A few recent shots

**slartibartfast** · 14th October 2006

Been a bit lax recently posting pics so I thought I'd do a load in one go.

Once again I find I'm shooting primarily with prime lenses, 17mm, 105mm Macro and on the odd occasion even fitting the cheapo 50mm f1.8 that came as standard on my old EOS 5 (quite a good lens actually and great DOF with f1.8). My zooms sit in the draw gathering dust yet again. I still can't stop myself from eyeing up the expensive lenses though, knowing full well they'd probably end up in the same draw.

**[wingnut]** · 14th October 2006

Stunning photo's as usual mate, really liking the beach / grass combo ones. But for some reason I'm loving the sneezing dog shot. I guess in reality he wasn't sneezing, but from the picture you think he was. How come the single strand of grass shot has differnt border, would have thought black would bring out the colours a bit more..

Is the fact that the zooms are left behind something to do with the pure quality of a prime lens over a zoom??

**Deadly** · 14th October 2006

All excellent, i love how sharp the yellow flower one is.

My favorite is the match head one, pin sharp and im amazed how you've captured it only half way through burning down the matchhead, we all know how fast a matchhead lights, so to capture it only half way through is pretty impressive lol great shot.

**slartibartfast** · 14th October 2006

Thanks.

You're right, my dog wasn't sneezing, he was caught mid yawn. It's a tough old life being a dog, all that eating, sleeping and pooing wears you out.

The white border was because I did it a while ago and I'm a lazy bastard, sorted it now.

Quality isn't a problem with the zooms, I just tend to prefer the focal lengths of the primes. It's either my 17mm or macro that's attached most of the time. The 28-70 would be perfect on a full frame sensor, but unless I win the lottery it'll be a while before I have one of them.

Originally Posted by Deadly

My favorite is the match head one, pin sharp and im amazed how you've captured it only half way through burning down the matchhead, we all know how fast a matchhead lights, so to capture it only half way through is pretty impressive lol great shot.

It was actually pretty straightforward, much easier than manually timing a water droplet. Set the camera up on a tripod in continuous shooting mode, light the match with another match and press the shutter button.

Here's all the frames together in a gif.

**chubblies** · 14th October 2006

Cool! That dog looks like he is about to bite your neck off

**_Belial** · 14th October 2006

Brilliant photos mate, that first flower one is lolvely, but my fave has to the black + white one in the woods, the rays of light are very well captured and works great as a b+w image too, great work as always.

**Deadly** · 14th October 2006

Originally Posted by slartibartfast

It was actually pretty straightforward, much easier than manually timing a water droplet. Set the camera up on a tripod in continuous shooting mode, light the match with another match and press the shutter button.

Here's all the frames together in a gif.

Cool, cheers for that. One more question, how did you light the matchstick itself so it stands out well? and what did you use as a perfect black background?

**Bilbo_baggin** · 15th October 2006

My fave of these is the grass on in the sand, with the depth of field. Very neat.

Bilbo.

**slartibartfast** · 15th October 2006

Originally Posted by Deadly

One more question, how did you light the matchstick itself so it stands out well? and what did you use as a perfect black background?

lol, I anticipated that question and took a shot of the setup.

The flash was off camera to the side fired by a slave cell, a bit of crumpled tinfoil was used as a reflector and an old black polstyrene pizza base that I'd horded away for just such an occasion was used as the black background, placed far enough away so the flash light didn't hit it.

**Karoline** · 15th October 2006

Oh, i love these pics especially the 1st 3/// Well done

**chubblies** · 15th October 2006

How did you get the match to light? It looks like it lights itself in the gif

**slartibartfast** · 15th October 2006

I just used another match. They ignite quite slowly really, so as soon as it was lit I moved it away and started shooting.

**willp2003** · 15th October 2006

All quality shots - really liking the beach ones. makes me want a holiday though!

**Deadly** · 16th October 2006

Slarti - had a quick 5 minute play earlier and came up with this.

I dont have any external flash so i tried lighting the matchstick with a torch, but the batteries were dying and it didn't do a great job lol still, i was fairly pleased with the black background (I used an old speaker)

I'll experiment more sometime.

Cheers for the inspiration!

**slartibartfast** · 16th October 2006

It's come out well mate, perfect black background. It's easy when you know how.

**Mr Olympia** · 16th October 2006

Excellent shots...and your's too Deadly. I love these little insights to how you achieve your pics. Cheers.

**wizer** · 16th October 2006

ok where's the emoticon for 'throwing in the towel' ?

Brilliant shots, I dream of taking shots like these

**slartibartfast** · 16th October 2006

lol, don't throw in the towel just yet.

Practice is the key. The more shots you take the more familiar you'll become with the camera and the greater your understanding of how all the different variables combine to achieve the sort of image you're after. You can then start concentrating more on what you're actually shooting and less on what settings to use on the camera.