Sunday, February 28, 2010

52 Variations - Variation Nine

Sweet Dreams

Kids like sleep. There is nothing new about that, and my son is no exception. So when thinking about this week's shoot I figured why not capture a bit of sleep.

The idea was to get the light of a cracked door going across my son's bed, illuminating his face. In addition the alarm clock would illuminate the side of his pillow to ad a bit to the shot. Below is what we ended up with.

52 Variations - Variation Nine - Sweet Dreams

Of course my son's door is not in a position to cast light across the bed, nor is the light from the hall dependable enough to use. Further his alarm clock does not put off enough of a glow to get any light on his pillow. So, off to create light I went. How fun, after all, photography is about painting with light.

We tried a lot of poses, under covers, on top of covers, etc. But in the end my son had the idea that worked best. He has this tendency of sleeping up side down on his bed. No matter what end he falls asleep on he ends up with his feet on his pillow and his had at the foot of the bed. It is comical and wonderful all at the same time.

To achieve the door cracked open affect I took my 580 EXII gelled it with a 1/2 CTO, and put a snoot on it. As you can imagine though, the light was not nearly narrow enough. So gaffers tape came to the rescue. With two pieces I created a narrow, almost touching slit, on the end of the snoot. This had the desired effect of creating a crack of light across the bed. Very fun, I was so proud of myself...yes I amuse easily.

The alarm clock glow was straight forward as well. I put a 430 EX with a full blue gel and a 1/8 grid facing his pillow. The light was the right shape and density (although I keep thinking I should have used green) but it covered too much of the bed. I needed to narrow it down. To the rescue came gaffers tape yet again. I used it to gobo part of the grid, resulting the light illuminating what I wanted. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy as my son says.

Below is a quick shot of the setup. (Yes, that is a roll of gaffers tape on the floor, I do love that stuff.)

52 Variations - Variation Nine - Setup

Let me know what you think, does the affect of partial lighting come across, do you see the light from the alarm clock?

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As always go to the Flickr set for all project pictures by Clicking Here. You can also find a full explanation of the project along with an index of the shots by Clicking Here.

1 comments:

Gail Giancola said...

Hi Paul. Found your web site. Great photo's. You have real talent. Love the pictures with Gus and your dog and the ones with mom and dad. Keep up the good work!