My most difficult photo until now. Every shot needed the camera taken outside the microwave so I could review the result!
One of the most difficult things was to get the right focus with a short DOF (F2.8), since the viewfinder was not accessible inside the microwave. I had to set the focus from outside to inside (reverse) and then lock the focus, but this did not give me the perfect focus that I wanted. I was tired of trying anyway, and accepted this one.
I tried with some variations of lighting, inside and outside the microwave, various angles for the camera and the popcorn, various distances between myself and the microwave... This photo is the best result I was able to get with my amateur equipment.
The final setup has a 60W bulb inside the microwave, in the deeper lower left corner, with 2 sheets of white paper on it to make it diffuse. The camera is on a small tripod inside the microwave, just above the 60w bulb. On the outside, I had natural day light coming through the window and I was handling a 500W bulb (that thing is hot) very close to my face. Used the 10 second timer to give me time to turn on all the lights, partially close the microwave door (so it looks to be closed), and pose. One hand keeping the door closed, and the other handling the 500w light.
RAW conversion with almost none adjustments.
Then, on PSP X2:
-Made some different adjustments for levels and contrast, on various parts of the photo.
-Cloned out some distraction points.
-Some dodge and burn on my face.
-Resized, no crop.
-Neat Image.
-Unsharp Mask.
-Export for web
Hope it gets +6, but as always I'm curious about the comments I will get...
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Post challenge:
Well, I got my 6... Will not try this photo again, but I'd like to see anyone else trying... Lighting, composition and focus were difficult things to get...
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You got your 6! I thought this was very creative and well done. Thanks for sharing your notes, too - it's always interesting to see what lengths we go through to try to get what we want!
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