mikeyatswb
Maroon (with a touch of Gold)
With temps this weekend in the negative numbers Fahrenheit, I stuck to indoor photography. Nothing really inspired me. I had high hopes for a Slinky I found in the basement, but couldn't get it to cooperate. Stupid Slinky. Then I came across the !Catchy Colors theme of the week---Maroon---and decided to try and capture the beautiful finish on the cups of these Fostex TH-900 headphones. (Their sound is equally beautiful.)
There's a fascinating video on the "Urushi" lacquering process used to finish the cups, which are made of Japanese cherry birch. Officially the finish is called "Bordeaux" and not maroon, but that's a minor quibble. ;-)
This was more of a technical exercise than anything else. I have no expertise or gear for this kind of photography, and found it challenging to control lighting and reflection. No single exposure at the chosen aperture was satisfactory, so I gave HDR a shot. This is a 7 exposure HDR, minimally processed with Photomatix, and then touched up in Lightroom. I have no expertise in HDR either, so 7 exposures may have been overkill (or undekill?). Except for some softness on the edges of the lettering and some weird reflections on the cups, I was pretty happy with the results. Perhaps focus stacking and proper studio lighting would solve these problems, but I'll leave those details to the pros!
Maroon (with a touch of Gold)
With temps this weekend in the negative numbers Fahrenheit, I stuck to indoor photography. Nothing really inspired me. I had high hopes for a Slinky I found in the basement, but couldn't get it to cooperate. Stupid Slinky. Then I came across the !Catchy Colors theme of the week---Maroon---and decided to try and capture the beautiful finish on the cups of these Fostex TH-900 headphones. (Their sound is equally beautiful.)
There's a fascinating video on the "Urushi" lacquering process used to finish the cups, which are made of Japanese cherry birch. Officially the finish is called "Bordeaux" and not maroon, but that's a minor quibble. ;-)
This was more of a technical exercise than anything else. I have no expertise or gear for this kind of photography, and found it challenging to control lighting and reflection. No single exposure at the chosen aperture was satisfactory, so I gave HDR a shot. This is a 7 exposure HDR, minimally processed with Photomatix, and then touched up in Lightroom. I have no expertise in HDR either, so 7 exposures may have been overkill (or undekill?). Except for some softness on the edges of the lettering and some weird reflections on the cups, I was pretty happy with the results. Perhaps focus stacking and proper studio lighting would solve these problems, but I'll leave those details to the pros!