Conception
Mar, 2013Views
89
Awards
Outstanding Creativity
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I took this image in the kitchen of my home using very simple equipment. The idea was to explore creative ideas that could be shared with other members of my local camera club- in this case distortions using Oil and Water.Time
As a `studio` technique you can experiment at any time you feel inspired.Lighting
This technique can be achieved without the need for any special lighting, but for this shot I used a CN-160 LED video light which has 160 small LED s.Equipment
There are some very good clips on U Tube about this technique. Basically you fill a clear glass dish with water and introduce a small amount of vegetable oil,which floats on the surface. The oil can be stirred slightly so that it breaks up and forms various size floating`lenses` which distort anything placed below. You need to focus accurately on the plane of the water surface, so the use of a tripod really helps. The results will depend on what you place below the dish . The dish is supported on a sheet of glass so that it can be lit from below. In this shot the LED light was directly below the dish, set to low power.Inspiration
I saw some great examples of the technique on the Flicker websiteEditing
Invariably the best compositions require the resulting image to be cropped, so I always use the `fine` quality setting on my camera. I use Coral Paintshop Pro x4 in post processing. This shot was first cropped and then converted to monochrome. I than made a duplicate layer and colored it red. I erased the overlay image to leave just the part I wanted to stand out in the red colour. You can see how the LED bulbs have either been magnified or made small by the oil `lenses`.In my camera bag
This image was taken using a Nikon D80 and 18-70 zoom, which is my all purpose lens. I also carry a 70-300 zoom for sports and flower photography and a 35 prime for street photography.Feedback
The great thing about oil-and-water images is that it is near impossible to repeat a shot, which makes each image unique. Other successful images I took used colorful wrapping paper placed below the dish and lit with an angle-poise lamp.
