POTY 2010 Round 10 - Artificial Lighting - Winner

[Jimmy_Lemon]

Big congratulations to David Gethin (http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/member.php?u=22215) for winning the October round of the 2010 Talk Photography Photography of the Year competition.

The winning shot:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4069/4630323182_4b1f75f143_z.jpg


:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

[rob_c]

Great shot, one I voted for.

[toonamp]

Excellent witty shot, a deserved winner :)

[TheBigYin]

Congratulations, excellent shot :thumbs:

Full leaderboard for October here (http://www.mb-software.co.uk/tp/POTY_10-2010.htm), and YTD here (http://www.mb-software.co.uk/tp/POTY_YTD-2010.htm). As always, if you notice any problems drop me a PM :)

[AshMashMash]

Congrats! Nice one ;)

[Ajophotog]

Very well thought out, well done :clap:

[swag72]

This was such a fun shot, a deserved winner - Very simple yet so effective. Nice one :clap:

[jollyjack]

Well done david :thumbs:

[canon_togger]

Certainly got my vote, well done :clap::clap:

[Keenbfb]

Great image well done on the win..

Care to explain how it was done.

[David Gethin]

Thank you for all the kind comments and the votes. To win a competition in which other photographers vote is a great honour. This has put such a smile on my face at work today.

I am afraid I am not much of a contributor and far more of a lurker. I have only entered a couple of rounds this year having come across this part of the forum back in the summer but I hope to manage a 'full campaign' in 2011.

The shot itself was taken with a Falcon 8mm fisheye (aka Samyang, Vivitar, Bowens, Opteka fisheye) using my friend's Nikon D40X at 1/125 and ISO 100. The camera was placed on a pile of socks and pointed in the general direction. After many shots, I finally got the one I was happy with.

Lighting was an Olympus FL-36 attached on top of the camera but pointed 'backwards', zoomed to 8mm and fitted with a Stofen type diffuser to try and soften the light as much as possible and minimise specular highlights as much as possible. Of course the drum does a great job of bouncing the light around. The flash was manually adjusted to 1/32 power with the lens set to f/8.

Even at f/8 and with the infamous depth of field you get with a fisheye lens the fingernails on the near hand are a bit soft. About a week after this shot was taken my washing machine broke down. The new one has a slightly different design of drum so I may well have another play.

Although a fisheye was used, the crop removed most of the distortion. There was no PP adjustment to defish.

Now back to my photos to try and find a suitable candidate to apply a faux tilt-and-shift effect to for Round 11. A great way of installing some discipline in me to try out new techniques.

[zarozinia]

Brilliant idea so well caught too. congratulations ;)

[Vulkan75]

congrats:thumbs:

[scottishmonkey]

Brilliant and very effective. Thanks for the explanation too :thumbs:

[Jonmurgie]

Superb shot! Great idea and superbly executed :)

[Madhouseof5]

Congratulations, brilliant shot!

[michael23]

brilliant! Very well done!

[andy_fozzy]

I'm not surprised this shot won. It's bloody amazing :clap::clap:

Well done!!

[Tiree]

Congratulations, and thanks for the info.

[Riz]

congrats, good idea

[Breagha]

Great idea :thumbs:

[David Gethin]

Thanks for all the kind comments.

[DannyJames]

just stumbled across this whilst browsing, what a fantastic shot!