I often browse 500px for ideas and I was inspired by this shot from 500px. I thought it was really cool and I knew it would be tricky but I still wanted to try.
Trying to mimic someone else's work is a really good way to learn. Coming up with new ideas is a very difficult thing to do so I think to create something that looks like another shot but with your own touch.
So here's the setup:
We started out shooting landscape since that's what the reference shot is but we soon discovered that smoke goes up so we assumed the picture was taken in portrait and later rotated to landscape. As you can see, I kept a small angle so the smoke goes in diagonal to make it more interesting.
The hardest parts were timing the shot and the hand position. For timing, you need to be quick. If you're too slow, the smoke is almost gone. As for the hand position, we had our lighting position wrong. Instead of having my umbrella pointing down, it should be underneath the hand and pointing upwards.
I think the reference shot is a composite of 2 or 3 pictures. One with just the hand, one for the fire and one for the smoke.
This was shot with my Fujifilm X-T20 + Fujinon 27mm F/2.8 and my 2 Yongnuo (YN650 and YN560III) flashes.
This is out of camera raw with Lightroom presets (Adobe Color):
Clarity and range mask really helped bring the details of the smoke. I had to shoot at ISO 100 to get a black background. With my Fuji X-T20, shooting at ISO 100 reduces your dynamic range but since we're not outside, it didn't matter much.
I might try this again with the different hand light position but I'm still very satisfied with this shot. I'm also surprised by how sharp the 27mm is.
Trying to mimic someone else's work is a really good way to learn. Coming up with new ideas is a very difficult thing to do so I think to create something that looks like another shot but with your own touch.
So here's the setup:
 |
We started out shooting landscape since that's what the reference shot is but we soon discovered that smoke goes up so we assumed the picture was taken in portrait and later rotated to landscape. As you can see, I kept a small angle so the smoke goes in diagonal to make it more interesting.
The hardest parts were timing the shot and the hand position. For timing, you need to be quick. If you're too slow, the smoke is almost gone. As for the hand position, we had our lighting position wrong. Instead of having my umbrella pointing down, it should be underneath the hand and pointing upwards.
I think the reference shot is a composite of 2 or 3 pictures. One with just the hand, one for the fire and one for the smoke.
This was shot with my Fujifilm X-T20 + Fujinon 27mm F/2.8 and my 2 Yongnuo (YN650 and YN560III) flashes.
This is out of camera raw with Lightroom presets (Adobe Color):
 |
Clarity and range mask really helped bring the details of the smoke. I had to shoot at ISO 100 to get a black background. With my Fuji X-T20, shooting at ISO 100 reduces your dynamic range but since we're not outside, it didn't matter much.
 |
| 27mm 1/160s F/11 ISO 100 |
Comments
Post a Comment