Thursday, January 28, 2010

Monolith

Monolith
2009 Gilboa, Israel

30 Second exposure, about an hour after sundown.

A single, handheld, manually triggered flash was used to "paint" the rock formation with about 5 shots from different locations and angles.

Shake it

Shake it
2008 Herzelia, Israel

"Chief" - The Bass Player in Yizhar Ashdot's band - during their Irish tour.

This photo became part of the cover art for a single released from the tour.

Site Logo: Photographing a broken lightbulb

Luxphile.com Logo
For the header of my site, I wanted to photograph something that would be immediately related to title of the site ("luxphile"  - hence related to light), but would capture the somewhat dark atmosphere found in some of my work.
After a few days of deliberation an idea bulb lit up (or rather broke) above my head - and I decided on the shattered bulb concept.

If you've ever photographed someone wearing glasses, you should know that reflections can be tricky. The problem increases significantly when photographing a round glass object - since no matter where you place your light source and camera - you'll always catch a reflection.

The best way around this issue, is controlling your specular highlights, David Hobby has a wonderful piece about the technique over at the Strobist Blog which I really recommend you read.
But either way - long story short: If your going to photograph something that will reflect your light-source from any direction - the trick is to make the light source's reflection fill the entire object.

In order to make the light source's reflection (or "Specular Highlight") fill the whole object - you'll wan't a large diffuser - much larger than your standard umbrella or lightbox. The rule of thumb is - use something that would fill your entire field of vision if you were standing where your object is. Usually this is done with a large white fabric lit from behind.

In my case, I made a makeshift softbox from some white fabric, draped over a coffee table, and a broomstick. As you can see - you won't be needing any expensive studio equipment to achieve this :)

BoazArad_1377.jpg BoazArad_1379.jpg

I tried lighting the fabric directly from above - but found that I got softer light  and less reflections when I shot my strobes into the ceiling to further diffuse the light before if hit the fabric.

You can see a much more impressive, yet conceptually similar setup over at Strobist, under Stainless Steel and Cookies.

I used to SB-24/25's at full power to light the ceiling, and one SB-26 on 1/64 power, just winking on the left of the "softbox" to light the very bottom of the bulb and separate it from the black background.
The key lights were fired with modified poverty wizards, and the left fill was on optical slave mode.

I hope you found this tutorial useful, and would love to hear what you think about it, and the final result in the comments.

Star Trails at the Dead Sea

Dead sea acacia tree
2008 Mt. Yishay, Dead sea, Israel

2:15 Hour exposure
(Exposure stacking - made from 34 stacked 4 minute exposures)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Texture: Scratches on Blue

Texture: Scratches on Blue
Blue/Gray scratched surface texture - great for grunge/vintage style edits.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Scratches on cream

Texture: Scratches on cream
Scratched, cream colored texture.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Wood Grain with eye

Texture: Wood Grain with eye

Wood grain texture with a large imperfection ("eye").

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Wood Grain

Texture: Wood Grain
Wood grain with straight lines and no imperfections

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Deteriorated Concrete

Texture: Deteriorated Concrete
Deteriorated concrete texture, with a bit of sloppy masonry as an added bonus :)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Scratches on cream/white

Texture: Scratches on cream/white
26th July, 2009
All textures in this set are free to use, commercially or non-commercially - as long as you provide credit to the source - see the CC: BY Licence for details

If you found this texture useful, please let me know in the comments!

And fell free to add tags, so that others can easily find it as well.

Texture: Deteriorated Concrete

Texture: Deteriorated Concrete
Dark deteriorated concrete texture - great for grungy edits.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Sloppy Gray Paint

Texture: Sloppy Gray Paint
Wall painted gray with large sloppy strokes.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Woven Fabric

Texture: Woven Fabric
White, loosely woven fabric from a chair.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Brushed Concrete

Texture: Brushed Concrete
Gray brushed concrete texture.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Thin Wood Panels

Texture: Thin Wood Panels
Perpendicular thin wood panels lining a wall.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Brushed Concrete

Texture: Brushed Concrete

Brushed concrete with spots created by evaporating water.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Deteriorating Concrete with Gravel

Texture: Deteriorating Concrete with Gravel
Brushed concrete that has deteriorated to show the gravel beneath it

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Concrete with Pencil Markings and Stud

Texture: Concrete with Pencil Markings and Stud
Gray brushed concrete with pencil markings and a stud.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Concrete with Pencil Markings

Texture: Concrete with Pencil Markings
Gray brushed concrete with pencil markings.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Books

Texture: Books
A Pile of books photographed from the side.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Brown/Yellow Carpet

Texture: Brown/Yellow Carpet


Yellow/Black Texture from a wall-to wall carpet.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Brown/Black Woven Fabric

Texture: Brown/Black Woven Fabric

A Black/Yellow woven fabric texture.

Featured by youthdesigner's "40 Excellent Fabric Textures"

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Aluminium Gradient

Texture: Aluminium Gradient

Aluminum gradient illuminated from above

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Rough Rust Colored Carpet

Texture: Rough Rust Colored Carpet


A rough, rust colored carpet texture.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Texture: Marble Tile

Texture: Marble Tile

Texture of a pink / pinkish marble tile with white spots.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Study Hall

Study Hall
2010 Ben-Gurion University, Israel

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rock Out

Rock Out

Studio Work for the Ben-Gurion University.
Set to become a life size cutout advertising an "open stage" talent night.

Lighting info:
Key-light: small strobe, camera left - shot into a silver reflective umbrella.
Fill-Light: small strobe, camera right - shot through a white umbrella.
Plus two small strobes lighting the background.

Friday, January 22, 2010

If I walk far enough

If I walk far enough
2010 Ben-Gurion University, Israel

I'll reach the ocean.