With the public parking areas still pretty congested or inaccessible thanks to the huge mounds of plowed snow, I opted to stay home for one of my "safety shots" today. The setup for this was in my computer room, starting with a brown blanket for a background. I intentionally left a bit uncovered on the left to prevent the entire background from being completely black. (It needed something to add depth.) I used two drop lights on either side of the book stack to provide the lighting. The bulbs were 40 watt Philips daylight incandescent bulbs. They give a touch of a warm tone, but not as warm as a standard incandescent.
Now for a bit of background on the books... I majored in Chemistry in college, and every now and then I still update my Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. That is pretty much the chemist's Bible, and I made heavy use of it back in my beer brewing days! It provided more than enough detail to replicate the various amounts of minerals in water for different beer styles. The two mathematical formula books above it stem from my interest in astronomy. At one point, I was writing a lot of software (for my own use) to calculate asteroid and comet brightness. Of course, now you can get plenty of software to do that for you, but hey, it was fun writing my own. The top two are from my web development dabbling days. Yes, folks, writing software really can be fun...
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I then adjusted color sensitivity sliders followed by adaptive exposure, boost black, boost white, protect highlights, and contrast. I added a levels adjustment and a sepia photo filter in PSE.
Drat. I posted a response and then lost it! Now what did I say? Something about how we can tell so much about a person by the titles of the books they read. When I was taking my daffodil selfies this morning, one of the pictures had one of my bookcases in the background. You could just make out the titles on the shelf, each one having the word 'meditation' in it.....
I wouldn't want to drop your chemistry and physics book on my foot! But I like the way the pile of books is erected haphazardly (no OCD obviously). It's a good subject for black and white and I like the brightness of the daylight bulb.
no dont think I have read any of those books. I have read 50 shades thou. Fran even found that my camera takes black and white she is so addicted thanks RON
@shelldunn Oh, black and white is extremely addictive! At some point, if she's interested, I'll give her some techniques on doing the conversion herself in PSE instead of letting the camera do it. If you think it's addictive now... LOL
Never compare cameras! I've seen some absolutely stunning photos taken with an iPod. In fact, I was on a trip in Costa Rica and there was a professional travel photographer on the tour. He shot everything with a small Canon Powershot point and shoot. It's not the camera that takes the photo, it's the photographer. (Well, in most cases, anyway... I seem to remember a photograph taken entirely by the camera the other day...)
Your choice of light reading would be pure torture for me! Haha! We are obviously on different planes... yours being much higher than my lowly one! I have hundreds of books all over my house... but you won't find one of these! Liked the way you stacked the books, creating light and shadows... thanks for sharing your process... I am on here to learn!
February 12th, 2013
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I wouldn't want to drop your chemistry and physics book on my foot! But I like the way the pile of books is erected haphazardly (no OCD obviously). It's a good subject for black and white and I like the brightness of the daylight bulb.
Never compare cameras! I've seen some absolutely stunning photos taken with an iPod. In fact, I was on a trip in Costa Rica and there was a professional travel photographer on the tour. He shot everything with a small Canon Powershot point and shoot. It's not the camera that takes the photo, it's the photographer. (Well, in most cases, anyway... I seem to remember a photograph taken entirely by the camera the other day...)