Just another bright idea in photography

I was trying to come up with a photo challenge for a photo group last Friday and it wasn’t coming very easy. After much thought, and with the idea of the looming President’s Day holiday, I thought it would be fun to go old school. Not quite back to film, because not everyone in the group would have a film camera.

Instead, the challenge was to share a black and white photograph, and capture it with your camera in manual mode. I invite anyone to take on the challenge and share their finished product. But in the meantime, here is my capture to share for the challenge.

Canon 60D | 50mm lens | 1/250 | f/22 | ISO 100 | Canon Speedlite 430EX II

Check out some of the other takes on this photo via Flickr.

The biggest challenge in capturing this photo was to keep the light glare off of the glass bulb. It took me a while to get it just right (which is why I was glad I had a digital camera – I would have never known about the glare until I paid to develop the film and I would have had to start again). The final setup was to to hook my Speedlite up to the extender cord and hold it by hand behind the light bulb to illuminate the background – but eliminate the reflections.

~signed, Carltonaut