Thank you all.
Yup, my own hands, 55 years young but they've done lots of miles.
The lighting was simply a single flash, bounced off the ceiling. I was experimenting with it and bouncing it off the ceiling. The difficult part was getting things sharp, as I was using a 10 second timer, focusing on one hand, then jumping round in front of the camera and setting my hands up in front of the lens whilst waiting on the timer. I lost count but it was about 30 shots before I got one sharp. I think being close to the lens and the shallower DOF involved made nailing focus difficult.
Processing was just some radial masks, heavy handed (no punn intended) on the texture slider, and some clarity too, although a bit more careful with that. A mask all around it then, inverted to darken the corners and edges. I then did normal processing in PS, levels, curves, just the normal basic stuff, then put a texture over it that I'd created during one of the lockdowns.
I appreciate that Chris thank you.
The flash was quite close, on a kitchen worktop. I did have the inbuilt flash diffuser over the flash but I tried to subdue it by bouncing it off the ceiling. There's also a large, window looking over the garden to my right and I think this might be where I made a mistake, as I didn't expose just for flash, so maybe some of the ambient from the window makes the shadows/highlights look a bit odd. We also have a silver fridge/freezer, that could possibly be bouncing some light too.
The highlights caught my eye during processing, the second finger down was very bright, so I put a radial mask over it and pulled down the exposure. Now you mention it, I think I need to put a few more masks on some areas to balance the lighting.
Not at all, I always have time for good, honest crit. It's a great way to improve, I wish there were more of it.
Old Hands. by Dale, on Flickr
