The ice cube project came as a sudden thought in my mind. I had not planned for this shot but the result was very interesting. The beauty of the photograph is due to the fact that the ice almost shines like a crystal and here I will explain how I achieved that result.
The photo was taken in a room where there was just one low powered light, namely a CFL lamp. The ice cube was placed on a black granite slab and was lit using the light from the inbuilt camera flash.
There were some major constraints while shooting this photo
- Ice melts very fast. At least much faster than I thought. Even at night, when this photo was taken, the whole ice cube melted in less than 3 minutes !
- The photos must be taken in quick succession or else the ice melts and there would be more water around the ice thereby reflecting light from the flash
- Once the ice melts, it starts moving around, which means at slow shutter speeds you get a blurry image
Once I got the right image( in terms of ice shape and size ) and the right lighting ( in terms of light absorbed and light reflected ), it was time to take it to post processing using GIMP
Post processing
- Overall brightness and contrast was increased to the maximum extent. This ensured that the background almost became black and the ice starts shining
- Image was cropped so as to give full focus to the ice cube
Details about the cover image
| f stop | f/ 5.6 |
| Exposure | 1/ 60 sec |
| ISO | 500 |
| Focal length | 55 mm |
| Max Apreture | 5 |
| Flash mode | Auto, strobe return |
| Metering mode | Pattern |
| White balance | Auto |
| Exposure Program | Auto |
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