Close Up - Laser Sculpture

[Puck M]

This was an interesting exercise. This 3-D laser sculpture is inside a 3" x 2" x 2" block of glass. I found it very difficult to photograph with my high tech studio set up, a goose neck lamp, a black CD wallet for a background and a $3.00 mini tripod. With the Z1 set on super macro mode and the camera lens 1" from the glass block I was getting reflections and poor depth of field with the camera in program mode and auto focus. I went to A priority and manual focus and kept moving the light around to minimize reflections. The exposure was finally set at F8 and 1/3 second and I took the shot. ( I won't mention the 10 others I screwed up) The textured CD wallet was showing in the background and dust on the face of the glass block looked like snow flakes (all in the wrong places). A few reflections were also evident. Here was a chance to use my new PSP8. I cloned out most of the dust spots and reflections, darkened the background and ended up with this. Still not enought DOF for these 3-D objects and the shot is not close to perfect but it was certainly a learning experience.

I can understand the problem you faced. A friend has a similar item with a laser scene from WTC 9/11, flag raising scene. I wasn't prepared to try many options but it's great that you succeeded. Great job.!

[photosbyvito]

very nice job! you faced problems and solved them! it looks great....i even thought this was a shot of some fancy Christmas lights at first....looks like it lol....i have one of these things..i might try to take some shots...might be interesting....