Creative Lighting shot

shorty6049 · Jan 18, 2008

Okay ,so i'm trying to get into more creative stuff and find my niche in this photography thing... Tonight i decided i wanted to take a picture of my computer. My motivation for this was that i've seen all these fancy photos that mac seems to take of their macbooks (usually just on a plain white background) but I wanted to try and make a pc laptop look as cool as a mac. I sort of feel like i failed miserably in this quest. Its an HP laptop with a mostly black finish on it, and i wanted to play on this with a dark background ... i dont know. I'm just trying to get some really nice images, but seem to keep getting less than perfect results lately... any comments, help , whatever you've got. thanks.

domromer · Jan 19, 2008

It would be gret is it was a black macbook pro!!!!:lmao:

shorty6049 · Jan 19, 2008

lets not go down that road again... lol

domromer · Jan 19, 2008

It looks cool, I think you need to light up more of it, so you can see the sides a little bit. All angular and what not.

Nicolas Alary · Jan 19, 2008

Yeah I agree, even if you want to create an interesting light effect I suggest that you light up the rest of the picture a bit. Not a lot so that you keep your ponctual source light effect but here the darks areas are a lot to "down / low". Also I suggest suggest that you do several exposure that you combine on photoshop because here your screen is burned (too bright) what could have been avoided if you had made an shot and an exposure just for it. I hope I make sens but my english is vanishing ...

salexander867 · Jan 19, 2008

I like the shot with the lower light. Part of being creative is to make your brain work and leave some things open for the viewer to decide. It is obviously a laptop, so why do we need to see the rest of it? Without showing it to me, you are letting me, the viewer, use my imagination to decide what goes in the black space. It is not just the colors that make a great picture, it is also the white space.

shorty6049 · Jan 19, 2008

Nicolas-
i actaully DID use 2 exposures... apparently i still overexposed the screen? it was kind of hard to do though becasue it seemed to be either too dark or too bright

dipstick · Jan 19, 2008

I think my biggest problem with this shot is that the computer fades into the background without showing the shape of the computer. Some highlights on the edges or creating a rimlight would take care of that. Also put some thought into what image you have on your screen.

Its a nice start though, keep experimenting!

Digital Matt · Jan 19, 2008

Backlight it to give it some edge separation and it will look much better imho.

shorty6049 · Jan 19, 2008

well i tried to think about the on-screen image. Thats why its not my desktop, but i couldnt think of anything else good.... i could have maybe used an hp sign or something i suppose. My original plan was to light it from below, by putting it on a large piece of glass and putting a light underneath , but the glass i had was pretty scratched up and didnt look very good. so i ended up putting it on an upside down waste basket.

brounstoun · Jan 20, 2008

Some good points in this thread.

I like the idea of picking a subject and experimenting with how to portray/present it...

How did you accomplish the spotlight effect?

shorty6049 · Jan 20, 2008

well,
i got a box
and cut a hole in the box
then i cut a second hole (for my flash to fit in) and then just shot through the box and pointed it at the computer

Brad Hardy · Jan 20, 2008

I in fact like this image a lot. The only suggestion I'd make would be to throw some light at the back. HOWEVER, I can imagine it being terribly difficult to achieve the look you were probably going for when lighting from the back as well. So, I say, nice shot.