shot. I used an orange gel over the background light to give it warmth. I also shot the background light through the Byro-Snoot to control the area that was lit. I lit the subject through a softbox with a grid in front. Lighting with the grid aimed directly at the subject didn't give it the look I was after so I tilted the softbox down so the subject was lit by the edge of the light coming from the softbox. I also had a piece of white foamcore off to the right to reflect light back to the dark side of the subject.
Here are the peculiars, I mean particulars- ISO 800, f2.8, 1'200 sec. I used my 50mm f1.4 lens.
Deron-
The dentist's office is never fun. After having the girth of one of my back teeth shaved away on a previous visit. I was greeted with this display of tools that will remove the temporary crown and replace it with a permanent one.
The dentist's office is never fun. After having the girth of one of my back teeth shaved away on a previous visit. I was greeted with this display of tools that will remove the temporary crown and replace it with a permanent one.
Kevin-
Okay, for this WPOTM I was going to do something like photographing a hammer striking a nail, while using the stroboscopic feature of the Nikon flash units to capture the motion. But I was walking around the tool department of a Home Depot store, looking at other tool ideas when it hit me. What was the tool that I probably used more than any other? A bottle opener of course. And what was that tool always opening? A Pepsi bottle!
Today’s twist top plastic bottles are not the same. Fortunately Pepsi had been releasing various bottles of their original formula, with real sugar. And I found a store that had some in stock, in glass bottles with a proper bottle cap on top!
In the studio I hauled out a table with a sweep of white, translucent plexiglass. Two studio strobe lights were required. One below to light the bottle, and one behind, with a blue gel on it to light the plexi background.
But the next issue I encountered was realizing that I needed four hands to take this shot (one to hold the bottle, one to hold the opener, one to trip the shutter and one to hold a reflector card above the scene). Of course I counted and found that I only have two hands. Dang! But Byron came to the rescue, holding the bottle and opener as I held the reflector card, gazed through the viewfinder and tripped the shutter.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted. 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor. ISO 100. 1/250th of a second (flash synch) at f/11.
Okay, for this WPOTM I was going to do something like photographing a hammer striking a nail, while using the stroboscopic feature of the Nikon flash units to capture the motion. But I was walking around the tool department of a Home Depot store, looking at other tool ideas when it hit me. What was the tool that I probably used more than any other? A bottle opener of course. And what was that tool always opening? A Pepsi bottle!
Today’s twist top plastic bottles are not the same. Fortunately Pepsi had been releasing various bottles of their original formula, with real sugar. And I found a store that had some in stock, in glass bottles with a proper bottle cap on top!
In the studio I hauled out a table with a sweep of white, translucent plexiglass. Two studio strobe lights were required. One below to light the bottle, and one behind, with a blue gel on it to light the plexi background.
But the next issue I encountered was realizing that I needed four hands to take this shot (one to hold the bottle, one to hold the opener, one to trip the shutter and one to hold a reflector card above the scene). Of course I counted and found that I only have two hands. Dang! But Byron came to the rescue, holding the bottle and opener as I held the reflector card, gazed through the viewfinder and tripped the shutter.
Nikon D4s, tripod mounted. 105mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor. ISO 100. 1/250th of a second (flash synch) at f/11.
Paul-
For the WPOTM theme Tool(s), I am calling this Still Life with Tools, Baseball Cap I Only Wore Once, and Boomerang. (The last two items aren’t supposed to be a “Where’s Waldo” kind of thing. That’s just where my goofy cap and boomerang have languished for a few years. I tried throwing away the boomerang a few years ago but it kept coming back.) Anyhoo, I had such great plans for this theme. Including: building a sculpture made of tools, trying to get trespassingly close to a crane doing its thing downtown, shooting a picture of a primate hand at the local Children’s Zoo, and shooting a triplet of old engineering compasses against back-lit, crinkled up butcher’s paper.
In the end, swamped with work—and in the first week back home at my job that’s kind of a scary thing—I opted for this shot of my workbench. It’s in B&W because almost everything looks better in B&W. A pair suspended fluorescent tubes directly above the bench was throwing a little too much light so I took some plastic sheeting and wrapped it around the fixture. Still too much, do so I rotated one of the tubes slightly in its bracket to reduce current going through it. No other lighting. Conspicuously missing from the photograph are many jars and little sliding drawers filled nuts, bolts, Allen wrenches, picture framing paraphernalia, drywall screws, washers, rubber gaskets, hinges, nails, and an owner’s manual for 1987 Mazda 323.
Our story so far: Shot at 5 sec.; f/13; -1/3 EV; ISO 2000; 18-55mm lens set at 28mm, B&W (in-camera); tripod-mounted. The picture was tweaked in Lightroom 4 and then run through (as a single image) in my easyHDR program during which I selected the “natural” tone mapped option and made a few more minor adjustments.
“Oh, Paul,” declared Peggy Lindstrom, tossing back a wave of auburn hair over a slender shoulder and turning to walk--as if the way she moved in that plaid skirt could be called something as remotely prosaic as walking--out of the school cafeteria hand-in-hand with Roy Cavanaugh, captain of the Spencerville High football team, “Go to the Prom with you? You are such a tool.”
For the WPOTM theme Tool(s), I am calling this Still Life with Tools, Baseball Cap I Only Wore Once, and Boomerang. (The last two items aren’t supposed to be a “Where’s Waldo” kind of thing. That’s just where my goofy cap and boomerang have languished for a few years. I tried throwing away the boomerang a few years ago but it kept coming back.) Anyhoo, I had such great plans for this theme. Including: building a sculpture made of tools, trying to get trespassingly close to a crane doing its thing downtown, shooting a picture of a primate hand at the local Children’s Zoo, and shooting a triplet of old engineering compasses against back-lit, crinkled up butcher’s paper.
In the end, swamped with work—and in the first week back home at my job that’s kind of a scary thing—I opted for this shot of my workbench. It’s in B&W because almost everything looks better in B&W. A pair suspended fluorescent tubes directly above the bench was throwing a little too much light so I took some plastic sheeting and wrapped it around the fixture. Still too much, do so I rotated one of the tubes slightly in its bracket to reduce current going through it. No other lighting. Conspicuously missing from the photograph are many jars and little sliding drawers filled nuts, bolts, Allen wrenches, picture framing paraphernalia, drywall screws, washers, rubber gaskets, hinges, nails, and an owner’s manual for 1987 Mazda 323.
Our story so far: Shot at 5 sec.; f/13; -1/3 EV; ISO 2000; 18-55mm lens set at 28mm, B&W (in-camera); tripod-mounted. The picture was tweaked in Lightroom 4 and then run through (as a single image) in my easyHDR program during which I selected the “natural” tone mapped option and made a few more minor adjustments.
“Oh, Paul,” declared Peggy Lindstrom, tossing back a wave of auburn hair over a slender shoulder and turning to walk--as if the way she moved in that plaid skirt could be called something as remotely prosaic as walking--out of the school cafeteria hand-in-hand with Roy Cavanaugh, captain of the Spencerville High football team, “Go to the Prom with you? You are such a tool.”
And the next WPOTM theme is SHINY
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