Nicely lit Brian. Do they call them Kiwi fruit over there too?
I had better not make any Kiwi jokes- you never know who may be looking in...... john We're off to see the Lizard~~the wonderful (sic) Lizard of Oz~~
Thanks for the comments. Yes, they're called kiwi fruit here, too.
Lighting here was interesting: I shot the photo with very little natural light (only the tiniest bit of daylight left, coming through a window). I left the shutter open 30 seconds, and I fired a separate hand-held flash in various positions 5 or 6 times during the exposure. -Brian
Nice effect, Brian. Is the reflection on reflective material, or accomplished with a photoshop manipulation? I know some people can be very convincing with PS, but I've never even attempted that. --Chris
Thanks, Chris & Julie. The reflection is actually a Photoshop creation; the kiwis were on a towel when I photographed them. I was going for that "sitting on a polished glass surface" kind of look here. -Brian
the reflection fooled me, great work. great method, using f32 for 30 secs, i will be trying that myself very soon hopefully very nicely donemy weddings website
Here are specifics on the Photoshopping portion of this photo, for any who care. (I already explained how I lit the fruit, above.) I adapted this approach from various tutorials I've read here and there.
Using a combination of the new CS3 Quick Selection tool and some careful hand selecting, I cut the kiwis from the original background.
Underneath the kiwi layer, I created a pure black background layer and named it "Table".
Right on top of the Table layer (again, under the kiwis), I overlaid an almost black layer. The almost-black color extends about a third of the way down the image; the rest of the layer is transparent. The slight color difference between the Table layer and this almost black layer creates the illusion of the table's edge behind the kiwis. I named this almost-black layer "Wall".
I added a gradient adjustment layer, applied to the Wall layer only, using a black-to-transparent gradient and a layer blend mode of Overlay. This layer causes the "wall" to be a tiny bit lighter near the "table" edge and a tiny bit darker near the top of the frame, enhancing the lighting illusion.
I dup'd, then flipped the kiwi layer, and moved the mirror-image kiwis into position. I named this layer "Reflection". At this point, the reflection was too sharp and too bright, of course, so it didn't look real.
I used a Gaussian blur on the Reflection layer. I think I used a radius of 20, but I'm not sure, and I didn't write it down. Anyway, the right value for the radius will vary, depending on the subject, so be prepared to experiment a little.
To the Reflection layer only, I applied a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, boosting the lightness +8 and dropping the saturation to -20. Again, those values are suitable for this photo, but different values might be necessary in other circumstances.
On top of that layer, also applied to the Reflection layer only, I added a gradient fill layer, black-to-transparent, with a blend mode of "Overlay". This layer causes the reflection to fade out a bit toward the bottom of the frame.
As with most things Photoshop (especially in the hands of a non-graphic artist like myself), I find that the trick is to keep the adjustments as simple and straightforward as possible. Otherwise, I find myself running down all kinds of Photoshop blind alleys, none of which seem to be heading toward my goal. For now, anyway, I leave the truly sophisticated Photoshop trickery to the pros...
Well, I don't know about that Brian....I am pretty impressed with that, will copy it and have a go sometime! The image is weird...in a really good way mind you...I love it! It's got a really odd sense of material/immaterial about it....It was an excellent idea, as the reflections add to this dilemma!mmm! very inspiring! JennyVisit My Art Prints Website
Fooled me as well, in fact I would never have thought to ask about the reflection it's that good. I can see this hanging in a number of avant garde galleries. Well done, my friend. My Gallery
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and great lighting
very nicely done