Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Final Presentation

Here is my photographs for our final presentation. Please enlarge the pictures by clicking on the images in order to get a better view of each picture. Enjoy!


ISO 80, 1/160, f/9, Red Lodge, taken from the lift.
ISO 6400, 1/6 sec, f/5.00, Re-edit


ISO 6400, 1/6 sec, f/5.00


ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/10


ISO 800, 1/250 sec, f/20


ISO 3200, 1/200 sec, f/5.60


ISO 3200, 1/200 sec, f/5.60, Re-edit


ISO 400, 1/6 sec, f/5.00


ISO 400, 1/6 sec, f/22


ISO 200, 1/500 sec, f/6.30


ISO 200, 1/500 sec, f/6.30


ISO 200, 1/1600 sec, f/6.30


ISO 200, 1/1600 sec, f/9


ISO 200, 1/1000 sec, f/5.60


ISO 400, 1/250 sec, f/5,60


ISO 400, 1/640 sec, f/7,10


ISO 400, 1/640 sec, f/5,60


ISO 800, 1/1250 sec, f/7,10


ISO 800, 1/500 sec, f/14


ISO 800, 1/250 sec, f/22


ISO 100, 1/30 sec, f/5,60


ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/6,30


ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/6,30


ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/6,30


ISO 1600, 1/50 sec, f/5.0


ISO 100, 1/20 sec, f/22


ISO 100, 1/20 sec, f/22


ISO 100, 1/80 sec, f/8




ISO 3200, 1/200 sec, f/5.60


ISO 6400, 1/4 sec, f/4.0

Monday, April 18, 2011

Portrait

                    The light sources for this portrait is the sun at dusk, even though the light is coming from her left, she is still brightened up on her right side of the face. I have tried to brightened up the worst shadows in her face, and also around her eyes to give more character. From the viewers point of view I would say that the eyes starts to look at the bottom left corner, but only for so short amount of time that no one would realize it, because the eyes would then seek to the model's face since this is a portrait image, after that the eyes would go down and back on her hair and then follow her chest, arm and leg. That is one reason why I wanted her to put her leg up like that, to give the picture something more than just a face, now we can see the city in the background but since she has her leg up she wont look to "cut in" in the picture. It also makes her pose more casual. 
                   I kept the colors in the pictures low saturated as they were, so it wouldn't take to much distraction from the model. However, I changed the temperature so that she would look "warmer".
                  There is about three things with this picture that I am not sure if I like or if it's necessary to do anything about, but instead of fixing it, I would like the class opinions about it!

Settings:
F-stop: f/5.60
ISO: 100
Shutter speed: 1/30 sec

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Concert Photography

                Since I've been taking pictures at my work during the summers, I wanted to learn more about how to take good concert pictures. Therefore I read this article with 9 Tips on How to Get The Shot  at a concert. First of all Nyani Quarmyne talks about getting the exposure right, since stage light can be very tricky and differs from stage to stage, it is important to not just have one setting but to figure out what settings works best for each place. Your settings should also differ depending on how many people are on the stage, thus depending on what depth of field you want. Another tip is to make a shortcut to your histogram viewing on your camera, that way you can take a quick look while you're shooting to make sure you don't over exposure or under exposure the images. However, do not check all of the photos, while doing that you are missing out what is happening on stage. The third point that Nyani talks about is to watch the performers, learn their way of moving and what is typical for just that artist, in that way you can be prepared beforehand and set up your composition before a certain movement occurs so it's easier to capture it. In his fifth, sixth, and seventh point he talks about being aware of the composition, it is not only the performer that is important in the image, also to make sure that everything around him/her works good in the image. Watch for clutter in the back- and foreground so you don't have anything that takes unnecessary attention from the singer. Last but not least important, be nice, don't forget that other people are there and have paid a lot of money to be able to watch their favorite band or singer, and as Nyani points out, if you're being nice, you often also get helped to be able to stand at a certain place and take those picture from the angle you really want. Also, show your appreciation to the artist! 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sunset lightning

            Sunset light is a beautiful light while taking portraits (even though everyone has its own opinion), however, to be able to use the light to its fullest capacity it's important to know some basic "rules" of how the light works. To give me some help with this I read this article How to Use Sunset Light to Light Portraits. Christina N Dickson talks about three different lights, Front Light, Side Light, and Back Light. 
            Front light is when your subject is facing the light and you as the photographer has your back toward the light. "The light will brightly illuminate your subject, bringing out stunning catchlights." A problem that can occur with this light is that it can make your models pupils to small, if that happens you can ask your model to close his/her eyes and open them right before you snap the shot.
            Side Light, you get side light when you ask your model to turn so that only one shoulder is facing the light and then turning their face 3/4 degrees into the light. This will give you "soft transfer edges between the highlight and shadows". It will also add depth to your portrait.

           Back Light is when the sun is behind the model and you are in front of the model. This could give you really good silhouette but you can also overexpose the portrait so the model is evenly lit, this will cause the background to be overexposed and the highlight will be blown out, but it gives the picture a cool effect, and by decreasing the saturation level would make it stand out as an image eve more, but that's just my opinion.   

          Since I'm not a professional photographer I have not yet learn to appreciate the use of flashes (since I do not have the right equipment) however, I still like to take pictures without using any flash or strobes, but one thing that I think would be good to have is a reflector, this will eliminate the worse shadows that I usually get in my photos.  



Portrait Lightning



This photo is taken up at the rims, the only source is coming from the sun. The model, Jackie is placed with her body towards the sun and her left side of her face too. This is why her left cheek is really bright and her right side is more dark, this also creates an ugly shadow from her nose. The sun light most have reflected on the rocks since the back of her hair is lightened and you can still see her whole face. I don't feel that it's necessary with a strobe for this picture, but I would really liked to have a reflector.


 

Friday, April 1, 2011

Portrait Photography

           I decided to search for some tips on portrait photography, in order to get some inspirations for our portrait shoot that is coming up. Once again I found two articles at the Digital Photography School's website. 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits and 10 More Tips for Stunning Portraits. It is two articles that guides you to take portraits that have that 'wow' factor. First of all, learn the rules of portrait photography, second of all, break them! That is basically what Darren Rowse is talking about. Throughout both the articles he gives 20 examples of composition, lightning, angles, sharpness, blur, framing and several other things. His consistent emphasis in the articles is to be creative and experimental but still be prepared and ready to go (and know what to do) before your model arrives. In every example that Rowse gives, he uses pictures which make it more fun to read through and easier to understand. These two articles are really worth to check out! 


Here are some old portrait photos that I've taken.





But below is the kind of portrait photos that I want to be able to take!

Yuri Melnikov

Julia Wilam

Magda Berny