Newbie: be gentle :p

paulfallon1990

paulfallon1990

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Edit My Images
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I was messing around after deciding that I need to try new things rather than just photographing the kids, and I thought I should try some shots of a smashed bulb. I lit the shot from the right, and started messing. Half a dozen bulbs and a few profanities later, I came up with this. Advice welcomed :) https://instagram.com/p/2UJm9NMG6n/
 
fully get what you were trying to do but theres two main issues that stand out first and foremost.
1. the focusing. the image isnt sharp. for a static object it should be ultra pin sharp but this isnt apart from maybe a tiny bit of smoke on the left the rest is out of focus.
as you dont say what camera , lens or settings your using its hard to determine why.

2. the light. for a shot like this to work you want the background really to be black, and use a softbox to given the bulb and smoke the glow . easiest was it to put the softbox behind the bulb with a sheet of black card in front of the softbox where the area of the shot will be. so the background is blacked out but wrap around light from the softbox will highlight the smoke and bulb.
then its a case of setting the camera up ona tripod. use a wired or wireless trigger to fire the shot and then be able to break the bulb and have it smoke. ( that part youve managed )
also these kind of shots tend to look better if around half the actual bulb remains.

hope that helps some . would be useful if you could provide your camera and settings info though to help more
 
Hey thanks for the reply, the reason the body of the bulb was a little oof was that the bulb element on this occasion broke whilst I was trying to drill out the bulb, I wanted to capture a bulb filled with smoke but it shattered and damaged the filament. As a result I had to gently shake the lamp to create the short circuit again and get ignition. The camera is very basic, d3000 with 18-200 mm lens at around 180mm. 1/60 f5.6 I'm sure.

Thank you for the advice on lighting and I look forward to attempting it the next time the other half allows me to fill the kitchen with bulb glass and smoke :)
 
So I agree with dean - I love what you are trying to do. Although it doesn't caption it fully. It's not sharp enough, you need to be able to see the smoke and flame to point. It needs to be so clear it hurts aha.

From my understand it's taking a picture of something very specific, and something very small. So you need to mirror that message and make the photo specific sharp and magnified.

This is just my feedback - You are doing really well, I was the same. I remember renting my first camera from Calumet Photographic and due to the sophistication of the camera it took my years to get an understanding of how to best use cameras for different shots. I'm still learning now!

If you are buying any additional products make sure it aligns exactly with your camera. For example my camera I always look on this page: https://calumetrental.co.uk/nikon-d750-body

I look on this site because it gave me an exact detail on how the camera is about and how it is best used.

Good luck mate your doing well :)

Keep in touch
 
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