Ghostwriterby
gkochComment by gkoch: Many thanks to all the kind and encouring comments I got. As this was my first time ever to submit a photo to any kind of competition, I'm honored by the reception it got.
Since so many people asked me what this is or how I did it, here goes:
First I've got to say that this picture works a LOT better with a black background. The black part is not uniformely black. In low light settings you can actually see light cone around the pencil and also the shadow under the pencil. I could even see my average fall lower during the day and increase again in the evening. I wish they would change the picture pages to use black background. IMHO that's better for every single picture. With this bright white background you're losing all detail in dark areas of any picture.
The scribbles are thick cotton thread. The whole thing is setup on a dark blue foldable mattress, with a part level and the rest propped up against the wall to form the background. I put the glass from a poster frame on the level part of the matress as reflective surface. I had to wet the thread to make it lay flat on the glass.
The lighting was a bit tricky: I used one spotlight (a regular desklamp with a cardboard tube held in front of it to focus it on one spot) to light the scene from the left side. Since the scribbles needed additional light to keep the balance with the pencil lighting, I used a second spotlight directly from above for that.
In response to a few people questioning the relection of the framing, I do not agree with any of these. The picture would be dull without the relection and it wouldn't work as well with a different vertical framing as far as I'm concerned.
Yes, the focus is not great. That's did probably cost me some rating. I am aware of that and believe me, I tried. I have several theories why that is, but I'm not sure which one is right. Whatever it is, focus is the weak spot of any consumer digital camera. The autofocus is too often wrong, and manual focus is useless because you can't judge the sharpness without a real viewfinder. This and shutterlag will be the main reason for me to upgrade to a DSLR before long.
