Sunday, March 1, 2009

Hero (and Fresh . . . sorry!)


My Hero: My Grandpa

He has saved me a number of times and I love him more than anything. Since I couldn't get the real thing this weekend, I took a picture of something I have always associated with him: his cowboy boots. He wears them everywhere. When I was little, I would dress up in them.

34 mm, ISO 640, 1/60 sec, F 4.2


A Fresh Perspective


Now I know that Rach has asked us all to try to post our challenges in a timely manner. But during the week I work really long hours and by the time I get home it's dark and I would rather do things like eat dinner and cuddle with my husband than take pictures. So I try to catch up on the weekends. If this detracts from anyone's creative process, then I will not do it anymore. Just let me know.

26 mm, ISO 640, 1/200, F 25

This picture was taken in a light room with a bunch of distracting objects and colors in the background. I had read about this technique where you use a remote flash and really low light settings to underexpose the background and create a black, abyss-like background. It took a lot of trial and error to get this picture (and I am still not completely happy with it), but this is a neat technique to have in you bag of tricks. What I learned: (1) play around with the intensity of the remote flash. The article recommended 1/1, but it looked nuclear. 1/50 worked much better. (2) Don't play around with the intensity of the flash with your husband unless you intend to blind him. :) CC

5 comments:

Rachel Holloway said...

Jen--I totally don't mind you doing this. I understand you are super busy and definately have an excuse! :) Glad you are still posting and pushing yourself on these challenges! I love the effect with the black background. Looks so mysterious! :)What a great tip to share!!

Shanda Call said...

Love the boots picture! The composition and coloring looks very country. nice job. The 2nd is a little dark but has a neat lighting effect on it.

AprilF said...

I love the boots picture! It's great that you chose something that represents him to you. If you'd pulled them away from the wall a little bit you wouldn't get that shadow.

I've recently learned the joys of off camera flash! It's a great tool. I like how you used it to put the focus on your subject. It's really contrasty- were you using an umbrella? IMO I think it's okay here because you are using a man- and they can pull of the more dramatic lighting better.

Jen said...

Thanks for the comments and advice. April, I'm really new to the off camera lighting and I'm not really sure what IMO is? I was not using an umbrella. Do you you think it would help? In the example in the article, the whole body of the subject was lit. The author claims that he only used one flash, but I could only get one small area exposed. Any ideas?

AprilF said...

IMO = In My Opinion, Nothing photography related ;)

I think an umbrella would help if you want softer lighting- as it would diffuse the light. I can get a whole body lit with my flash- it depends on the distance and placement of the flash.It looks like your flash was to the side and pretty close to your subject.

I'm by no means a flash expert as I'm still learning how to use mine myself. I've gotten a lot of helpful info on off camera flash on ilovephotography.com