Monday, April 9, 2007

strike a pose

so here are the photos from my second studio lighting session. not that you'll notice, but i was on a 24 hour fast during this shoot. i survived (obviously) and the shots turned out nicely.

we got to practice moving and changing lights. i found quickly that i liked soft light a lot better than hard light and that positioning the light at different angles for the same shot is a good idea.
this was probably the first studio photo i've taken that i actually enjoy looking at. the main reason is that she was actually laughing at being fanned and the true emotion of the moment was there. ie, it doesn't look forced or posed.
here's another one. when i took my photos, i tried to wait until someone said or did something that affected the model's expressions.
contrast the above photos to these ones. you'll notice that this model didn't have the same external stimuli that brought out the natural smiles or expressions. also these shots were in the butterfly position, whereas emma (above) was lit with rembrandt-positioned light. both were done with softboxes.

you'll notice i took shots with the models squatting. it was the only convenient way to get a head-to-toe shot without having to stand far away. note to self: get a wider lens.
i found i got sick of the lighting position and quality really fast. for this last model, i placed the light to the side of the model and shot using hatchet lighting. i like the first one better, but both produced the dramatic, comicbook effect.

and that will be all the photos from my course since this class ends this saturday and we'll be critiquing our shots. hope you had as much fun looking at them as i had taking them.

playing with fire

so we had a micro fire and, of course, my camera came out for a peek. the following are images of a rubbing alcohol fire.

this one looks like someone dancing

not sure what this one looks like, but it was cool

some of these shots are just interesting to look at, very fluid

jellyfish

a breaching dolphin


a bear

someone praying


a tulip

the last two shots were taken at a faster exposure, hence the darker colour and more define shapes and features.