Ring of heart, made of love, This ring of heart dedicated to all my friends who are in love, from the Song of Solomon, Bible

“I slept, but my heart was awake, when I heard my lover knock and calling:

Open to me, my treasure, my darling, my dove, my perfect one.

My head is drenched with dew, my hair with dampness of the night

The idea

Was inspired by the following two photos by Leanne

1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rainbow_127/11737592244/
2. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rainbow_127/11737594436/

Settings

• Shutter speed : 1/20 sec
• F stop : f/2.5 ( Only the line I wanted should be focus, the remaining lines should be blurred)
• ISO : 100
• Lens : 35mm f/1.8 prime lens
• Camera: Nikon D3100
• Lighting : Only 1 source : LED flash light from the cell phone
• File name : DSC_6426

Pre shoot Preparation

Lighting

1. Identify a light source, which will give the heart shape. NOTE: Different light sources give different type of shadow. Thin shadow, thick shadow, light shadow, dark shadow etc
2. Tried with emergency lamp but this had multiple shadow ( because of multiple of multiple LED) I then used the torch portion of the emergency, but it was giving one big strong round circle of light, moving the concentration away from the heart shape
3. Could not use CFL light stand, because if you keep far, the shadows are diffused and long. If you keep close, the shadow part of the ring is also illuminate with the light from the CFL
4. Could not use sunlight, or tubelight in the room since I cannot control the direction of a light source
5. Fixed on the table lamp, medium light ( light can be controlled using shutter speed) and the shadow I was expecting but even this source of light ( just like all the previous ones, had the same problem)

Since all the light sources I used were big compared to the size of the ring, this is what we had

As show above, light hitting the ring( black arrows), created the heart shape. But the light entering from the sides( grey arrows) diffused the shadow, making the shadow look less distinct and thereby loosing the effect. I had to get a light source much smaller than the ring and bingo ! I figured out that I could use the LED light from my cellphone

Props

Used the large English bible( containing new Testament and Old testament). The ring with a cross, that I got as a gift and now to search for the verse. I went to http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/love-bible-verses. The verse should be very close to very the shadow of the ring appears. But unfortunately none of them matched the position I was looking. If the verse was at the beginning or at the end of the book, then one side of the book will be up and the other will be down. Hence the verse I was looking for should be somewhere in the middle of the bible.

After some search, I decided to go in for the Song of Solomon, because it was almost in between and also the location of the verse was close to where I wanted the love shadow to be present

Initially wanted to use external flash with a blue filter, but decided to drop that idea, at the end

I used remote shutter control, so that I can adjust the shadow ( using the phone LED) and when I get the shape, I was looking for, I could release the shutter.

Original Image