56 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
Project 3
video Also online
http://bit.ly/pp_155_3view The video
sT ep 1 take the shot
Place a matchstick in a blob of Blu-tack on
your table and place your black card behind
it. Set up your camera on a tripod and frame
up so that the camera is eye-level with the
match and close enough to fill the frame with
the match head. Go into Live View and press
the plus button a few times to clearly see
your focus, then using manual focus tweak
the focus ring until the match head is
pin-sharp. Now insert your remote
shutter release and set your camera to its
continuous shooting mode. Go into Manual
mode and dial in an aperture of f/5.6,
ISO800 and a shutter speed of 1/4000 sec.
Now hold down your shutter release cable
button and with a second lit match, bring it
into contact with the other one to ignite it.
sT ep 2 edit yoUr resUlt
Your shot will likely need a bit of cleaning up
in post-production to make it look its best.
It’s very common to have your hand or the
other match stick in the frame, and for
maximum impact you only want the one
exploding match head. To clean up in
Photoshop or Elements open your shot
and grab the Spot Healing Brush Tool, then
resize the brush with the [ and ] keys and run
it over the offending area – Photoshop
usually does a pretty good job at removing
the offending article. For a finer level of
control you can use the Clone Stamp Tool
and again resize the brush with the [ and ]
keys. Hold Alt and click on the part of the
shot you wish to clone, then release Alt and
paint over the area you want to get rid of.