After attending an excellent Zoom workshop by Celia Henderson, I have been trying my hand at the Pep Ventosa technique.
Pep is a photographer who creates his pictures by taking numerous images of the same subject from different angles. He is particularly keen on trees, which he walks around, keeping the trunk in the middle of the frame while photographing the tree from every angle, and then stacking them in Photoshop.
I did it the lazy way, placing a vase with alstroemeria on a small wooden turntable on my dining table, and turning it as I pressed the shutter. It is not as easy as it looks. My first mistake was not checking that the vase was exactly in the centre of the turntable. Easily fixed in Photoshop, though.
The next mistake was not making sure that the flowers didn't go outside the background when they were turned. Not so easy to fix in Photoshop.
The set-up with the flowers on a rotating base. I turned the stand with my right hand, while firing the shutter with my left via a shutter release, making sure the flowers had stopped vibrating after each turn before I pressed that shutter.
Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate the flowers breaking out beyond the background. I shall try a smaller bunch next time.
I had another go a couple of weeks later with some daffodils.
