Amateur Yo-Yo Photography

I am enjoying it GregP, the wood grain really stands out in the dark part…really well. Very cool. Also, it appears you might use the string as a kickstand too. I’m not sure you do, but I certainly do. That string sometimes keeps the yo-yo in position. My surface is not completely flat, and it keeps the yo-yo from rolling around. Looks great to me.

Wow, that looks great! You can really see the texture of the wood :slight_smile:

Thanks, folks! I have to give full credit to TMBR for the wood grain, though. :wink:

@Totalartist - - you got it! String as kickstand is a good way to roll. Er, not roll. :wink:

I had the same feeling with the light! Trying to keep the string, yoyo, and snow balanced and well saturated in overcast grey variable conditions was fun!

Thanks! Getting the snow white without blowing out the string or yoyo was a challange. Straight off the camera but cropped.

The bottom right picture was what it looked like to my eyes most of the time outside. I was trying to overexpose with a slow shutter speed as exposure bias which was easy as I quickly maxed out the f8 aperture. The one on the previous page was the one I thought was best.
Photo info, on tripod: Multi from top left to bottom right
f/8 - 1/25sec. - Expos Bias 0 step
f/8 - 1/50sec. -Expos Bias 0 step
f/8 - 1/50sec. - Expos Bias +0.7 step
f/8 - 1/80sec. - Expos Bias 0 step
One photo alone: on previous page
f/6.3 - 1/125sec. - Expos Bias 0 step

Snow melted the same day and I went for the leaves and pine needles like Logi. Along with a tiny limb in the yard already setup by nature to put it under. :slight_smile: I adjusted the levels on this one. Just going from an ‘auto’ white balance to ‘cloudy’ would have done almost the same thing I found out later.

All these cool wooden yoyo’s I might have to try and make one!

That purple really pops against the leaves. Nice stuff!

Yuki

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you meanies! you killed it!

@beherenow

On the snow shot, your camera simply does not have enough dynamic range to handle the bright snow, neon string, and dark yo-yo. A little shade would have helped darken the snow and I would have nixed the string entirely. For shots where the yo-yo was too dark, but the snow was perfectly lighted (snow being the trickier item to light), you could selectively brighten the yo-yo in post processing.

The picture with the leaves is very well done. The textures create interest and the color creates drama.

On the Halo, your first two shots have trashy white balance and come off as very boring. The third shot combines black and white as well as extreme overexposure to create an interesting abstract piece. The only thing I would do to it would be a little edge cleanup and a slight rotation to horizontally align the 3 in the hub

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Thanks! It was fun to experiment!

@mrcnja - You nailed it! My camera is 10+ years old and maxes out at f8 aperture so its range is definitely limited. The best picture imho was on the previous page, last post. The 4pic in 1 above was the missed pictures, or bad ones, I just wanted to share the pics/data from the ones that didn’t work out. It was very overcast and shadowy that day so I was trying to get the snow white as gray without loosing too much color or snow details. With my tools and the conditions I think the one came out well.
I may try shooting in RAW as jpeg some so I can use the larger dynamic range RAW captures, just haven’t done it yet since I don’t really do any post processing other than cropping, although I’ve played with some colors/levels/filters.

The leaves are credit to Logi for inspiration. I walked outside and saw the leaves and grabbed my yoyo and camera! Still haven’t gotten out to shoot a night shot like GregP but I look forward to trying it too!

The Halo was just goofing around. I’m not a pro by any means, but I like to play. I had thought pouring milk into water below the yoyo would give a cool cloud effect enveloping the yoyo, and it did, but I had too much text from the bowl and clear plastic I had it sitting on visible. The 1st shot was just what I was working with after the pour of milk into the water and not meant to be good in any way, just a reference with the light off. The 2nd is in Sepia mode, so it alters the color with a Sepia tone, straight off the camera, so I liked the round glow effect. A halo on a halo. :wink: I like it personally as it looks different but bright and warm. The blow out was just pushing my shutter speed below what the f8 aperture could handle for fun to see what came out. Turned out somewhat neat as you felt, abstract. Way bright is why I liked it. I put the C3 at an angle, I think it looks more aesthetic. They also look better full screen imho. Thanks for your opinions!

Who said no taking photos on top of the light box?


I agree Logi…on top of the box, is fair game. Looking good! I think we’re both hooked. Well, here is one of my latest yo-yo photos:

Also, I cooked beef stew last night, took me 2 hours. I used two different kinds of potatoes, sweet potato included. I figured I’d put some food in the light box for once. I just put another layer of the background down…just in case. I bet Logi had to do that with the birdie too :smiley: :

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Good ones! Take em where you can get em! ;D

I love the Noctu, one of the funnest most unique throws around imho. It can bite, but that’s the beauty of it!

Nice dinner! Cookies for desert? (recipe)

^ YES! Dessert looks yummy, Perfect!! :wink: Nice photo!

Those look delicious! I am going to force my mom to make those haha ;D

They actually taste better than they look! Fun to make too. I usually double roll mine in the powdered sugar before baking. :slight_smile:

*edit

Also, I usually halve the recipe. Plus, you can just roll up and sugar coat however many you want at a time. Cover the rest with plastic wrap pushed down onto the dough in the bowl and it last for days in the frig.

Well, tried to see if I could fake a lightbox. I could not. Bristol board and tungsten lights are not insurmountable obstacles, but I had neither the time nor the patience to get it quite right. But here are a few shots anyhow! The Baldwin turned out pretty good.

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@ work slacking… soo …


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Nice ones GregP! I like the black background on the Baldwin.

PSG and a good macro shot! Slack tricks are fun at work! :wink:

I can do better with my real camera… I just took that with my camera phone

Few more shots that turned out OK. As per the comment directly on Flickr, the “vintage” Smooth Move Snow Drift Edition is mostly to mask some AWFUL lighting. :wink:

The other Smooth Move shot is done all in-camera except for a bit of touching up post-pro. Tried more dramatic light painting, but it kept turning out janky. Smooth circles worked out pretty well.

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The last one is neat GregP! Beam me up Scotty! ;D Unique anno for sure too.

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