Re: Advice - pics of ice carvings

"Celcius" <celcius38@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>I was just wondering if those ice sculptures looked ok. But is are some
>info:
>Canon D30
>RAW pics
>Picture style=standard
>Color space RGB
>ISO set at 320
>WB= shade, later changed to sunny.
>Evaluative metering
>All shot in P mode.

To be honest, I don't think any of that matters a bit!

>Most were shot at around f4 and between 17-25mm

See below on this last line.

I've never photographed ice carvings, though I've seen a
lot of them (I lived near Fairbanks for a couple
decades, and there are *fabulous* ice carvings all over
town all winter long).  Hence, I'm guessing...  but at
least I've seen them, and I've seen good photographs
too.

It's sort of like trying to photograph cut class,
diamonds, or any such object where the light reflections
inside the object are as im****tant as anything.  Rather
than see all the detail on the surface, you want to see
internal reflections from surfaces.

I think just about every great display of an ice carving
I've ever seen had two spotlights behind it.  I'd take
that as a hint to what to try with lighting.  A couple
of off camera flash units fired by optical or radio
triggers would do the job.

I'd also try to compose shots to avoid the back ground
as much as possible.  ****trait techniques...  use a
longer lense and a wide aperture to reduce the depth of
field.

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)              floyd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]