Say that fast three times! Today’s daily challenge is “hard light.” I thought about it on my drive home from Santa Rosa this morning. I didn’t want to use flash as was suggested as an option for a “hard light” source so I decided to use my two OTT lights. What would I do without those OTT lights these days? I got them when I was hand quilting years ago to provide bright, clear daylight. I quit quilting soon after obtaining the lights and I have discovered they provide wonderful light for indoor still life type photos, freeing me from having to use flash and allowing me to use low ISOs and slow shutter speeds to obtain the look I seek.
I have a shell collection and I thought some of these shells would be quite dramatic with a single bright side light source. I used a small aperture and a slow shutter speed and laid the shells on a piece of black velvet so that the light would tend to absorb into the black rather than reflect it. I also used my remote shutter release to avoid camera shake and to ensure that these photos were in perfect focus. I had trouble choosing which of the four shells to use for my photo today because they all were interesting to me for different reasons so I decided to include all four. I will need to select one for the challenge so check out Our Daily Challenge to see which one I decide to use.
All four photos are SOOC, with ISO set at 100, aperture at f/29, shutter speed at 4/5 sec. but each had a different focal length; I used my 18-200mm lens.
