Michelle (@momsta) challenged me to a burning lightbulb shot this week... who first thought it was a good idea to break open a lightbulb and set it on fire???? my husband was convinced i was going to electrocute myself, or worse, burn the house down ;p
anyhoo, i kinda sorta got it figured out (except how NOT to break the filament when breaking the bulb)... however all the decent-ish shots have this thread of green in them... any idea where it comes from and how to stop it from happening? cloning it out didn't work...
Awesome!!! She gave me that challenge last week and I just couldn't do it. I'm so impressed and the result is terrific. Weird about the green not being able to be cloned out. Twilight Zone-y-ish!
@taffy tx! but i think i explained the cloning thing badly... YES i can clone it out... the problem is that there's the diffuse bit of light right by the bulb that i don't want to lose... cloning out the green starts to cut into that - there isn't a smooth cut off, if you know what i mean... so i don't want to clone it out because i think it makes the image messier rather than cleaner :)
@kwind it actually didn't feel dangerous at all... the main thing is to be 100% sure that the switch is off before removing the lightbulb... the pouf itself is a non-issue... it lights, it burns, it dies out... a matter of seconds... no explosion, no pop, no flying bits...
Woah, that's brilliant! You should be really chuffed with accomplishing that. Superb detail. I've got no idea about the gren line, sorry. Looks like a bit of something that's shot off to the right or is an imperfection in your lens perhaps.
that's so cool! I've got that little green squiggle too on occasion when shooting lightbulbs, it seems to be almost like a filament shaped lens flare-ish kind of thing. sometimes reframing helps, if it's wider or off to one of the sides, it may move, enabling you to clone it out.
Brilliant challenge and perfectly accomplished.
I have a couple of these bulbs lying around after my white month - might see what hubby thinks and give it a go for black month (when and if I do it, lol). Fav.
@taffy I've done this several times and not noticed the green thread of light. I'll have to look at my shots. To break the glass wrap the bulb in cloth and use standard pliers or channel locks and squeeze the base of the bulb near the screw threads. As mentioned, don't squeeze too hard since you want the bulb filament to survive. There are numerous youtube videos demoing this photo technique.
@momsta I know you've done this previously following "Lord Shadow's" description in Nov 2011. Have you tried it again lately?
@mikegifford yeah... i watched the vid and i tried to break the bulb with pliers, but either i didn't have the correct pliers or i was going it wrong, because i couldn't do it... i used a hammer and managed ok with the 60 watts bulbs... but i think my 40 watts bulbs were all duds ;p
The green bit is a reflection of the bulb filament introduced somewhere on the optical path. The most likely cause is a UV filter on the lens, but it could also be internal to the lens, or even reflected off the sensor itself, as the filament will be extremely bright compared to everything else.
@salza tx Sally - Michelle pointed me to a very helpful video... I shld have posted the link here - if you go back to my sunset shot and scroll thru the comments you shld find it...
@abirkill Tx Alexis... and as always, you are a wonderful fount of knowledge... Not UV filter in this case as I don't have one for the Sony... Assuming its one of the other things, is there any way to prevent it?
@northy I suspect not without at least changing to a different lens. I don't think this is internal to the lens, as it wouldn't retain the shape of the filament, so my guess is it's bouncing off the sensor back onto the rear element of the lens, and then back onto the sensor.
Expensive lenses are starting to come with nanocoating layers to reduce this kind of reflection, but that's not something you can apply to an existing lens. If it's the kit lens, I might guess it probably has relatively low-end anti-reflective coatings anyway, to keep the price down.
Did you try moving the location of the bulb in the frame? My guess is that the reflection would move as well, and so it may be possible to get the reflection to not intersect the subject, making it much easier to clone out.
Another thing to add to my bucket list... I think this is fabulously executed, and as always, @abirkill is a guiding light to solving its only problem. A problem I don't dislike BTW.
I'm so totally impressed you did these shots, love you get into things. I keep thinking about hubby worrying about you, but hell, he must be use to it by now. Clever lady. Do you think it would be possible to drill holes in a lightbulb?
I have a couple of these bulbs lying around after my white month - might see what hubby thinks and give it a go for black month (when and if I do it, lol). Fav.
@momsta I know you've done this previously following "Lord Shadow's" description in Nov 2011. Have you tried it again lately?
The green bit is a reflection of the bulb filament introduced somewhere on the optical path. The most likely cause is a UV filter on the lens, but it could also be internal to the lens, or even reflected off the sensor itself, as the filament will be extremely bright compared to everything else.
Expensive lenses are starting to come with nanocoating layers to reduce this kind of reflection, but that's not something you can apply to an existing lens. If it's the kit lens, I might guess it probably has relatively low-end anti-reflective coatings anyway, to keep the price down.
There are some other examples of sensor reflections (coincidentally with a Sony camera, although this isn't limited to Sony) here: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1120319
Did you try moving the location of the bulb in the frame? My guess is that the reflection would move as well, and so it may be possible to get the reflection to not intersect the subject, making it much easier to clone out.
I am half tempted to find an old one (I recently replaced my last incandescent with an LED) and apply petrol and a match. Just for fun.
That is one very cool shot.