May The Fourth Be With You

I'm kind of cutting things close to the wire this year, but I only discovered this May the Fourth thing last year.  For those of you who are unaware, May 4th is Star Wars Day.  Created due to some creative minds who noticed there was a very similar sound between May, The 4th, and the famous Star Wars quote, "May The Force be with you."  May the Force, May The Fourth.  Quite clever.  Those of you who were around last September will remember the photos I took at the Star Wars Identities show, so you already know that I'm a Star Wars fan.  To celebrate, I decided to have a little fun with some of my little plastic friends.  I chose Darth Vader and The Emperor because if you're going to celebrate the Force, you need to celebrate the Dark Side.  I placed them on a table, closed all of the lights and then used a flashlight to light my subjects.  In order to get the red look to the photograph, I placed some red crate paper over the flashlight which acted like a red filter.  While the photograph was being taken, I moved the light over the scene in several different directions.  For the background, I used a simple tin container.  The red light reflecting off of it created a kind of other worldly background that I really like.  I also ran a piece of the crate paper along the bottom of the lens.  This created the subtle red wave that you can notice near the knees of the characters.  My only complaint is that the Lightsabers get lost in the scene.  I used my Macro lens and put the main focus on Darth Vader.  I like having the rest of the shot out of focus because it kind of adds to the 'red storm' that is happening in the shot.  I took this photograph at f/4, 15sec, ISO 100 at 60mm.  Yes, I really did do all of the things mentioned above, as well as taking out my tripod, just to photograph a pair of action figures.  Some people may say that I need to find a more constructive use of my time.  They're probably right, but I find their lack of faith to be disturbing.