Gobo and Shadow Creations
A few weeks back I made a post relating to Gobo's (patterns which you make appear on various subjects). But I a recent project had me in a relative small space and using a patterned cloth on my subject. I considered what if I could create light patterns from the cloth, but alas, I did not have the resources or even an overlay at the time to work with.
Not all is lost, since I owned the fabric, it is certainly possible to create your own overlays to use of a highly specific pattern that may not be available commercially, or available in a projector template that you could use in real time. With a little work, you can create your own library of custom gobo's with just a little effort.
In this case, I wanted to use a fabric, but in reality, it could be anything that you wanted to use to create the shadow pattern. You will need the following:
Steps are fairly straight forward for this project;
Camera settings can be tricky, especially if you have selected a dark background. It may be necessary for you to focus in manual mode. Depending on how you plan to use this pattern, the shadow created does not have to be crisp. A shadow too dark and defined may detract from the object or person that you are placing it upon. Try starting with the "program" mode on your camera and adjust your settings to the desired effect.
Once you have your JPEG file.;
You can create gobo's and shadows from practically anything, so give it a try and you may be please at what you come up with!.