The look and feel of this shot is an old dusty guitar lying around the corner of the abandoned palace or some other historic place, with light coming in from one single source, highlighting just the top part of the guitar
Settings
- Shutter speed : 1/80 sec
- F stop : f/4.5
- ISO : 100
- Lens : 35mm f/1.8 prime lens
- Camera: Nikon D3100
- Lighting : External flash ( off camera )
- File name : DSC_6519
Shoot setup
To get the ‘grand’ look, I needed a mirror that looked ‘grand’. Picked up the biggest mirror in my house and it had all the wooden carving which give it an elegant feeling. In post processing, I sharpened the image, thereby brining out the dust more clearly.
While setting up the mirror, the opposite side had to be clear, intially wherever I tried in my room, there was either the reflection of the computer or the bed falling in the mirror. We wanted just the reflection of the guitar on the mirror. Although it sounded very easily achievable, it was not 🙂
Moreover care was taken so that there was no reflection of me ( used remote control for controlling the shutter), or the stand ( the guitar, the mirror and the camera was placed in different angles to that it looks elegant at the same time there was no reflection of the camera or the stand in the mirror) and also the light sources was adjusted so their picture also do not fall on the mirror.
Lighting setup
- All the light in the whole house was switched off with just two light source mentioned below
- The side of the guitar, the brown part of highlighted using a single light from the double light stand
- Front of the guitar was lit using off camera flash set at 1/2 the capacity of the flash ( manual ofcourse. Dude you can’t do TTL in total darkness !!)
- Flash was setup at a height so that the light from the flash do not fall on the mirror
Post processing
- Except for light on the floor and on the guitar, the remaining part of the room was darkened out using the Graduated filter
- sharpened the image so that the dust was more visible
- Removed the flash burn ins on the guitar using the spot removal tool, worked without any hassles, much to my surprise
- Regular stuff : noise reduction, increased clarity
- No cropping was done
Original image
