El Dave Photography

I've shot Azrael pretty regularly since I found him. So much so that I'm afraid I go to the "Azrael Well" too often, and that's one of the things I don't like about myself, creatively speaking. I find some technique I like and I do it until it becomes habitual, then I get bored and stop. It happened with painting wargaming miniatures and I'm determined to not let it happen with my photography.

That said, however, this photo sums up the tricks I rely on for interesting toy shots, namely smoke and fire. If one fails, the other invariably picks up the visual slack. First, I tried the old "coming out of the smoke" trick, but the flashlights I use to illuminate Azrael's wrist blades created light beams in the smoke that looked really strange. Then I tried the old "coming out of the fire" trick, which looked even more strange because here this guy is, strolling out of an inferno with his wrist swords on fire, but they seem to provide a suspiciously small amount of illumination.

So I did what any budding photographer would do, I created a smaller fire in front and used it to frame the bottom of the shot. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have preferred the front flames to be roughly waist-high (on Azrael, not up to my waist), but that's hindsight for you. Everything looks easy once it's too late to change it.

Hold <- then -> and press 'A' for EXIF Data:

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePixS2Pro
Exposure:	0.5 sec (1/2)
Aperture:	f/1.8
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	100
Exposure Bias:	1 EV

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2007:12:21 13:33:56
Tag::TIFF::0x882A:	-6, -6
Exposure Program:	Normal
Date and Time (Original):	2007:12:21 13:32:05
Date and Time (Digitized):	2007:12:21 13:32:05
Shutter Speed:	1/1
Brightness:	-116/100
Metering Mode:	Center Weighted Average
Light Source:	Daylight
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	630 dpc
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	630 dpc
Sensing Method:	One-chip colour area sensor
Exposure Mode:	Auto bracket
White Balance:	Manual
Focal Length In 35mm Film:	75
Saturation:	High saturation
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2024 pixels
Image Height:	3024 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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