Thinking about protein. I was initially going to get some meat (being a butchers daughter!) But I know how hard it is to make meat look interesting/nice/appetising. So thought I’d go for a more interesting subject, fish. I hi-lighted the Helen Cathcart image in previous research as something I really like. I think the texture of the fish against the steely grey background and hi lights of ice works really well. Her shot looks as though it’s been done in the studio with some soft lighting.
However, I couldn’t get in the studio during lunch this week so had to create in daylight in my living room. I used a mirror to maximise some light and also an A4 pad to act as an extra fill and create extra hi lights. I used a Nikon D600 with macro lens on a tripod and worked top down.
I started by trying to get a decent exposure. I wanted a decent quality so started on ISO100 and knew I’d have to have a reasonably slow shutter speed starting at 1/40 and moving down…
I continued to work through different settings to get the optimum exposure which took some time. I think the lighting was proving difficult as I was getting some heavy hilights even though I was blocking some of the light out at the window with greaseproof paper. I moved the set up around to get some different light angles.
In the end I managed to get a nice sharp image with some nice shadows and hilights in the ice and a good blue hue along the top of the fish by using the fill board to shine light along it.
Using f 10 ensured I had a good depth of field but I had to increased the ISO to 200 and as the sun was in and out, increase the shutterspeed to 1/60. I took the final image in to Photoshop RAW filter and increased the temperature to a cooler blue hue enhancing the fishes natural colour and habitat. I also homed in on the yellow hilight that features on the face and increased the saturation and contrast allowing it to really pop out and work together with the blue of the fish. I worked in on some of the hilights and brought them down as they were very prominent. I also increased the exposure on the face of the fish allowing it to stand out a little more.
Overall I’m quite pleased with the final shot given it wasn’t done in studio conditions. I think the hilights are still a little strong though, but the scales are predominant and glistening which is something I did want to capture.. It’s quite a busy shot, maybe a little less ice – although I do really like how the light comes through it.
I tried some different compositions, the fish tail being the focus, some capturing the glittering scales at an angle. However I think the light was too strong and the full top down version was more effective.
I think my favourite composition of the shoot was the below: I like the half and half composition, it feels as through the fish could almost be alive swimming through the ice. However, I mis-focused and the fishes face is slightly blurry which is a shame. I took the ISO really high here as I moved the fish into a shadier spot to avoid strong hi lights.
I took a shot of a similar composition which is in focus and captures the detail much better. I focused in the eye as you would a human portrait. I took this image into light room to tone down some of the hi lights and bring out the white of the mouth and yellow of the ‘nose’.
If I was to do this again I would definitely try and consider where the point of focus is as I’m really disappointed that I didn’t quite get it right on the other shot – I probably would have used this as one of my finals. I think I would take the fish into the studio and use a soft box to gain some softer lighting, however overall I’m pleased with the final shots in the daylight.
warwickk16level2 