A "Light" Snack

Well,

College again tonight, so I decided to compose a still life image using fruit, and shoot it using a torch.

I find still life somewhat boring (well sometimes anyway), so I thought I would try and liven it up by producing an image for my photo book.

Entitled A "Light" snack I composed the image from fresh fruit, a fruit bowl, plate and knife.

The first shot below is of the initial composition set up, it is not meant to be a finished shot, I was just organising the composition. It was taken under standard strip lighting.

 

 

Once I was happy with the composition (above) I then set about taking a series of shots (13 in total) in the studio, with all the lights off. Using a 10 second exposure and small (mag light type) torch, the contact sheet below is of all the shots I have used to complete the final image.

 

Hopefully you can see from the contact sheet, one area of the composition was lit at a time for 10 seconds.

 



As you can also see from the contact sheet, the difference in appearance is obvious. The colours are much more vibrant in the series of images above.

 

 

Once I was happy with the shots above, they were converted from Raw format to jpg, so that they could be loaded as layers into Photoshop.

 

 

Once loaded as individual layers, all but the 1st shot was turned off using the eye, icon.

 

Each layer was then turned back on, in turn, changing the blending mode from normal to lighten as each one was activated.

 

This has the effect of allowing the light areas from the layer below to shine through, hence building up a final image once all layers have been activated and turned to lighten.





The final image below is made up of the 13 images above. There has been now adjustments to the image from this point on.

 

I believe the image above is far superior to the initial image because the colours are much more vibrant and there are much better shadows. I think this makes the image much more interesting.

 

 

Image specifics.

 

Combination of 13 separate, 10 second images, taken at an ISO of 100, f14 and 10 seconds.

 

Camera specifics.

 

Nikon D7000, Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-f5.6 lens, tripod and wired remote release.