Solway Clouds by Robert Friel

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
This shot was taken with a Canon EOS5D 17-40f4L Gitzo3540 Tripod with Manfrotto 410 geared head. Lee filters inc Big Stopper.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure 90 sec, aperture f/11.0, focal length 17 mm, ISO 50

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Processed in Lightroom 3 - blue tint applied to base using a local adjustment (graduated)

Q4. What is the location?
Beckfoot, Solway Firth, Cumbria, UK

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
It's a location I've been to before and there were fast moving clouds blowing directly towards the hills in the distance. The colour idea came from looking at it in mono.

Cuando el día acaba by Luis Mariano González

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Camera Panasonic DMC-FZ50

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure: 1/400 sec, aperture: f/5.6, focal length: 32.9 mm, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Q4. What is the location?
It is a road near my house in Meco, a town 35 kilometers from Madrid (Spain)

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
This is a place where I often walk. In fact, I think I have dozens of photos of this tree and others nearby, in different seasons, at different times. But undoubtedly, the best time is when the sun goes down, "la hora bruja."

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
There is a movie that has a wonderful light and that I like a lot: Days of Heaven, Terrence Malick (the photograph was the work of Nestor Almendros). When I pass by that tree and the sun goes down, I remember the light appearing in the film...

Smoke by Rikke Skov

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I did the shot with a Nikon d70s and two external flashes.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
ISO 400, f/5, 1/1250 sec - for the main picture.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Aperture 3.0 and Photoshop Elements 6 to edit my material.

Q4. Who is the model?
The model is me! All of the extra footage is from my archive, both the smoke and the skull.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The idea just popped up in my head when I was thinking of Smoke - Smoke was the theme at one of the Flickr groups.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
When doing the shot I remembered why I stopped smoking. :)

Patrick in deep space by Mike Keeling

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Nikon D300, Tamron 180mm macro lens, a piece of black aluminum, spray bottle of water and a flashlight.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Focal Length 180 mm, ISO Speed 200, exposure 0.8, aperture f/29.0. The higher the f/ the smaller the dots.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I am computer illiterate. My Dell came with ACDSee.

Gravity is overrated by Rob Webb

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 50D + Canon 100mm USM Macro + 1 x YN-560 Flash + 1 x YN-460II Flash + YN RF602 flash triggers(1x TX, 2 x RX) + Hahnel shutter release

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
1/250 @ f/9 & ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5


Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
A wine glass with drops appearing to defy gravity and flow upwards

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I was washing the glass under the tap and I liked the way the water sheeted off the sides and dripped down off of the rim. I wondered how I could use this for a shot, inverting the original image for the "defy gravity" part was just a natural evolution of the concept for me.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
The hardest part of the shot was finding a way of safely suspending a wine glass over a bowl so that I could pour the water over the base, in the end I settled for a couple of Tupperware cereal storage containers and some kitchen tongs!

Port of Liverpool Building by Graham Hazeldon

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Fuji S5 Pro with Nikon 18-55mm kit lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Aperture priority f/4 @ 1/225, ISO 100 and exposure compensation -0.7

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Photoshop CS3

Q4. What is the location?
Liverpool, UK

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I spotted the building reflected in a puddle as I was about to head home from the location after taking a few shots of various subjects.

Horses by Frau Isaeva

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 50D, lens 50mm

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
F/5.6, 1/60 sec

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I think none. I just cropped it in iPhoto.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
Shrimps in action

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I love sea food, so I shoot it :-))))

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
They are hanging in fact, but I think everyone can see that.

Untitled by Buthaina Farei

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
NIKON D90

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Shutter Speed: 1/200 sec, Aperture: F/10.0,
ISO Speed: 200, Focal Length: 85 mm

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Photoshop CS Windows

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject was to make a "bokeh" shot.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I was talking with my friend (a photographer) about a bokeh art in photography and we agreed to have a "workshop" on this effect. It was like the challenge for us. Each of us thought of something different from the other. But at last this shot end up as the winner.

Cage by Giorgia Pallaro

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Canon EOS 1000D with Canon EF 28-90 mm f/4-5.6 lens.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
1/100 sec, f/4, focal length - 35 mm.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Camera Raw and Photoshop CS4.

Q4. Who is the model?
The model is Giulia, one of my best friends and a truly awesome person.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
When I took this photo I had just finished reading "1984", the famous novel by George Orwell. That book aroused me deeply, and I really needed to represent the emotions I had, so I decided to take a picture about the quote "Freedom is slavery", one of the principles of Ingsoc.

E. A. Poe "The Crow" by Jose Vitti

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Sony DSC-H50

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Exposure 1/400 sec, Aperture f/5.0, Focal length 7.9 mm, ISO 100

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Windows

Q4. What is the location?
Fazenda Monte White, Itapetiniga, Brazil

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I watched the 1960's movie "The Raven" and now the second version of 2010. From there came an inspiration to create a cover for the story. The proper location was found by old fazenda and the creepy atmosphere was adjusted by HDR system in Photoshop.

Smokey by Bruno Wokalek

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used a Nikon D80 with the 100 mm Cosina macro lens (yeah, a really cheep one...), and a Metz 48 flash.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
The camera was set to an aperture of f/11 and 1/125 sec, ISO was 100. Strobist info: Metz 48 with 1/64 power into small softbox, behind the glasses pointing towards the cam. Triggered with RF 602.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop CS4 for some brightness and color adjustment on the glass bottles. The pictures of the smoke were inverted (they were originally white smoke on black background) and the colors were adjusted via hue/saturation.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
On the photo you can see some small glasses (about 5cm tall) filled with colored water. I used here different colored ink, my trials with food color were not good, because they were not transparent and brilliant enough. The smoke pictures were shot with a joss stick.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Originally I made the shot with the bottles and the smoke on different days, but found them a bit boring alone. So I decided to combine them into one picture to get it more interesting.

Inspoon Inspired by Adrián Vidal

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Digital Canon 300D, 18-55mm and natural light.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Aperture: f/5.6, exposure: 1/80 sec, ISO 100, focal length: 22 mm, exposure mode: manual.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop CS5.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject of the photo is a spoon. This was a task for a photography class.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The photography teacher gave us a homework. We had to take a picture, no matter the style, technique, with or without retouch, with a common theme "A Spoon".

Clearly the task was not only to photograph a spoon, but also to come up with a good idea, to bring out something original, with some plastic and aesthetic level and most importantly of all - to realize this idea. I am very pleased with the result, not only with how it looks, but rather by the fact that it got exactly how I proposed it in my imagination. It is my little private success.

3 Wishes by Alison Crea

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 7D with 24-105mmL lens, off camera speedlite to one side, large white reflector the other side.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
Manual mode, ISO 100, f8, wireless flash to side.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Photoshop using Nik Silver Efex Pro.

Q4. Who are the models?
My teenage son and daughter.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I took the photo for a competition that required shooting incense smoke and the first idea that came to mind was a genie coming out of a lamp. The competition required the photo to be black and white so the lighting had to be dramatic.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
I took about 50 shots to get the appropriate expression on my sons face. He thought the whole idea was silly so he kept making funny faces.

Autumn Spectrum by Mr. Dale

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 with the Olympus M-Zuiko 9-18mm for Micro Four Thirds.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
1/20 sec handheld f/5 at 11mm, ISO 100, RAW, auto white balance.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Downloaded into iPhoto then processed in Lightroom 3, added a pinch of contrast and post-crop vignetting.

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
An arrow pointing left made from a spectrum of maple leaves in autumn.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I had seen a spectrum made out of other vegetation, I needed a picture for 10/10/10 and it was just so nice and pretty outside with the trees full of colors.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
We had to make sure our dogs didn't trample on the leaves. They were very curious to see what we were doing.

Guardian of the haunted villa by Roman Sołowiej

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Nikon D700 with Samyang 14 mm f/2.8 IF ED UMC (cheap but good Korean manual lens) and Benro tripod.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I took 9 exposures for HDR photo at ISO 200 and aperture f/11.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
To create HDR photo I used Photomatix for tone mapping and Photoshop for post processing.

Q4. What is the location and who is the model?
Location is abandoned "haunted" villa in Gdańsk, Poland. Model is my friend Andre Govia who was cut from his self-portrait (www.flickr.com/photos/andregovia/4796696675/) and pasted into my final HDR image during post production.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Nothing special, I like pictures of abandoned and forgotten places. An HDR technique shows more details than a human eye normally sees, so that's the main reason it is often used in such kind of photos. At first I had a feeling that there is something missing in the picture and I thought it was nice to put any person there. So I asked for permission to use the picture of Andre. The title came to my mind during the processing of the image.

The Blue Sailor's Song by Purvi Joshi

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Nikon D90 camera with 18-200mm Nikon VR DX lens.

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I had to click about 3 separate photographs for this image. I clicked all of them on Manual mode and manual focus. But the shutter speed and aperture setting were different for each one of them.

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Q4. Who is the model?
It's a self portrait... So it's my own photograph clicked with help of a tripod and the camera timer.

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
This shot is inspired by one of my favourite song's video - "If a song could get me you" by Marit Larsen.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact that happened while working on this photograph.
The interesting fact would be that I myself wasn't so happy with the final result but it turned out to be my one of the most favourited images on Flickr.

Untitled by Alexandru Balan

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Olympus SP-570uz

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
ISO 100, 1/125, f/4.0, 9.8mm focal length

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Photoshop for contrast

Q4. What is the subject of the photo?
The subject is two morning glory flowers

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
I wanted the light to glow through petals,to have their own source of light from the center and to illuminate the darkness around.

Midnight Sun by John & Tina Reid

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 24-105 mm lens

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
30 second exposure at F5 - ISO 200

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
I used Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 to retouch this image - the final image is almost straight out of camera - the only change was removing my underwear which was sticking out from the top of my shorts.
The image looks slightly surreal because we manipulated the light. My wife (the photographer) used a graduated filter for the sky and ran around me popping a flash multiple times during the exposure. It sort of gives the appearance that I'm glowing.

Q4. Who is the model?
The model was myself. I hardly ever take self portraits, but in the middle of Iceland, at 12 at night, not many models would pose in their costumes at an ice lagoon :)

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
The idea was born from the fact that I was struggling to get a unique image of Jökulsárlón. I had a few flash units with me, so I thought of including a person in the scene. It evolved from there.

Extra Q: Please share an interesting or funny fact (if any) that happened while working on this photograph.
Lying on the stones covered me in black gravel. To get changed and clean required stripping on the spot. I figured at midnight, no-one would come exploring, so I assumed it was safe. Whilst completely in my birthday suite, I heard people coming around the corner. It was a mad scramble to get my clothes on, but I managed it in about 10 seconds flat.

The Other Kind by Jun Zhu

5 questions about this photo:

Q1. What equipment did you use?
I used Nikon D40x with Neewer super wide angle adapter

Q2. What settings did you have on your camera?
I think it was automatic

Q3. What software did you use during the post-production?
Gimp

Q4. Who is the model?
My fiance James

Q5. How did you come up with the idea of this shot?
Oh this is hard! James was walking in front of me towards the beach and I thought how small he looks against the vastness of the sea and the sky! I always like backlit photos and playing with light and the moment was perfect for that so I shouted 'Stand straight!' and pressed the shutter :-)