Chandis photo galleries : Photography : Experiments

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Experiments Galleries

Zantedeschia : California Calla
Calla Lilly
Ruby Sensation

BADP :

Twin Crowns part.1 : Was trying to get two crowns at the same time for the dgrin challenge on Synchronicity

It was more or less a disaster except for the first shot in this gallery that turned out somewhat OK. Rest of them are unprocessed, just to show how tedious the work is.

I was actually disappointed that I got quite a few well formed single crowns :) (not shown here)

Twin Crowns part.1

The many hued Crown - part.2 : My attempts at mimicking this picture - a drop crown of different colors.

Used a mirror for the shots, but because of the angle of viewing, there are two reflections from both edges of the glass, and that sort of screwed it up.

The many hued Crown - part.2

Reverse mounting the lens - part.2 :

Reverse mounting the lens - part.2

Reverse mounting the lens - part.1 : 08/24/06

Found a dead moth and was looking at him trying to figure out what to photograph. I always wanted to see a compound eye up close, but knew that nothing I had can give me enough magnification to actually see the compound eye. Then I remembered I'd been reading about using a reverse mounted lens for macro photography and wanted to try it out myself. This gallery is a first attempt at that and I decided to use the 50f1.4 as the reverse mount lens.

The first problem I encountered was that all Sony/Minolta Alpha lenses close down the aperture in their default state. So I looked at the rear of the lens (near the mount) and I saw a physical slider pin that controls the aperture. This pin is recessed (hard to reach) and also has a spring attached to it so that it'll snap back shut if not held in place. So I used a drawing pin to pull it back, and then taped over the drawing pin to the lens to keep the aperture open all the time.

The next problem is how to hold it in front of the camera. Since I didn't have a male to male connector of the filter size thread, I tried hand holding. But even if there's a little gap between the lenses, light gets in and ruins the contrast in the picture. And hand holding becomes a chore when being beat down by the incessant heat from the 500w lamps nearby. So I kept the hood on the primary lens, reversed the hood on the 50mm lens I was reverse mounting, and slid it into the primary hood. Then I taped over the edges to hold the lens in place.

Then the last problem is of light. Since the focus range is very narrow and extremely close to the lens now, it just doesn't get enough light. Added to that, the DOF is so unbelievably shallow that you have to stop down to very small apertures to get anything in focus. So I had to have 2 500w lamps very very close to the lens and ofcourse that heats things up big time. I also had to take care that these lights don't give off any flare on the lens.

Lastly, I set the focus to infinity on the reverse mounted 50f1.4.

Hope these pictures will give a good scale for comparison. All the pics are uncropped full resolution versions.

Reverse mounting the lens - part.1

Ignition Part.1 : Inspired by Gaurawas pic on dpchallenge

Burning Matchsticks galore!!

Ignition Part.1

Quarters part 1 : As I sifted through all the coins I accumulated over the last 2 years, I found I had quarters from 35 different states. As these are quarters in regular use, they are not in the best of shape, but I figured I might as well do a collage...

Quarters part 1

Smoke part2 : More attempts at capturing smoke. Unfortunately the smoke color remained blue despite changing flash color. Got to get myself an incense that gives off smoke in different hues. All the pics below are unprocessed except for the obvious exception :)

Crowning Glory Part 2 : Yet another attempt at capturing a perfectly formed crown from a drop. One difference from previous attempt is that the drop is onto a thin layer of milk on a plate rather than into a bucketful of milk in a container :) Also tried to mix up chocolate milk with regular milk to see if colors would play out nicely, but seems like I need a more contrasting color to pull that off.

Crowning Glory Part 2

Crowning Glory Part 1 : An "attempt" at capturing the crown formed when a drop hits the liquid surface.

Given the number of variables there are in getting the shot right, I'm happy with what I got even though I couldn't capture a perfect crown yet. Where to drop in the dark, how to synchronize the landing with the flash, how to keep the resulting bubbles away from the frame, how far away the flash needs to be and where it should point to keep the frame from being white washed, and so on....

Given the amount of whiteness around, I had to darken the picture, bump up the contrast and sharpen it a bit. The result therefore, has a good bit of noise.

Crowning Glory Part 1

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