Practical Photography - UK (2020-04)

PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY.COM 21

# 1 Think creatively

ABSTRACT

Sony

α

77

I

I|

(^9) 0mm
| 1
/250sec
|f
/9
|ISO
(^100)

ADDING A NEW TWIST

to such an iconic piece of
artwork, one that’s been
around for over half a century,
is a great way to force yourself
to think outside the box, as
John Cuthbert (flickr.com/
photos/106737096@N08)
has done here.
“I’ve always loved art,
creating, designing and
constructing, and I try to
convey that in my imagery.
On one particularly grey and

dark day, I decided to stay

indoors and put my own take

on the famous Creation of

Adam by Michelangelo – the

painting of God and Adam’s

near-touching hands. So, with

a set of plumber’s wrenches,

I fashioned a fork into a hand

shape, placed it on a piece of

plain A4 paper on a tabletop,

and then used off-camera

flash on a stand, triggered

by the on-camera flash of

a Sony α77 II.

“I used an old damaged

Tamron 90mm macro lens

with a huge chip on the front

element, but it’s still the

sharpest macro lens I have

ever owned. I took a few shots

until I was happy with the

results, and had one good

underside image and another

good topside image in the bag

to combine in the edit.

“I then imported those files

into the editing software,

copied and pasted one of the

forksontotheotherimage

andalignedthemto produce

a near-touching result,

before flattening as one

image. I then replaced the

background with a warmer

golden coloured tone with

a bokeh overlay to create

the feeling of depth.”

TIP

TRY FLASH

TRIGGERS

Wireless triggers are a great

way to incorporate off-

camera flash into your

shots and won’t break

the bank.