Photo of the Day: Aug 28th, 2010

[shmax]

If white parts are difficult to shoot, then clear parts are impossible. I proved this scientifically myself some months back by spending about 3 hours in the garage with 1500 watts of light and a salt shaker in a ziplock bag. So, I'm at a loss to explain this recent submission from Highprime. It appears to be a photograph of Clear Convoy from Beast Wars, but since that's impossible, he must have produced this image through some other means. Oh sure, there are ways. He could have soaked regular Convoy in vinegar for an hour, captured some kind of holographic image using lasers, or even--my god--killed regular Beast Wars Convoy and summoned its ghost from the dead. I guess I'm not exactly sure what he did, but I think we can all agree that perverting the laws of science and nature are far more likely to get you a nice image of a clear part than using a camera. Nice work, Highprime. Which impossible photographic task is next for you? Bigfoot? Loch Ness Monster? Sean Penn?

[Kookaburra]

That is a very impressive picture! I'm still trying to get one measly clear missile photographed, and after 2 months have had no luck.

[shmax]

I'm kind of hoping he'll post a tutorial or something--he's got some super secret tricks, and he's keeping them pretty close to the vest, or cape, or whatever.

[HighPrime]

No tutorials at this point.  I'm still playing around as it is.  New things learned each week.  One tip I can reinforce from Shmax' own guide is watch your level adjustments.  The biggest single thing anyone can do to ruin a picture is adjust the levels too far causing the figure to lose detail.  Even moving the levels a few ticks on certain colors will trash it.  How do you know you've lost detail?  Look for holes in your photo during adjustments.  You can do this moving your monitor around to various angles, or much simply, adjusting 'up' mid-tones to max.  As you start to adjust the white level down (with mid-tones to max still), you'll see where the photo starts to loose detail.  White, clear, silver, and any part that has a hard light reflecting off of the surface will almost immediately begin to lose detail.  If this happens before you can adjust the levels to acceptable levels for submission here, you'll need to reshoot/adjust lights, but more then likely be prepared with quick select, eraser tools, and multiple layers  

Keep in mind, I am a harsh grader, especially of my own work.  In fact, with each new 'set' I do, I can look back at what I've done in the past and honestly say they stink (because the newer sets have the knowledge I obtained through tinkering).  I think there's 10 - 15 sets I can look at and say "Anyone would be hard pressed to do better than that."  The rest of my work would be a big thumbs down.

Good luck!