"Unfolding" 06-26-04

This suggests to me an unfolding flower. I hope that others will see

something interesting as well. The "gritty" dark area near the bottom

is the result of formerly bright areas trying to go to black, but not

quite making it in the conversion to a negative image. I chose to

leave them as-is.

Excellent!

How do you create the colors in your black background pictures. I find them very unique and interesting.

For the majority of the photos the lighting was esentially the same. The smoke was from one or more incense cones, and was lit from below. The "stack" from bottom up was as follows:

 

1. Alien Bees 800 ws strobe with barn-doors, pointing up.

 

2. An 11" by 14" piece of cardboard with a 7" hole in the center. This acts as a light-shield and support for the remaining items.

 

3. Colored gel pieces or strips between two sheets of clear acrylic. The gels are aligned over the opening in the cardboard.

 

4. A Pyrex bowl 8" diameter by 4" hight inverted over the gels. The bottom of the bowl is flat and about 7" in diameter. This provides a support for the burning incense and does not obstruct the light.

 

5. I place an opaque object about 7" wide by 5" high in front of the bowl to block all light except that reflected/scattered by the smoke.

 

6. This entire "stack" is located about 8' from a flat-black background. The camera is around 3' from the subject.

 

I use the strobe at full power so as to obtain the best DOF.

 

I hope this clarifies any questions you may have as to how I do these shots.

Can't believe how much your image looked like this one: http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3037958

They appeared side by side at one stage on the 24 hour rankings.

Awesome Dave! I can't wait to try it out. I'll post an image when i get a good one. Thank you so much!

Great!. i love the colour.....what is that, smoke?

 

This photo is one of many of the smoke series I really enjoy. My first impression of it is not a flower... It looks to me like a beautiful woman in red.. from the soft nape of her neck, her gown flows softly over her breasts in a low cut tumble of fine fabric and her hips sway to the shapliness of her buttocks. It is a Beautiful photo, although I am suprised you didnt see the shapely Woman in Red, Dave.

Sometimes I am at a loss for a name... so, I do my best. Thank you for your comments. It is nice to hear from an old friend. It looks like I will be doing mostly nature and scenics for a while in the Philippines until I get a studio space again. I hope to be back in the islands by 10/15 or thereabouts. I will be on only sporadically until I get settled in Cebu City.