Sunday, May 31, 2009

Day 151 of 365

Wanted to play with white on white today but didn't have a white egg. Was puttering around the garage and noticed the old golf clubs and bag my dad gave me years ago in hopes I'd take up the sport. Unfortunately for my dad I did not...found it more frustrating than relaxing. So with golf clubs surely there are white balls and tees and there were.

I don't have a true strobist kit so I try to improvise and make do with what little gear I have. I initially started with some work lights shining on the ball from both sides and another white illuminating the white background. The white background never really looked white so scratched that idea. Grabbed my old Vivitar flash and tried with that. Here's what I have to do to use the old flash. Since I don't have a setup to use it remotely and I didn't want it on top of my camera in the hot shoe I do the following. I turn off all the lights in the garage except one in the back with just enough light to see by. I set my shutter speed to 1 second, aperture to 22 and clicked the shutter...in the one second I set off the flash. The flash does keep the white background white so that is nice but I discovered that all my shots that were really white showed just how dirty my sensor is, either that or I didn't clean the lens as well as I thought I did before shooting. Either way there were several spots and even a piece of lint showing.

With this particular shot I made a snoot out of cardboard so I could direct the light straight onto the ball and tee from the side. I like it more because because there weren't any signs of the spots and lint.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks very cool. Hearing your trial and error process is such a great education. Thanks, Rob...

Jen said...

You should send this one to your dad. Great shot, sweetie.

jo said...

Fantastic shot in dark and white! Your persistence paid off.

Sharon said...

Wonderful lighting!

Ron a.k.a. Danudin said...

Finally a golf vall put to good use. Great Image.

Amit Basu Photography said...

Thats a great shot. Love the lighting.

Bo said...

Creative shot. I enjoyed going through your daily photos. Now I need to look in the garage for the golf clubs MY dad gave to me. I know they're in there somewhere!