Good morning, happy Saturday. Time is 6:58 at the start and 8:01 at the end of this post. Tobacco is Rattray's Red Rapparee. Let's play a game called, "Finding The Light" or conversely, "Please See My Pipe The Way I Do". Remember, the human eye has a dynamic range thousands of times greater than megapixel cameras. So how do you get that grain to pop with a phone camera? Find the light!
My model: Castello Collection Opera Shape 44
6:58 am, balcony, sun just coming up to the east. HARSH light!
Now we have to look around and dissect the shadows, find the right light. Notice the harsh demarcation between shadow and bright light, that makes camera phone very unhappy.
Off to a good start, but too much of a differential between sun and shadow, not gonna do it.
See the shadow vs the bright on the pipe? Not good, doesn't look the way my mind's eye wants it to.
Another example, too much differential in light, but we are starting to see tobacco in the chamber.
Let's keep moving and exploring.
Harsh
Backlit, yuck
Getting warmer, but a hot spot on the pipe and the grain is not the way I want you to see it
Backlit again, can't see the grain, no definition
Ooh, getting there, I found a shadow without direct sun, metering is much better, grain starting to pop.
Closer, but now hot spots and bright highlights.
SO! THIS is as good as it gets in THIS location at this TIME in THIS light.
But I'm not happy.
So! Let's take a walk and bring the dogs along. Let's go exploring outside.
Wow, just outside on the west side of the house, there are SHADOWS, nice. Already the pipe looks better and much less of a challenge to find the light. Nature is playing nice!
Look at the definition and dynamic range in the bricks! It's open.
Ooh, pretty flowers in the shade, probably a good place to take a pipe picture.
Much better! The pipe is starting to look in the photo the way I see it in real life and detailing the grain I want to show off.
BINGO! A nook with trees and shade and dew on the grass. I FOUND THE LIGHT!
A little prop, a lighter, find a good spot, light is good, compose the shot, rule of thirds, etc.
Now that is what I wanted to show. Time 8:01 am.