Jurassic Park 4.5... Velociraptors are Dangerous!

cgipson1 · Jan 8, 2012

Ok.. So I was bored! I went to Hobby Lobby and checked out the toys... to find something to play with. This is what I found!

Now this is plastic.. and somewhat shiny plastic at that! I tried to show off the "Muscle Definiton" and the "Skin Texture" by using two different lights in various ways...

not bored anymore!

Overread · Jan 8, 2012

The link is on my other computer, but look up Cross polarization flash lighting- or something along those lines. Basically taking polarizing film and putting one section infront of the flash and then putting a polarizer on the lens itself. You then turn the polarizer on the lens and you get a varied effect which will either have no effect or will fully cancel out a lot of reflections from the subject. It can render things very different looking, but for the shiny plastic might well be a great option to lose its shinyess

cgipson1 · Jan 8, 2012

Overread said:
The link is on my other computer, but look up Cross polarization flash lighting- or something along those lines. Basically taking polarizing film and putting one section infront of the flash and then putting a polarizer on the lens itself. You then turn the polarizer on the lens and you get a varied effect which will either have no effect or will fully cancel out a lot of reflections from the subject. It can render things very different looking, but for the shiny plastic might well be a great option to lose its shinyess

This was only really reflective with hard light... I just softened it up a bit and it wasn't too bad. I purposely left them a bit dark.. kind of fit the look, I thought!

That is a good call on the polarizing film, though!

cgipson1 · Jan 8, 2012

Some B&W conversions...

Dark.. meant to be spooky! lol!

Hmmm.. where is Lightspeed? and wheres the ketchup?

Desi · Jan 8, 2012

To me, this is inspiring. You have made them look more "real" than seeing the toy dinosaur itself. I have twin almost 3 year olds, so I have an entire zoo of these animals in their room. I've got to give it a go. But I'll have to make do with only one light. Thanks.

LightSpeed · Jan 8, 2012

The last one looks GOOD.
You know the one you posted to make me look bad.
Damn thing looks real. Your use of light in this, is in a word, astounding.

LightSpeed · Jan 8, 2012

The damn thing in the last one LOOKS REAL. Jesus.
I mean it looks real.

cgipson1 · Jan 8, 2012

Desi said:
To me, this is inspiring. You have made them look more "real" than seeing the toy dinosaur itself. I have twin almost 3 year olds, so I have an entire zoo of these animals in their room. I've got to give it a go. But I'll have to make do with only one light. Thanks.

Desi.. Thanks! It is kind of fun... and definitely good practice! you can even work on your depth of field practice...

cgipson1 · Jan 8, 2012

LightSpeed said:
The damn thing in the last one LOOKS REAL. Jesus.
I mean it looks real.

Thanks Lightspeed.. Just having some fun! And it is good practice!

Robin Usagani · Jan 8, 2012

Just want to give you an idea what you may want to do next.

cgipson1 · Jan 8, 2012

Schwettylens said:
Just want to give you an idea what you may want to do next.

May have to give that some thought! I remember when you first posted that shot.. I thought it was cool then, and still do!

Demers18 · Jan 8, 2012

cgipson1 said:
Some B&W conversions...

Dark.. meant to be spooky! lol!

well it worked lol. That second one looks so damn real it's creepy.

You mention that you used two lights. I'm curious to know the positioning of them in that last photo.

From what I can tell you had one light on the right hand side slightly back and up some from the shadow ( please correct me if I'm wrong). I can't seem to figure out where the second one came from, unless you has one above and the other to the right?

Could you shed some light as to how you did it?

cgipson1 · Jan 9, 2012

Demers18 said:
cgipson1 said:

Some B&W conversions...

Dark.. meant to be spooky! lol!

Click to expand...

well it worked lol. That second one looks so damn real it's creepy.

You mention that you used two lights. I'm curious to know the positioning of them in that last photo.

From what I can tell you had one light on the right hand side slightly back and up some from the shadow ( please correct me if I'm wrong). I can't seem to figure out where the second one came from, unless you has one above and the other to the right?

Could you shed some light as to how you did it?

The full body B&W?

24" softbox 45 degree right / 45 degree high about 12" away with one SB-900 at 3/4 power.....on left at 90 degrees , one Sb900 at 1/4 power with the bounce card pull out and the flash head pointed up at about 60 degrees, just for a little fill. Both on pocket wizards, controlled by SU-800... camera on manual - ISO 400 | 1/200 | F14

Desi · Jan 9, 2012

Damn you Gipson.....I was just about to go to bed too......then I saw these. Had to sneak into the kids room and steal their toys. All right, this was a lot harder than it looked. Got a few crappy shots, but had to post my efforts. Oh, cool shot Schwetty.

DSC_0148.jpg by Javier Descalzi, on Flickr

DSC_0145.jpg by Javier Descalzi, on Flickr

I've got to take the kids shopping for cooler toys.

Demers18 · Jan 9, 2012

cgipson1 said:
The full body B&W?

24" softbox 45 degree right / 45 degree high about 12" away with one SB-900 at 3/4 power.....on left at 90 degrees , one Sb900 at 1/4 power with the bounce card pull out and the flash head pointed up at about 60 degrees, just for a little fill. Both on pocket wizards, controlled by SU-800... camera on manual - ISO 400 | 1/200 | F14

Yes the full body B&W.

That is quite a range of equipment. I'll have to google a couple of them as I'm not familiar with them all.

Did you go into your shoot with a preset of how you will place your lighting or is it trial an error? For example using the SB-900 @ 3/4 power?