I am pretty happy with this but wish I could have eliminated the glare off the ball.
Shot in raw. Decreased exposure, black level, crop, clarity, vibrance, white balance, open in pse6, resize, usm, sfw.
[Mar. 26th, 2010 09:37:03 PM]
This score is awesome and I am so thankful for everyone that has left me comments.
For those wondering how this shot was done, well here you go (hope you still like it after the smoke and mirrors are gone)
So I got this idea not long after seeing the challenge. I wanted to create a shot where it looked like I was throwing a baseball straight at my camera. Obviously I couldn't just do that as I rather like my camera and lens. So the brain storming began. I originally thought about setting up plexiglass between the camera and the ball and throwing it at that, no good as I didn't have any plexiglass and didn't want to buy any. So how am I going to do this as I have no help and it is going to essentially be a self portrait. Here is the setup:
Tripod setup so the sun was behind it
5in1 reflector on ground to help light the bottom of the ball
prefocused the camera at a point on the ground marked off
repositioned the camera
10 second timer with 5 shots continuos
I got into position and the camera fired.
I am holding a dowel rod stuck into the back of the soft baseball held over where I prefocused and moved it in and out to get a shot with the ball nice and crisp.
So no I didn't actually throw this but I did make it appear as though I did.
Hope you aren't too disappointed.
[Mar. 30th, 2010 10:10:21 PM]
Only 2 hours left and I am sitting at a 6.8 Wow, thank you all for the votes and the comments have been amazing.
Statistics
Place: 7 out of 135 Avg (all users): 6.7846 Avg (commenters): 7.7241 Avg (participants): 6.4615 Avg (non-participants): 6.8923 Views since voting: 5059 Views during voting: 629 Votes: 260 Comments: 50 Favorites: 6 (view)
I have to add, in the photographic definitions, I tried to recreate this with a bullet coming from my gun to the screen, Just didn't work as good as your outstanding shot... Some day I will get this awesome view recreated with the perfect balance of dof, light and action you did here.... Just thought I'd let you know You Inspired Me!!!
1 - Put some color in the borders;
2 - Write your signature in the lower right corner;
3 - Use some kind of filter to blur the sides of the image and bring more focus to the center and the ball.
Congrats on your new PB and Top 10 finish! I didn't vote in this one, but going through the entries, this one definitely caught my eye. I saw immediately what was going on when you mentioned the dowel (I knew by the perfect capture of the seams on the ball there was some kind of trickery), but the DOF and composition made this one stand out.
obviously not stop motion and a fake and it should be clear to everyone (though apparently not by the comments below) that the actual shot is almost impossible and the chances of getting the ball's label perfectly centered is just unrealistic. it would have taken over a million tries to capture the concept, probably smashing a camera or two and it still wouldn't look as good or fake as this image. a surprise to me, but i over estimated the awareness of the voters. well done on your top ten.
Even though the photo was legitimized by DPC during voting, I knew one could trick a shot and still meet the challenge rules. To me the shot looked fake, though I didn't guess how you did it.
so there is no STOPPED MOTION here, ur creativity is well appreciated. But after telling this how u do the shot. IT SHOULD NOT BE ON THIS CHALLENGE. you made us thinking that the ball really throwed.
Great finish, Josh! Only suggestion would be to have turned the ball so the logo wasn't straight.
Originally posted by jminso:
I wanted to create a shot where it looked like I was throwing a baseball straight at my camera. Obviously I couldn't just do that as I rather like my camera and lens.
Great looking shot, i'm trying to work out how you've done it. I can only imagine that the pitcher is holding a stick with the ball on the end of it. So if i'm right then it's not really a stop motion picture however it is an excellent concept, well executed. 9
First i thought this was great, then I thought Hang on they have cheated taking this photo some how by dropping the ball in the line of focus some how.
Then I went back tho thinking this was great
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