Share your lockdown photography projects

Following Chrism8's idea I decided to have a go, but not having glossy tiles I filled a black grill pan with water and floated a magnolia flower in it, with a matt black card background. I then decided to mist spray and focus stacked 11 images in Photoshop. The main issue were hundreds of very tiny light specks which I didn't see until processing.

Worked well

I have one of these in black and also a white one:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201201580043

Thanks Gareth, I will think about that. I quite liked emphasising the water aspect and will try some more if I can face another grilling (pun intended) as to where the pan had got to! The other idea I had was to place some picture glass over black paper, but that could result in a double reflection so probably a non-starter.

Funny you should mention that as I also have got two sheets of glass here that I'm fairly certain I bought from IKEA a while back for their Malm bedside cabinets. The sheets of glass are one smoked and the other clear and the idea behind them was I could put them on top of coloured card so that I had an instant colour reflective base.

Lovely magnolia. You wouldn't know unless told how the reflection had been arranged.
Another way around reflections is to put a mirror flat on a surface, Suspend, or mount the subject over it and arrange a sheet of matt card so it too is reflected in the mirror. There is a risk of double reflections but maybe it won't matter so much? I never cleaned this one up - perhaps I ought to?

Gareth, give it a go, let’s see what you come up with!

What a great thread - it's good to see our minds and imaginations haven't turned to mush (yet). The situation forces us to look at our more limited worlds in a different way and more detail - I like Jonathan's through the TLR shots, and Rob and Chris's black background challenge is producing some great flower images, and good to see an old Takumar 200/3.5 being used at it's best David. ICM, still life, Macro - it's all good stuff....

...keep em coming

I'll add a front garden flower shot from yesterday....

The last one was stacked in Photoshop but I finally worked out how to change the parameters in HeliconFocus so ran the same set through that. Interesting that it cropped more tightly but I think it gives a cleaner result; the PS version matches the size as seen on the first of the stack whereas the HF version matches the size of the last. I need to get more into the HF settings to fine tune it and that's where it differs from PS. I also tweaked the histogram to pull up the reflections.

Flippin heck. And I thought I went overboard with set up now and then. I'm looking forward to seeing these results!

Rob, I find with stacking that you are always better off leaving a wider than normal cropping area around the images since every time the software 'aligns' successive images a little bit gets lopped off because the more distant ones have to be enlarged to match the closer ones. You also get greater leeway with the final composition once a finished image is produced.

I started an on line monthly photo competition for my U3A and within a week had 23 subscribers. Unfortunately they are not all Pentax users, but it has been keeping me busy and them occupied in this self isolating situation.

I have been out on my 'ONE Exercise Allowed' with Old Medium Format Cameras and Old C41 films found in my Fridge to use up but they are NOT PENTAX
1950's British Ensign Selfix 12/20 Outdated Kodak Vericolor III rated 25 ASA in poor light

12 20 VPS 06 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

12 20 VPS 08 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Selfix 12 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr
1930's ZEISS IKON with 105mm f7.7 Nettar lens -- outdated Kodak Vericolor rated 25 ASA

Zeiss Ikon 03 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Zeiss Ikon 04 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Zeiss Ikon Folder by Peter Elgar, on Flickr
1956-59 ROLLEIFLEX 2.8 E2 Xenotar with Scrached Taking Lens at Full Aperture, expired Kodak GPF rated 50 ASA

Scratched XENOTAR at full aperture by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Rolleiflex 2.8E Xenotar (A) by Peter Elgar, on Flickr
1920's -30's VOIGTLANDER BESSA with 75mm f3.5 'Voigtar' lens oudated 07/ 1998 Kodak Vericolor III

Flowers by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

White Shell by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

Voigtlander BESSA 66 01 by Peter Elgar, on Flickr

In the late afternoon yesterday, it was getting rather cool, so I moved my chair into my tiny porch to get the warmth of the evening sun. This series was captured there, using a K-70 and DA 35 f/2.4:

Structural elements:

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2.



3.



Just Frosted Glass:

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6.



Any comments always welcome.

Cheers.
Philip

The things we look at but never see. Excellent

My parents have this pattern on their doors so it was a bit of a nostalgic feeling to see it, it looks very nice too.