242 - Salt - February 4-10, 2018
Don-
I couldn't get the shot I wanted. I took two trips to Alb-a-turkey this week to pick
up a car for my wife. 3 hours each way. A little rain so that day and the day after
I had to stay out of the desert. What I was hoping for was to go to Tuba Arizona and
shot the setting sun at Salt Canyon just east of where Salt joins the Grand Canyon.
I was about 4-hour drive, I was sick of driving.
Well that meant setting up in the garage for my back-up plan. Its a hard boiled egg
being salted. I used Kosher salt because it is a bit bigger. I was attempting rear
curtain flash but it didn't give me the effect I was hoping for. Enough excuses, The
camera is a D810 with a 24 to 70 mm lens. Focal was 38 mm. Exposure was 3 seconds;
f/9; ISO 100; camera was set on manual and pattern metering.
I couldn't get the shot I wanted. I took two trips to Alb-a-turkey this week to pick
up a car for my wife. 3 hours each way. A little rain so that day and the day after
I had to stay out of the desert. What I was hoping for was to go to Tuba Arizona and
shot the setting sun at Salt Canyon just east of where Salt joins the Grand Canyon.
I was about 4-hour drive, I was sick of driving.
Well that meant setting up in the garage for my back-up plan. Its a hard boiled egg
being salted. I used Kosher salt because it is a bit bigger. I was attempting rear
curtain flash but it didn't give me the effect I was hoping for. Enough excuses, The
camera is a D810 with a 24 to 70 mm lens. Focal was 38 mm. Exposure was 3 seconds;
f/9; ISO 100; camera was set on manual and pattern metering.
Byron-
The largest body of water in California is also the saltiest body of water. It is the Salton Sea. It formed accidentally in the early 1900s and became a popular resort in the 1950s and 1960s until people realized the lake was getting saltier and smellier. The resort business dried up and so is the sea. Since there is no fresh water to replenish the existing water, it is evaporating away. It is a sad sight. My submission is just one example of thousands that show what this once proud sea has become.
ISO 200, 18mm, f8.0, 1/125sec. Polarizing filter.
The largest body of water in California is also the saltiest body of water. It is the Salton Sea. It formed accidentally in the early 1900s and became a popular resort in the 1950s and 1960s until people realized the lake was getting saltier and smellier. The resort business dried up and so is the sea. Since there is no fresh water to replenish the existing water, it is evaporating away. It is a sad sight. My submission is just one example of thousands that show what this once proud sea has become.
ISO 200, 18mm, f8.0, 1/125sec. Polarizing filter.
Darin-
I was going to go with 'Salt of the Earth', trying to make it look like containers of salt are growing from the ground, but I wasn't real thrilled with it. So I went with Echo, my neighbor's miniature horse, taking a hit off a small salt lick, which I bought earlier in the day, for him and his sister, Annie. When the neighbor's leave for an extended period of time, they will sometimes ask me to take care of their small farm, which includes 5 dogs, 4 cats, 4 geese, chickens, a pot belly pig, which is the size of a regular-sized pig, a parrot, a dozen doves, Echo, Annie and a full-sized, 31 year old horse named Secret.
I was going to go with 'Salt of the Earth', trying to make it look like containers of salt are growing from the ground, but I wasn't real thrilled with it. So I went with Echo, my neighbor's miniature horse, taking a hit off a small salt lick, which I bought earlier in the day, for him and his sister, Annie. When the neighbor's leave for an extended period of time, they will sometimes ask me to take care of their small farm, which includes 5 dogs, 4 cats, 4 geese, chickens, a pot belly pig, which is the size of a regular-sized pig, a parrot, a dozen doves, Echo, Annie and a full-sized, 31 year old horse named Secret.
Kevin-
Nothing went as planned for this WPOTM. First it had been my intention to drive to the Salton Sea. About as salt watery a place as you can imagine. Along the shore, actually forming the “beaches” are the skeletons of millions of dead tilapia. My Nikon D850 has a new feature called “Focus Shift.” In any photograph there is always a compromise in terms of depth of field. This is especially true when taking close-ups with macro lenses, and when using telephoto lenses. Very little is in focus other part of the frame that are at the exact distance the focus was set to, as evidenced in my not-quite there hummingbird shots this week.
Focus shift doesn’t work with moving objects like hummingbirds. But can be very effective for static scenes. You focus the lens on the nearest object, set the number of frames to capture and the the amount to shift the focus for each shot. The camera that rattles off frame after frame, Shifting focus slightly each time. Then dump to frames into an application like Adobe Photoshop or Helicon Focus, and they get assembled together into a photo with true depth. And honestly photographers have been stacking focus for quite some time now. With the D850 Nikon has simply automated a part of the process.
All a noble experiment to try. But then I came down with the latest version of bubonic crud, (bad headache and, um issues down below) and my thought of driving to the Salton Sea said “bye-bye.”
So instead I set up studio space in the garage again, and simply decided to photograph bowls of specialty salt, again using Focus Shift.
My 105mm Micro-Nikkor can focus very close, but normally no close-up shots have very much depth-of-field. Captured at f/8 the salt crystals in the nearest bowl are sharp, but focus falls off very rapidly. Even at f/36, the maximum depth of field for that lens still doesn’t look fully sharp front to back. But my final image was captured using Focus Shift and assembled with Helicon Focus…
Is this a worthwhile photo? Not really. But it was a fun feature to try. One I am convinced I will use more effectively in the future.
Nikon D850, mounted on an Manfrotto Carbon One 440 tripod with a Acratech ballhead, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, two Nikon flash units, one in a large softbox as the key light and the other at low power from behind, 35 exposures made and assembled together by Helicon Focus, ISO 64, f/8 at 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Nothing went as planned for this WPOTM. First it had been my intention to drive to the Salton Sea. About as salt watery a place as you can imagine. Along the shore, actually forming the “beaches” are the skeletons of millions of dead tilapia. My Nikon D850 has a new feature called “Focus Shift.” In any photograph there is always a compromise in terms of depth of field. This is especially true when taking close-ups with macro lenses, and when using telephoto lenses. Very little is in focus other part of the frame that are at the exact distance the focus was set to, as evidenced in my not-quite there hummingbird shots this week.
Focus shift doesn’t work with moving objects like hummingbirds. But can be very effective for static scenes. You focus the lens on the nearest object, set the number of frames to capture and the the amount to shift the focus for each shot. The camera that rattles off frame after frame, Shifting focus slightly each time. Then dump to frames into an application like Adobe Photoshop or Helicon Focus, and they get assembled together into a photo with true depth. And honestly photographers have been stacking focus for quite some time now. With the D850 Nikon has simply automated a part of the process.
All a noble experiment to try. But then I came down with the latest version of bubonic crud, (bad headache and, um issues down below) and my thought of driving to the Salton Sea said “bye-bye.”
So instead I set up studio space in the garage again, and simply decided to photograph bowls of specialty salt, again using Focus Shift.
My 105mm Micro-Nikkor can focus very close, but normally no close-up shots have very much depth-of-field. Captured at f/8 the salt crystals in the nearest bowl are sharp, but focus falls off very rapidly. Even at f/36, the maximum depth of field for that lens still doesn’t look fully sharp front to back. But my final image was captured using Focus Shift and assembled with Helicon Focus…
Is this a worthwhile photo? Not really. But it was a fun feature to try. One I am convinced I will use more effectively in the future.
Nikon D850, mounted on an Manfrotto Carbon One 440 tripod with a Acratech ballhead, 105mm f/2.8 Micro-Nikkor lens, two Nikon flash units, one in a large softbox as the key light and the other at low power from behind, 35 exposures made and assembled together by Helicon Focus, ISO 64, f/8 at 1/250th of a second (flash sync).
Paul-
See: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
Not to many shake-ups: Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 455mm coupled with a 12mm extension tube; ISO 1000; 1/320 sec. at f/6.3; matrix metering; Auto WB. One the front I attached a ring light that was set a full intensity. I experimented with shots that used illumination from one side or the other of the light, as well as all of them. The camera was mounted on a copy stand.
I used paper that has some grain to it, whose color would contrast both the word and the salt, and--photographer’s prerogative here, folks--matched the loud, dominant color of Veruca Salt’s dress (and exceedingly nasty personality). The Kosher salt crystals were the biggest challenge: I needed to move them around (in some cases individually) with an X-acto knife until they were positioned where I wanted them to be. If I scratched the paper by mistake, surrounded bits of salt would jump around. (Still, I prefer this to herding cats.)
About the type style: A spent a fair amount of time selecting the type style I wanted to use, and ended up with Britannic Bold (printed at 28pt.) There were two criteria I was looking for, though one has very little to with the photography. 1) I needed a style available in either a “Bold” or “Heavy” font that still didn’t look so rugged it would be used to stamp shipping crates. It needed to retain a small bit of elegance to it (like you would see in many serif styles), while offering both the thick lines that would contrast with the whiteness of the salt as well as allow for a few grains to overlap the characters without making the letters unreadable. 2) Roald Dahl’s book (published in 1964), on which this is a subtle tribute, takes place in England. So I wanted a style that looked it could be used on an old calling card or printed on sign in front of a British house.
Happily, this is what Web says about the Britannic family of fonts.
Britannic was originally created at the beginning of the 20th Century, and comes by way of the old British foundry, Wagner + Schmidt. Today's digital version of Britannic includes five separate font styles, one of which -- medium compressed -- is an all caps design. Britannic is a sans serif face with a vertical axis and a high degree of stroke contrast, especially in the heavier weights. This typeface exudes a degree of elegance that has not often been matched in the century that has passed since it was first drawn.
[https://www.linotype.com/43516/britannic-family.html]
See: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
Not to many shake-ups: Nikon D5200; aperture priority; 18-55mm lens focused at 455mm coupled with a 12mm extension tube; ISO 1000; 1/320 sec. at f/6.3; matrix metering; Auto WB. One the front I attached a ring light that was set a full intensity. I experimented with shots that used illumination from one side or the other of the light, as well as all of them. The camera was mounted on a copy stand.
I used paper that has some grain to it, whose color would contrast both the word and the salt, and--photographer’s prerogative here, folks--matched the loud, dominant color of Veruca Salt’s dress (and exceedingly nasty personality). The Kosher salt crystals were the biggest challenge: I needed to move them around (in some cases individually) with an X-acto knife until they were positioned where I wanted them to be. If I scratched the paper by mistake, surrounded bits of salt would jump around. (Still, I prefer this to herding cats.)
About the type style: A spent a fair amount of time selecting the type style I wanted to use, and ended up with Britannic Bold (printed at 28pt.) There were two criteria I was looking for, though one has very little to with the photography. 1) I needed a style available in either a “Bold” or “Heavy” font that still didn’t look so rugged it would be used to stamp shipping crates. It needed to retain a small bit of elegance to it (like you would see in many serif styles), while offering both the thick lines that would contrast with the whiteness of the salt as well as allow for a few grains to overlap the characters without making the letters unreadable. 2) Roald Dahl’s book (published in 1964), on which this is a subtle tribute, takes place in England. So I wanted a style that looked it could be used on an old calling card or printed on sign in front of a British house.
Happily, this is what Web says about the Britannic family of fonts.
Britannic was originally created at the beginning of the 20th Century, and comes by way of the old British foundry, Wagner + Schmidt. Today's digital version of Britannic includes five separate font styles, one of which -- medium compressed -- is an all caps design. Britannic is a sans serif face with a vertical axis and a high degree of stroke contrast, especially in the heavier weights. This typeface exudes a degree of elegance that has not often been matched in the century that has passed since it was first drawn.
[https://www.linotype.com/43516/britannic-family.html]
Jerry-
While contemplating "salt" this week, I was noticing the little packs of salt at Culvers while fine dining with the wife. Inspiration! So here you go! Another thought was to arrange several as kind of grave stones in the field of snow but that would require more work and I have a short attention span.
Camera was the Sony A6300 with 16-70 at 70mm, 1/125 at F16, ISO 200.
While contemplating "salt" this week, I was noticing the little packs of salt at Culvers while fine dining with the wife. Inspiration! So here you go! Another thought was to arrange several as kind of grave stones in the field of snow but that would require more work and I have a short attention span.
Camera was the Sony A6300 with 16-70 at 70mm, 1/125 at F16, ISO 200.