I was struggling a bit with what to do for this week's image, and it hit me as we were on our way to watch the Super Bowl with some friends: FOOTBALL! It just happened to fall on the right week—YAY!
Having two boys and a husband who love sports, we own lots of sports equipment, including several footballs. This one here belongs to my husband; I think perhaps it's from when he was in high school. It's slightly deflated but still has enough air to give it the proper shape, and I love how worn it is on the surface.....enough to show it's been used a lot, but not so much that it needs to be retired. It's actually great the way it is to teach kids how to catch because it's so easy to grip.
For those interested in the particulars, I captured this image with a Nikon D800 and a 60mm/f2.8 macro lens,1/80 second at f/4, ISO 1600, handheld with support, lit by north-facing window light on the left and with a white board angled from the front right to bounce some light back onto the football. Starting with the RAW image, post work included basic tweaks and conversion in ACR, then refining it in Photoshop with Nik plug-ins (Dfine, Viveza, Color Efex and Sharpener Pro). I wrapped it up with some layered textures that I purchased from a couple different suppliers.
Until next time....
Enjoy!
