I'm Ready Mr. DeMill!

Ready for my closeups!   (only the oldies will likely recognize this line!)

Last night I played around with an idea I've been tossing around in my head. I decided it was time to see if it would work.  Here's the first teaser...

Some time ago a good friend gave me a shoebox full of seashells she'd collected over time. There were some interesting shapes in the box, but I never really came up with a conventional way to shoot them that I liked, so they ended up sitting on a shelf. Some time later I came up with an idea that I thought would be cool, but it required a bit of setup to accomplish. Unfortunately, one thing lead to another and it kept ending up on the back burner.

Yesterday I needed a fun little project to lift my spirits, and the fates rewarded me with a reminder that I still hadn't shot the seashells (right about now I'm humming a tune - what's the title?!). So, I got the materials together and set about finding out if my idea would work.

The shot above isn't it. That's a test shot using ambient light what went right. Yes, for those who notice, there is a touch of a rim light on the left underside of the shell - it's coming through the front door's side glass and under the banister railing to just kiss the shell.

Interesting enough shot, isn't it? But what if I move in closer and add a couple lights....

It's obvious I'm lighting the inside of the shell, but that alone didn't seem enough. I gelled a Canon 580 with a full cut of CTB (Color Temperature Blue for the non-photog readers) through a 30 degree grid to give it just a bit of kick.  Do you like?

How about this little guy?

Straight flash kicker skimmed across the top with a 30 deg. grid...

Anyone ever run across a seashell like this next shot?

 

 Straight flash kicker through a 1-stop tri-grip diffuser angled to feather across the "bug"

I wonder what used to live inside this little guy?

Bring the kicker down and camera right, and feather with the tri-grip again.

My 2 favorites:

 Straight Kicker back to camera left and diffused with the tri-grip.

Blue gelled kicker with the feather tri-grip diffuser yet again. It's a great combination.

Here's where I have a little fun - a challenge for you: how did I light the inside of these shells? I'll give you a hint: if you look close enough, you'll notice every shot is showing a double reflection...

Images were shot with my Canon 7D. Half were shot with my 24-70 f/2.8 lens, the closest thing I have to a macro lens, and the tighter closeups were done with my 70-200 F/2.8 and the Canon 500D close-up lens. The focus with this combination isn't as tack sharp as I'd like, but it's a great inexpensive solution when you can't afford a quality macro lens.

I used a Zack Arias trick I learned in his Creative Live weekend workshop to stretch the negative space in some of the images. I shot as tight on the seashell as I could, then expanded the canvas in Photoshop to get creative with final composition.The technique works easy-breezy when dealing with solid colors. But you do get interesting effects if your background has texture. Luckily I was working with solid black with these guys.

One thing I did learn that might be useful if you decide you want to try this: never place the subject right at the minimum distance that the lens can handle and still focus. Wherever you place your focus, 1/3rd of the depth of field is in front of that point, while the remaining 2/3rd's is behind it, yes? If you put the point of focus right at the minimum distance, that front 1/3rd is not available to you. You only get 2/3rds of your maximum possible depth of focus this way.

So, while it's real tempting to get in as tight as possible so you get as large an image as possible, if you're going for maximum dept of focus, back the subject up. This will let you get as much of the subject in focus as possible.

Unless, of course, you want it blurry!  

Hope you enjoy...