12/13/2010 8:42:24 PM

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S
on your very deserving FINALIST! 8o)

12/13/2010 9:37:39 PM

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S ...!

UB.

12/14/2010 2:36:42 AM

Great details and design Martin! Congratulations on your finalist!!

12/14/2010 3:09:30 PM

Thanks guys, I actually took the photo to enter into the first competition in the photography society at my workplace.

To my surprise I won that competition so I was very happy. At the same time I entered here on betterphoto.com and forgot all about it until now.

12/15/2010 7:54:46 AM

12/16/2010 5:41:20 AM

Huge CONGRATZ on getting Golden, Martin. WTG!

UB.

12/16/2010 9:36:25 AM

Congratulations on your 2nd Place winner Martin!

jo ann c.

12/17/2010 8:04:06 AM

Congratulations on your win Martin, I'm very happy for you!

12/21/2010 9:51:22 AM

Great macro. Love the colors and detail. Well done!

12/31/2010 6:44:08 AM

If anyone is wondering how to take such a shot I will explain in the following few posts.

1/13/2011 4:04:06 AM

See the following photos:

1/13/2011 4:14:30 AM

	Setup1 © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Setup2 © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Setup 3 © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Setup4 © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...

See the following photos:

1/13/2011 4:15:35 AM

	Original Image Taken at 1/25th sec to see some movement of bubbles. To get the DOF I was looking for f/5.6 at full zoom (105mm from about 1.5 meters from the subject. I focused on the bubbles that stick to the bottom of the orange as they don´t move and it makes the orange in focus and the background out of focus. © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Crop and Contrast I adjust the contrast (I played around with the s-curve until I was happy). I also cropped the image. © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Black Clipping I still wanted more punch so increased blackclipping slightly. This seemed to work well. © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Apply green tint I applied a green tint which by default affects the greys only. © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...
	Final crop I decided to crop a little more to include more bubbles and make the orange take up approx 1/3 of the image for balance. © Martin J. Wells Nikon D300s Digita...

As you can see, to get the final image required a bit of work in Lightroom.

1/13/2011 4:22:28 AM

What an elaborate set-up and great explanation, Martin. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with many!

UB.

1/28/2011 11:22:10 PM

Exceelnet, beautiful photo and superb explanation of setup! Thanks and congrats!

1/28/2011 11:36:02 PM

Excellent, beautiful photo and superb explanation of setup! Thanks and congratulations on your winner!

1/28/2011 11:36:26 PM

Katarina sums it up... The winning image is just terrific, but the details you provide sharing the setup are really something... Thank you for sharing your art with us, and your technique!
(If you have a moment, I'd love to hear more about your lights and light tent, which looks homemade---I have a 24" store-bought tent, but it is often too small for what I want to try to shoot now!)

1/29/2011 5:18:56 AM

Usman pointed me your way because he enjoyed both your result and your process so much. Thank you so much for the explanation and accompanying photos -- so glad you found a use for those cans of beer! The result is crisp and pleasing. Congratulations on your win in your workplace photo society as well as here at BP, Martin.

1/29/2011 5:48:01 AM

Congratulations on your win, Martin! I loved reading the details of your setup and the shoot, and post processing! The green was an excellent choice in background color!

1/29/2011 11:45:18 AM

Thanks so much for so much detail and explanation. I love this shot,and the colors are wonderful!!

1/29/2011 2:02:05 PM

Thanks again everybody. Regarding the homemade lightbox, I had no idea how big to make one so I went for too big rather than too small (110cm squared).

The downside is that the lights I bought (3 x 150W halogen) are not strong enough if used outside the tent, the upside is that there is enough room to put them inside and bounce the light and that works well.

Another downside is that I could not find a roll of white paper wide enough, the upside is that I can easily change for other color paper, christmas wrapping paper or whatever.

The walls are bed sheets that I cut up and stapled on and I deliberately left 3 walls open (bottom, back and front) this way I can change the background/floor color to suit the subject.

The paper holder at the back is a curtain rail and holders on which to suspend the roll.

I just screwed all the wood together using corner joining brackets which is sturgy enough.

I hope this is useful. Martin

1/31/2011 6:16:25 AM

Perfect... thanks for the info!

1/31/2011 6:18:43 AM

Thank you, Martin! I am going to have my husband make one for me - I might try PVC for the supports, so it could be easily taken apart to be stored or moved. I like your ideas about the paper holder!!!
And, you reasoning behind leaving the three sides open, for change! Most helpful!!!!!

1/31/2011 8:09:51 AM

There are some videos on youtube on how to make a lightbox. Perhaps these will give you some ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK4VVGWmMUs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-Cevn8-l8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuF5G7Cu-gs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0GMClynaBA

2/1/2011 6:01:42 AM