Ice Storm 07 - The Artsy Photos
(each image is clickable and will take you to a special place where you can see bigger versions)
The photographs presented here were intended to be made the day before they actually were. Ice Storm 07 hit Austin on a Tuesday, but other things were going on that day which were more photographically interesting. So these were made on Wednesday when my office was shut down for the day. Why are there two of every photograph? There are not. Each image was taken from its own negative, the difference between the "dupes" is that in the one on the left, no flash was used and on the right, I let the flash fire. Naturally, the camera was mounted to a sturdy tripod and the flash was mounted to the camera (some day I'm going to get an off-camera flash cable).
In PhotoShop, I post-processed each image pair exactly the same - I added the same slight S-curve layer and then sharpened only the edges to the same amount. I found that ice tends to oversharpen quite easily so I tried to be very gentle. All images were made on Kodak Portra 400VC film (I got some for free) and were shot with the magic lens (a Canon 70-200 mm f4 L). Macro shots had a Nikon 5T Closeup Lens mounted to the front of the magic lens.
This yucca accumulated a nice dusting of snow, some icicles formed and the leaves were completely iced over. I noodled around the plant trying to find an interesting angle.
No pair for this image. I noticed the repeating pattern and tried to capture it. I think I probably overexposed the ice a bit - the flash threw in too much light.
Edge detail on a yucca. I like the non-flash (left) version best. More underleaf detail and the ice really caught and refracted/reflected the flash in the right-image. Both images have merit, and I like the composition.
Some poor frozen flower. Oh that black spot in the middle were either not there or a a bug. I like the non-flash version - the specular highlights to the right of the flower are more pronounced, and the flower is now washed out by the flashed ice.
Again, the flash overwhelmed the detail in the ice, making the flash version less defined. A good lesson here.
Here, the flash added to the clolors, really making the greens and yellows pop out agains the reds. Nice to know that the flash was worth the purchase.
This was awesome. The flashed version is much better - the frozen nuts (heh) caught and reflected the flash, which surpressed the background colors significantly. Upshot - the subject stands starkly against the darkened background. Yea! I composed this image with writing of some sort to the right of the subject - sort of like a greeting card or something.
Some detail on a nandina plant. I really don't have too much to say about it.
Some nandina berries. Everytime Austin ices over, this photograph is possible and probable. Still, many examples I've seen (and taken) have the berries against an uninteresting background. Red and green are Christmas colors for a reason.
The flash threw enough light to the background leaves to bring them into the photo.
Posted at 02:09PM Jan 19, 2007 by schnee in Photography |