Thought I’d show some of how I made the F#*%ing Dishes image.
Obviously I shot them all separately, my flash was on a fully extended tripod about 7 feet high I’d say and to the right of camera. I needed the height to throw my shadows onto the walls to create some depth to the shot.
I set my camera and flash to manual mode to allow me full control of my lighting, so to that end, I selected a faster shutter speed to cancel out the tungsten (orange) colour of the room lights, freezing the action was not one of my concerns with the shutter speed because the quick (1/4000th) burst of my flash would do this by itself as it was going to be primarily the only light source. Without the flash firing, the image would be totally black in other words, so exposure is entirely being controlled by my aperture and flash output/pwr level.
After a few test exposures for flash intensity/power level, position and my aperture and shutter speed under control I set about throwing stuff around. I made about 20 different shots in all, but only used 9 because some were shot in the same position as where I would be standing, so no point in using those.
In Photoshop, it was just a simple case of dragging all the photos in and applying a hidden mask to each shot, then painting back only the items required. For the uninitiated, the PS tool is called a ‘mask’, you can Google it if you want. I’ve been using it for a lot of years now for lots of different applications with my processing, one of the most used and loved tools ever.
The camera settings aren’t that important to quote as the shot could of been made the same using a mulitude of different settings for as many different reason. I used the settings I used for the reasons I stated above, to get the shot that was in my head (:
For the record:
5D in manual mode (M), lense was 17-40L at about 35mm. iso400 (to conserve flash power and speed up recycling times). aperture was f/8 I think and shutter was 1/200th to cancel out any ambient room lights.
Flash was my old 550ex set to 1/8th power in manual mode.
Well thats about it, nothing too hard at all when you break it down into small chunks.
Peter
midzing
thanks Peter for the info,,,, will have to try this,,(or get my partner to try it, as he breaks all our dishes!! lol),,,,,
Peter Marin replied
lol. Just relegate him to pressing the shutter only, and you do the tecky stuff.
eclectica
I am gobsmacked! You are a clever clever man – thanks for sharing the secrets to this fantastic image with the masses =)
Peter Marin replied
You’re welcome Veronica. I’ve never been one to keep photo secrets, sometimes the behind the scenes can be more interesting than the actual photo lol. When I share my photos publicly I also like to talk about the behind the camera stuff too if at all possible. Heck, I was a newbie too a long time ago, giving back what I have learned is the least I can do, besides, it adds another purpose to your craft in the long run.
Cheers, and thanks for stopping bye, really appreciate it.
Alf Caruana
very F#*%ing clever Peter, thanks for sharing this
Peter Marin replied
You’re welcome Alf.
katialo
nice one macguyver.
we should drink together sometime. A bit of ouzo, some greek music and you can smash the plates!!
Peter Marin replied
Really? That’d be sweet as. lol
But you’d have to allow me time to setup a time delay trigger to capture the precise moment of impact (-8
Btw, I like ouzo….......but I prefere shnapps.
Dennis Gay
G’day Peter,
Very, very well thought out and executed mate!!!!!
Good to see a man with time on his hands. 8-)
GB
Dennis
Peter Marin replied
Thanks Dennis (8
I have time because I don’t watch TV, or very very little. Tv makes your ass big lol. I’d much rather give my brain cells a workout.
Thanks for dropping in mate.
Hans Kawitzki
Very impressive series of flying dishes Peter any broken dishes you can show us ? :)
Peter Marin replied
None broken Hans, I caught them all…........not all at once though.
I’m thinking about how I can juggle some chainsaws next lol.
John Conway
great explanation Pete, but I reckon it’s only a matter of time before you’re banned from the kitchen….. or maybe that’s your plan :)
Peter Marin replied
Thanks John.
That’s the plan mate, get out of the kitchen, it’s far too hot in there for me.
RoddyM
legendary work Pete , ingenious ! appreciate the tech info , priceless ;)
Peter Marin replied
Cheers Rod, thanks mate.
Peter Redmond
You are always thinking, you are never idle!
I think we all appreciate that you share your knowledge.
Have a good one at the wedding tomorrow.
Peter Marin replied
Thanks Pete, you know I’m not a tele watcher.
Gonne be a warm one for tomorrows wedding, we should be right though.
Did I tell you the bride will be in a red Mustang?
randomdumping
Well done. Thanks for sharing the how-to.
Peter Marin replied
Any time.
You’re welcome.
Thanks
Kevin Kroeker
Peter this is just fantastic! This shot was one of my favs that you have done. In fact I have been pondering it since you posted it. So this is just awesome that you gave us the “behind the scenes” info. I agree with you too on the fact that the behind the scenes stuff is as interesting if not more interesting than the shot itself. One of my fav things about your work is the fact that you share your setup and technical info with us. I have learned a lot from your images. Thanks again… always a pleasure to see your latest creations.
Cheers,
Kev
Peter Marin
Wow, that’s very kind of you Kevin.
Hopefully something I share will spark someone else to try something they otherwise wouldn’t have with their camera.
Cheers mate, hope it’s warming up for you guys over there.
Martin Pot
Thanks for sharing – great info!
Dharna
Thank you so much Pete. There should be more people like you helping us very ammeters.
micmac
This is brilliant…thank you so much!!!
A.M. Ruttle
Thanks so much for spelling out this FUN event, Peter!