Sunday, January 3, 2010

The colours of imagination

Day three of my Project 365, and I actually have a third picture! Will wonders never cease.

My daughter is working through her new giant box o' crayons from Christmas, and my wife suggested that the big pile of them might be a good photo subject. I was happy to oblige!

The Colours of Imagination

I had to saturate this pretty heavily in post because crayons are honestly not as vibrant as you would think. Naturally, I think you would get better colours from pencil crayons in this kind of shot, but the saturation increase seems to have helped enough.

I'm working on more elaborate lighting, and have a few new toys: a wireless trigger set for my 580EX II, a light stand and umbrella, and second stand and umbrella with a small optically-slaved A/C powered strobe for a fill light. This shot was taken with the flash on-camera and the Sto-Fen diffuser, with the fill light opposite and above the crayons to prevent any excessive shadowing. There is still some shadow cast beneath the topmost crayons, but earlier test shots without the strobe were much harsher.

I'll be giving the new lighting setup a workout in the near future, as I've had some family friends volunteer for some portrait work. I think I'll rent the EF 24-70 f/2.8L for the shoot, and see what I can do with this gear.

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