Exploring the wonders of creation through a 50mm lens...and other lenses too.

You might be looking at this picture and thinking that it bears a striking resemblance to the photos I’ve shared here the past few weeks, and you know what? You’re correct :) It’s all part of the learning process though, and while on the surface this shot of a classic video game controller does share much in common with its predecessors, there are some important differences that illustrate how I’m continuing to learn when it comes to manipulating off-camera colored lights. Like a lot of my pictures, this one builds on what I have already learned while introducing some important new elements as well, and the end result is an image that, at least to me, showcases yet another step in the never-ending journey of learning to be a better photographer.

First, the similarities. I lit the front of the controller with a single Nanlite Pavotube that was dialed in to a specific color temperature rather than a HSI (Hue/Saturation/Intensity) value. That was something I learned when photographing the Wii controller, and I wanted to apply it here too. I wanted to have the controller be lit primarily with a normal everyday kind of light source, and then have other colors serve as accents. Also, the bright red buttons and words just didn’t look right when lit primarily with any color other than white. This setup also helped create a sense of depth by adding shadows to the buttons and the top of the controller, which were only there because of the specific placement of the primary white light.

The other colors in the scene borrow quite liberally from earlier shots too, with one key difference. In this composition I intentionally placed the orange and purple lights so they would also be reflecting off the surface of the washing machine–something I specifically worked to avoid in earlier photos. It didn’t even occur to me, to be perfectly frank, but once I saw the dynamic elements that the light reflections added to the image (a discovery I made purely by accident as I was waving the lights around) I thought it would be a great way to complement the controller. And, as far as I can see, I think I was right :)

I’m really curious to see where all of this goes. Will I just keep taking pictures of retro-themed objects on top of my washing machine, or will I find something new to explore with the lights? I’m really not sure, but I’m eager to find out.

“Dad, get your camera!” my youngest son shouted from the back yard. I was inside cleaning up in the kitchen and he was out with my wife planting some strawberries he had brought home from his after-school gardening club, and I couldn’t imagine what on earth would need my attention, and my camera, so urgently. The tone of my son’s voice was all the justification I needed though, and I immediately dropped what I was doing, grabbed my D750 (with 105mm macro lens already attached, thankfully) and ran out to see what was going on. Much to my surprise, my son and my wife were standing just a few feet from what looked like hummingbirds floating from flower to flower in the corner of our yard. My son looked at them, looked at me, gave me a massive grin, and said “See if you can get a picture!”

There wasn’t much time to plan, but I knew I needed a fast shutter speed. And I mean fast. I set my auto-ISO to 1/1500 second, dialed in a pretty wide aperture of f/4, got down on the ground, and set to work. These little creatures were pretty skittish and didn’t stay in one place for more than a few seconds, so I kind of scooted around in a prone position and waited for one of them to come near to me rather than vice-versa. I fired off lots of shots but they were all from a pretty far distance, and I was sure that even if the subject looked interesting the shots would require a pretty fair amount of cropping. That’s how it goes sometimes, but I held out hope that one would eventually get close enough for a better shot.

It took about a minute, but eventually one of them did hover over to some purple blossoms near my camera at which point I stopped down the aperture to keep the depth of field under control, held my breath, and kept taking dozens of pictures. Soon this one positioned itself right in front of my lens. I could hardly believe my luck, and with my son practically squealing with excitement I was able to take the picture you see here.

It is not cropped.

I have taken lots of shots of bugs and insects over the years, and even some bees as they float from flower to flower, but this is far and away the best such photo I have ever been able to capture. The only part of the moth that’s in focus is exactly the part that should be, and its wings have just enough motion blur to let you know how fast they are moving. Its proboscis is about to uncurl to take a sip of nectar from the nearby plant, and everything that’s not the moth or the flower is completely blurred out but still gives a sense of context. Even the brown streak on the left side serves to complement the colors of the moth.

This is one of those shots that I just can’t quite believe I was able to capture, and I’m so glad I listened to my son and didn’t ask questions. I just grabbed my camera and made a run for it, and the result is one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken.

Once again, another shot of a fairly simple object enhanced by the presence of some colored lights. This is clearly becoming a pattern for me, and I’m having so much fun experimenting with the new possibilities afforded by my new Pavotubes (Note: I get no commission or anything from B&H, I’m just linking in case anyone is curious what these are and where I got mine.) Thanks for hanging in there with me, readers, because right now I don’t know that I’ll be stopping any time soon. Then again, who knows…maybe this will be the last one of these kinds of shots for a while because I’ll move on to something else. I dunno. As my dad said when I was a kid, and still quips to this day, we’ll have to see once.

This image bears a striking resemblance to my earlier picture of a SNES controller, but there’s some subtle, but very important, differences that showcase what I have been learning about the use of off-camera lighting to create these pics. First, and most importantly, I increased my number of lights by 50% over the SNES controller. While the original was lit with two Pavotubes, I have since acquired a third and my goodness, what a difference is is making. I experimented with several lighting ideas when setting up this picture and eventually settled on the following:

Light A: Set to 2700K placed horizontally just to the right of the frame.

Light B: Set to blue (I forget the exact HSL value) placed horizontally just to the left of the frame.

Light C: Set to orange (again, I forget the exact color scheme) which I held in my hand above the controller.

As in previous shots, the subject was resting on top of our washing machine partly to get a cool reflection but also because the laundry room gets super dark when all the doors are closed, which is great when you want to control the lighting.

I decided to take a bit of a different approach when lighting this controller compared to the others. First, I used Light A for the face of the controller because I wanted it to look, more or less, like a normal Wii remote. I tried using Light B and C for the face, but what I realized is that the colored lights worked best for accents, not the main light. When I lit the front so as to be orange, purple, etc., it just didn’t look right at all.

I also was very intentional about using Light C for a specific effect: the bright highlight running from top-right to bottom-left on the smooth surface of the controller. I held Light C in my hand and waved it around like a magic wand until I found just the right position to make that surface shine, and it ended up giving the whole composition a bright, punchy, almost three-dimensional feel.

Beyond that about the only editing I did in Lightroom was the removal of spots, dust, and scratches. No cropping, no major color changes, and certainly no fundamental altering of the image. What you’re seeing here isn’t the result of CGI trickery or advanced photoshopping, just lights, my camera, and a washing machine :)

If this picture gives you a sense of Déjà vu, you might be on to something. Ever since I got my macro lens I have found myself revisiting pictures I shot years ago when I got a set of close-up filters—building on what I have learned, trying to take my photography farther, and adding to my own personal toolbox of photography techniques. This week’s picture is one of the first that I can recall that is designed to be a direct copy of an earlier composition, but better. And while I’m not entirely certain that I pulled off exactly what I was aiming for, I can say for certain that this shot shows evidence of learning and growth. And that, as you probably know, is what really matters to me.

For reference, here is my post from seven years ago with the original image of my pocket watch. I shot it with my 50mm lens and one or more close-up filters attached to the front, and all things considered it’s not a bad image. Not at all. It does pretty much about what I wanted it to do, which is show a close-up view of the watch face with hands set to roughly 10:10. Now that I have a true macro lens and a decent set of basic lights, I thought I could take a similar shot but do it much better, and with more intentionality, than the original. I think it worked, but again, the emphasis here is not on the final output but on the journey it took to get there. Hopefully if I revisit this same composition again years down the line the result will be improved even more.

When I took this shot I really wanted to pay attention to a few things that never even occurred to me on the original. First and foremost was lighting: I wanted to use my new Pavotubes to make the watch really shine in a way that the first picture lacked. First I tried making the composition using wild colors of light like purple, orange, red, etc. The results were bad. Really bad. Instead of causing the watch to shine, it just looked dingy and weird. Or maybe post-futuristic, like something out of Blade Runner. Either way, it was not, as they say in The Mandalorian, the way. I had to find a better option.

Then I realized that the Pavotubes have a pretty nifty option which I had heretofore entirely overlooked: you can set a custom white balance. Rather than experimenting with colors, I set the value of all three Pavotubes to basic white light with a temperature of 2700K. That transformed the shooting process entirely. I found myself going to a mental state where I was using the lights to highlight and accentuate the color of the watch rather than using lights to change or otherwise alter the color, as I had previously done with so many similar images.

My task, then, became an exploration of how to use the lights to best showcase the watch. I ended up with the setup that you can see below:

Each of the three lights was placed intentionally: the two on the sides created a rich glow on the outer bezel of the watch, and the light I am holding up with my hand made the face glow while also adding a spark to the tick marks at 1 and 7. It took a ton of experimentation to get the lighting just right, and I really just ended up taking dozens of shots until I found one that just worked. Editing was super simple too: I set the white balance of the RAW file in Lightroom to 2700K to match the lighting precisely, and all I did after that was use the Heal took to remove some spots and other imperfections.

Yeah, these lights are awesome :)

I was recently interviewed by Frederick Van Johnson for This Week in Photo, and since our conversation was entirely focused on Weekly Fifty I wanted to share it with all of you here on the blog. You can read more (or listen to the audio podcast version of the interview) by visiting This Week in Photo, and I’d love to hear any thoughts or comments you might have.

Thank you!

Simon