Studio Lighting -- Part Two -- Portraits

I was thinking that I'd say which pictures I used to turn in, but I'll wait until the end and do that in a separate post. I may as well. There are only eight weeks left of class...and I'm not sure what I'll do with this blog after that! ;-) Here are some/most of the pictures I took for the "portrait" pictures. I probably should have thought more about the backdrop...maybe even ironed it...but I still had a fever over 101 so wasn't thinking things through.

Wondering what I wanted from her! ;-)

Turned away from main light.

Toward main light.

I think I moved the light lower at this point or something...

This one was taken later with the lighting completely different, but it seems to fit with the portrait pictures in a way.

More to come!

Studio Lighting -- Part One

I've done at least four assignments since the last time I posted. One of my in-class assignments was a report on a photographer, so that doesn't count. One of my digital photography assignments was taking 40 pictures of one person using "window light." Let me tell you, those were not interesting pictures! It had to be one person, one sitting, one composition. I did get some great photographs, and a good grade, but I wont bother posting them. That leaves me with two assignments to post about. I'll start with the "oldest" first. The week that Roby and I were sick, my in-class photography class was learning about studio lighting. I wasn't able to "learn" about it, but he did post links to some of the information. And because I'm a big spaz, I have two studio lights and a backdrop...that I had never used. I figured it would be a good time to use them! Either that or get a zero on the assignment! He just today posted grades, and I got 30/30 which rocks. Especially 'cause we only had to turn in five. I took TONS of pictures. I'm talking over 300. I was having a really hard time getting the lights to work correctly throughout. Natalie was my subject, and she was awesome about it all! I'm going to post a ton of them, 'cause I can! ;-) The assignment was to take two portrait type pictures. One with the subject facing the main light, and one away. The next two photographs were using light in a different way to get more emotion or express the subject differently or something. And the last was to use light in a completely unusual way. How it was all worded was odd, and I still never know if I'm doing "what he wants" for the assignments. It was fun using the lights, and I'm hoping to someday get a trigger for my camera as well as a gray backdrop. I think I can take some much better portraits that way!!! So here it goes...I'm going to post some of the not so great quality pics first. These ones I kinda like despite not having great quality of light. Most of these I photo-shopped a bit or they just didn't fit into one of the other categories that I divided pictures up into for later posting. Now that I'm looking at them, they aren't horrid....Natalie's so photogenic!!!

She was asking me a question about the lights.

One of the many pictures taken while I was trying to get the strobe lights two work correctly.

I used some color gels for a few pictures that I'll post later...this was the result at first. Not very nice.

She was so patient!!!

Even though I told her the lights weren't working with my camera yet, she was still posing and smiling nice a lot of the time!

I just love her big eyes!

This one was toward the end...she was getting tired!

So sweet! This one would have been better if she was facing the other way and I got all of her foot in it...

Many more pics to come...and some really good ones, I promise!!!

Digital Photo -- Assn 2 Cont

I had to take advantage of the beautiful day we had Tuesday. Especially because the Weather Channel said clouds and snow for the next ten days! After not having much luck with the antique stores...and not loving the pictures I got at the book store, I went on flickr to try and get ideas. I did see a picture of the bike tower that I posted yesterday (we had seen it last summer as its next to the RV park Roby's sisters stayed at while they visited), but I was still at a loss. I don't remember why I thought of it, but I figured there had to be something interesting at the base parade grounds. As soon as the kids were at school, Roby was home and heading to bed, I headed out to take pics!

I absolutely love this one! The sun flare is just really cool!!!
(It was my #1 on the assignment.)

Birdie on gazebo.

Shooting the sun.

This was a close contender for top my top three.

Phew, done with that! ;-)

Digital Photo -- Assn 2 Cont

This set was actually the last of the three stops I made in my two day photo journey, but I like more of the pictures that I'm going to post tomorrow...so that's why I'm posting these first.

Bicycle tower.

I love how it says "ride" while being partially in the ground.

This was one of my favorites from this spot, I like seeing all the pedals s ticking out.

Banana seat!

This was my #3. I just like how rustic it looks...I dunno why.

I'm sure I'm boring anyone that sees this to tears, but I'm having fun learning what my camera can do and trying to be creative in a new way!!! Last one for this assignment tomorrow!

Digital Photo -- Assn 2

Still very little Photoshop in my Digital Photography class...oh well, I guess we're only a few weeks in. This assignment isn't due until Saturday, but I'm trying to get a much of stuff done by Friday so I can clean a lot this weekend for Ethan's party and get my photographer research done.

We had to turn in 40 pictures (color or black and white--I also did sepia a few times...who knows if this is ok or not!!! lol) and choose our "best" three. They are "still life" I suppose. At least my teachers definition of it. He said to take pictures of things that are arranged and outside. Hmmmm He gave an example of taking pictures of an antique store storefront (interesting compositions, reflections, etc)...but the antique stores I tried were not very interesting. I drove around a bit and discovered a cute book store that I attempted this with.

I really like this egg one! It was my #2.

ME!
I like how you can see the chair, the books in the window as well as on the shelves.

More tomorrow. I'm showing a lot of these pictures, not all of them, but a lot. I actually like quite a few of them. I spent hours taking pictures! Which was fabulous!!! And spent almost as much time going through them all! Not as fabulous. :-)