Household Objects - Art On A Shoestring

Last time out I was looking at holiday photos, so to kick off the New Year (a time when credit cards are traditionally maxed out) I thought I'd feature some ideas that cost nothing.
Everyday household objects can be fun subjects for creativity - especially on days like today (I'm looking out of a rain-spattered window as I type this). Turning ostensibly banal objects into abstract art is a good exercise in creativity; ask yourself, "how can I present this item in a new and interesting way?"
It can also be done on a budget. For these images I put a 60mm macro lens on my tripod-mounted SLR, and used natural light. If you don't have an SLR and macro lens, a compact camera will probably let you get just as close. A couple of the images also involved a laptop screen, and some minimal Photoshop editing was done - but nothing that could not be achieved in open source / free software or even the software packaged with your camera.

In the first two images a set of drinking straws were bundled together and secured with an elastic band. Each bundle was rested on its side in front of a white background, and shot in (frontal) natural light. Photoshop editing was required to remove the surface on which the straws rested; this could be avoided by balancing your straw bundle on top of the white surface and shooting down on it (a technique employed for the final two images in this set).
I spot metered the dark surface of the straws so the white background would over-expose and the black straws would render mid to dark grey. Small changes in camera position and angle dictated which straws allowed (reflected) light through from the background.

 For the next image I simply moved the camera much closer and dialled in an 'incorrect' white balance setting on my camera. Setting the white balance to 'tungsten bulb' rendered the diffuse natural daylight blue. This shift could also be accomplished easily in Photoshop's RAW Processor if you shoot RAW.

The last two images were shot looking down over a horizontal laptop screen (be VERY careful what you put onto your screen - it can be easily damaged!)
A background image was displayed such that it covered most of the laptop screen, and the camera postioned so the image filled the frame. The straws were cut to half their original length to help them stand up and to allow more light through.

Something to look out for with macro images are stray hairs, fluff, dust and so on. What may be barely noticeable to the naked eye can be enfuriatingly apparent in a macro photograph. I left a largish hair in the image above because I decided it looked interesting, but removed it from the image below using Photoshop's clone stamp and patch tool.

Remember, you don't have to copy these ideas - what items are laying around in your kitchen, bathroom, garage etc that might form the basis for interesting abstracts?

Hang Ten

Another example of creating something interesting from something banal. Pegs on a clothesline shot in the early morning sun. No retouching done here apart from the b&w conversions and a contrast kick.

Sonnet 54

O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 

For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 

The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye 

As the perfumed tincture of the roses, 

Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly 

When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: 

But, for their virtue only is their show, 

They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade, 

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so; 

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made: 

And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, 

When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.

(William Shakespeare) 

Blinded

When we took down the curtains and replaced them with blinds the motivation was entirely one of interior design.
I was not in the least bit intrigued by the background and lighting possibilities they might present.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Question is, can you recognise the source text? Answers on a postcard....

Oil, Water and Food Dye Pt3

As promised last time out, here are the more detailed guidelines for creating your own digital cooking-oil art using a digital background:

Select some background images to work with and display one on your laptop/ipad/etc screen. The image only needs to be big enough to cover the space under your water container. It should contain some bright elements as it will be back-lighting your image. Turn the laptop screen up to max brightness.
Place the laptop, with the screen in a horizontal position, under the glass table (as close to the table top as possible without touching). Do not place water-carrying objects directly onto computer screens - unless you're keen to splash out (sic) on a new computer!

Pour some water into your container. Amounts will vary, but generally I work with 1 - 4 inches of water. The depth of the water will influence how sharp or soft the background will be, since the oil floating on the surface will be the point of focus.
I have found lukewarm / room-temperature water works better than cold water - the oil takes longer to coagulate into a single bubble.
Dribble a small amount of cooking oil into the water and place the container on the glass table over the image on the laptop screen.

Position your camera on a tripod directly above the water. If possible, get close enough to fill the frame with the base of the container. The closer you are, the bigger the oil bubbles will look in the final images.
Try to keep the camera as level with the surface of the water as possible for maximum depth of field (zone of sharpness) across the frame; when working close up with wide apertures a slight tilt can throw areas of the image out of focus surprisingly quickly (you may want that, of course).
There are no hard and fast rules dictating the camera settings, so think of the following as a starting point:

ISO: 400 or higher, to accommodate the low light produced by the screen
aperture: wide open (e.g. f2.8), again to help with the low level of light; also helps keep the background soft, so it does not dominate
shutter speed: 1/60 second; you want the shutter slow enough to allow lots of light in, but fast enough to freeze the image if the oil is still moving in the water

You can try autofocus, but will probably find manual focus works best as autofocus struggles with this type of semi-opaque backlit subject.

You are now ready to shoot. Experiment with camera settings, distance between camera and water, depth of water, amount of oil, different backgrounds and so on.

If the oil coagulates into a single large bubble, give it a stir with a reed or coffee stirrer and wait a few seconds for it to stop spinning so quickly.

If there is too much oil in the water, tip it all out and just pour in some more water - plenty of oil will probably still be present.

Food Dye

You might also like to add some food dye. There are a range of colours cheaply available, but I find red works best for some reason - other colours seem to 'gloop' together into one big depth-charge, rather than produce pretty patterns. Food dye can also look good on its own against a plain bright background.
Shoot immediately after adding the food dye, and fire off a number of frames in quick succession; you can then select the best pattern or create a progression of images.

Printed Background

If you are planning to use a printed background, you will need to think about how you want to light it. Whether you use flash or a constant light source, you want to be able to direct the light onto the background without directly lighting the water. In other words, you will create back lighting, which will bring out the contrast and colours, so will need to keep some space between the table top and the background underneath.
A spotlight or flash with 'snoot' attachment will work best, but if you don't have that equipment, you can still block the light from the table top using black card (or similar).
You could also position your light source very close to the background, under the table. If you do that, you may need two lights - one from each side - to create an even spread of light across the background; even if the light only needs to cover a small area, the 'fall off' (drop in intensity) from a close-up light will be very rapid and may result in an unevenly lit image. For more information on this, check out the 'inverse square law'.

When using a strong light source such as flash, ISO 100-200 produces a less grainy image that the higher ratings recommended above. Set shutter speed to the flash sync speed specified in your camera manual.

Have fun.

Oil, Water and Food Dye Pt2

I was asked to provide a little more detail of the process involved in creating these images. They are something anyone with basic equipment can play with, so the next two updates will contain more detailed instructions. To begin with, what kit will you need?

>camera (ideally with macro lens, but if your compact digi camera allows close-up focussing, then that can work too)

>tripod (preferably with detachable central section that can be angled parallel to the ground, allowing the camera to face directly down)

>mini spirit level (to place on top of the camera and check it is level; not essential, but helps with Depth of Field when working at wide apertures)

>clear glass container (without water mark in the glass)

>laptop/ipad/etc (or a printed background image)

> glass table (or other form of support)

> water, cooking oil and / or food dye

> spotlight (only required if working with a printed background rather than a laptop screen)

The next update will go through the basic process, but in the meantime, here are some more examples.

Oil, Water and Food Dye Pt1

Some development of the Bubblescape theme. The previous 'scapes utilized printed (or solid tone) backgrounds and were lit with flash. The next few updates feature digital backgrounds and no other light source. Since quite a number of the previous images had an 'astronomical' appearance, I chose some images representing aspects of the universe (fact or fiction). Even with the laptop screen used as a background set to maximum brightness, the overall luminance was low. Consequently, the images are slightly grainier than before - and a very shallow depth of field was chosen for the macro lens. Both these qualities bring increased physicality to the images in my opinion, distancing them from the smoothness of vector graphics and the like. The next couple of updates will feature more detailed tips for creating your own cooking-oil art, but for the moment, here are some I made earlier:

Bubblescapes

A few more oil and water fantasias to enjoy, with the occasional splash of food dye for good measure.