Glass Art

This is the first time I've posted a photo here, but I was quite happy with the result, so I thought I'd post a shot.

The photo is from an exhibit at the de Young art museum in San Francisco by Dale Chihuly (a famous glass artist).

In photographing the exhibit, flash was not allowed. The exhibit was in very tight confines with rather large displays, so I was restricted to the kit lens (it's the widest lens I have). In using my K10d, I set it in full manual and took most photos in ISO 800 with an f-stop of 4 to 5 to try to get as much of the different exhibits in focus (i.e. to get a decent depth of field).

Of course, hand held didn't allow for me to stop down any further as my steadiness and the shake reduction limit me to about 1/10 to 1/15 sec shutter speeds at the slowest. Generally, the lighting on the actual art pieces were decent, so I was able to get some shots to faster shutter speeds but generally I was limited to around 1/20 of a sec +/-.

Never-the-less, I got a lot of decent shots. I took about 200 shots and ended up with about 100 keepers. I processed all the raw photos in Silkypix and touched a few up in Photoshop with the spot healing brush to remove exit signs and other non-exhibit distractions (over-head lights, people who were too bright, etc). This was a very crowded exhibit and people were often right up on the works.

The few shots here are among my favorites, but there are a lot more to be seen at this link. This shoot is the turning point where I've truly learned to appreciate this camera and all that it can do as well as the advantage of RAW photography.

I welcome any comments, questions, or constructive criticism. Thanks.

Erik

[Damn Brit]

Nice work, the first one looks great with the reflection. I must visit that exhibition if it's still on.

[dazman]

Really nice images Erik. Like #1 & 2. Lots of great shots on your flickr link too.

[emalvick]

Originally Posted by Damn Brit

Nice work, the first one looks great with the reflection. I must visit that exhibition if it's still on.

Actually, the exhibit ended back in September....

In all honesty, I knew nothing of the exhibit or the artist until my wife's aunt (an art teacher) suggested it. I wasn't too interested until I got there and saw it as a great challenge to photograph and made for some interesting subjects.

In terms of the 3rd photograph; it is just a mass of color, but I shot because the artist has this weird obsession with cupid type characters (towards the left side of that photo). That was part of a bigger work that was the ceiling of the exhibit room and I believe it was titled "under the sea" or something similar.

This is not too great of a photo, but it gives an idea of what the whole work looked like:

[J.Scott]

Great shots Erik; you have a real talent!

Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more of your work.