Playing with existing light.

[FrankenPengie]

I know noise is high and light is low but I'm starting to see light sources as a part of imagery. Here I have a background ceiling fixture with two 100W equivalent fluorescent replacement bulbs back over my head with a smokey glass cover. A 19' CRT monitor is just eft of camera with an aqua color-balanced water scene. 90deg right is a small 60W incandescent lamp 4.5 ft away with the shade tilted to allow some direct light.

I'm trying to work out ways to use existing light via moving the subject and available lamps to gain results. I'm broke and all these tips with off-camera flash and what-not are not working for me.

Edit: Use your brain and post the pic Pengie!

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by FrankenPengie

I'm trying to work out ways to use existing light via moving the subject and available lamps to gain results. I'm broke and all these tips with off-camera flash and what-not are not working for me.

Then you'll enjoy next week's assignment: Ghetto lighting

I had to have a look at this shot on your Picasa page to get the exif info. It says your ISO was 80, so if this shot has a lot of noise at larger sizes, I'm wondering if you had to fix the exposure a lot in post-processing (which would cause noise). I would recommend using a tripod if you didn't on this shot because I think the sharpness might have suffered because of it. However, this may also be because of the shallow DoF. Overall though I don't see much noise, and on a second look I think that it's not as sharp because o the DoF.

If your goal was to explore the use of other lighting, I think that you did well with the use of the computer monitor and the coloured picture to give the watch a sort of aqua tint. Just be aware of slow shutter speeds and consider tripods and self-timers

[FrankenPengie]

Thanks Nicole. I was solely after lighting comments and the Ghetto Lighting Assignment definitely sounds like something I'll want to dive into. My Lumix DMC-FZ5 really likes to make noisy situations of low-light. Keeping the ISO down seems to help.

I played toss with my Niece's boy and my bean-bag so all I can say is my mini-tripod is around here somewhere. I did this hand-held using stacks of old floopy disks to steady my hands. I hoped that and the on-cam Stabilization System would do the job.