My Valentine.....

As it was St Valentines day yesterday, it seemed an appropriate day to get my Macro lens out and carry out a project I'd been promising I would do for a while - that being some decent shots of our wedding rings and my engagement ring/eternity ring. The shot above is an example - and a more simple set-up would be hard to imagine!
I used a chair, with two sheets of plain white A4 paper on it - one propped against the back of the chair curving round to meet the seat, the other lying along the seat and overlapping the first sheet slightly. Lighting was an anglepoise lamp behind and to the left of me, and hotshoe mounted flash dialed down to -2 compensation. I did experiment with bouncing the flash but direct actually worked better which surprised me a little. Initially there were a few awkward shadows just in front of the rings but these were dealt with first via levels to blow out the background as far as possible, and secondly by a little dodging where needed. The macro lens comes out so seldom it scarcely seems I can justify having it, somehow. Every now and again though I get the inspiration for a project something like this, and it just makes sense, and I love the challenge of using it. Not being naturally the most controlled and patient of people, I feel it must benefit my photography to accasionally slow everything down and use a piece of kit that actually demands a cool head and a little planning.

Robyn