Photo Challenge Week 37 Portrait: Fashion
Thank goodness for Matt, who was kind enough to voulenteer his face (and hoodie) for this week's 'fashion' portrait challenge. It's not a particularly stylized portrait, but sometimes I think simplification is better, and gave us much more time and space to experiment with lighting and angles, which is always fun for me.
Sunday's
At the weekend we decided to make the most of the last bit of summer sunshine and go for a trip out for ice cream and to feed the ducks, possibly for the last time before it's too cold and wet outside to do so, I have no idea how we will fill our weekends once the autumn comes. Rory picked out her own outfit, and was clearly feeling a total diva and I just couldn't help but snap some pictures while she strutted about the Bridgnorth castle walk. It's so funny to me that she's turning into such a little princess. If she didn't look so much like me I'd swear she was a Changeling.
Photo Challenge Week 36 Artistic: Food
This week's photo challenge theme is food, and since it's in the 'artistic' category I decided to start out by shooting a traditional style still life. I used my product photography light tent for the set-up, but in this instance it was mainly to create a mini studio similar to a V-flat set-up for the backdrop rather than using the sides to shoot through as doing so was far too bright and didn't create the kinds of Rembrandt-y deep shadows that I wanted.
After I finished with the bowl, I started looking around for other ways I could display the fruit and after spotting these teacups, I found inspiration in one of my favourite Shirley Jackson stories.
It's always a great day when I can combine my passion for photography with my love of reading.
'Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!' - 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle', Shirley Jackson.
Bridgnorth Continental Market
Last weekend was the last weekend before the school summer holidays ended and Bridgnorth was host to it's Continental Market, a car show and the final remnants of the Bridgnorth Music Festival. We've reaped so many of the rewards from living in a small town this spring and summer, making an effort to get out more and attend lots of the local outdoor events and it's been fun, but I LOVE autumn, and I'm already lulled into a calm by the near constant sound of rain we've had for the last week. So bring on the log fires and the hot tea because I'm ready for it all.
Pirates & Princesses Event Photography at Telford Wonderland
On Monday we went to a Pirates & Princesses party at Telford Wonderland with some friends. It was basically the greatest thing to ever happen to Rory, she had a blast.
Photo Challenge Week 35 Landscape: Nature Up Close
Bridgnorth Music Festival 2016
Photo Challenge week 34 Portrait: Child
My daughter has been centre stage for so many of the portraits in this challenge, but what can I say? She's cute!
Product photography light tent - Part 2: Flash
Anyway, my point is, that these two flashes cost me about £30 each and I assumed that their cheapness equated to crappiness so I rarely used them, when in reality it's just that their settings are limited. They're manual flashes, they don't 'talk' to my camera, so I have to imput the settings myself. But that just taught me how to imput the settings myself! And sure,the batteries will probably run out faster and the bulb will probably die quicker and they don't have all of the bells and whistles like a super fancy Canon speedlight, but they get the job done and pretty well I think.
5. The first setup is the same as the very top image. Two flashes, both diffused by the sides of the tent. Both lights also had additional diffuser heads, just to try and even out the light but as you can see in the top shot, the right (Centon) flash was brighter than the left (Neewer) flash.
6. Two flashes with one side of the tent down. The brighter flash on the right paired with the lack of diffuser on the left made a more even exposure, but also an annoying double shadow on the upright bottle shot
7. Single diffused flash on the right which was bounced by the wall on the left.
8. Single flash on the left without wall up as a diffuser made my favourite shots in both the vertical and overhead shots of the bottle. I love the cross lines made by the orange shadow of the liquid. Theres nothing like a good single light shot!
9. Diffused flash (right) and silver reflector (left). Probably the best exposure for the overhead shot but made the vertical one a bit flat
10. These were taken by lying the reflector (silver side down) and aiming a flash up at it, bouncing the overhead light down into the cube.
11.The above, vertical shot was a single backlight, but for the lower image your guess is as good as mine. I think I laid the flash (left) down and shot surectly at the bottle from one side, but I can't be certain. It's pretty though and worth sharing :)
12. Backlit and with a flash to the right, both through the diffuser walls.
13. Bottle elevated to eliminate the 'floor' which was a considerably different tone and wasn't looking how I wanted. One egg-cup platform later and it was perfect.
Product Photography - Part 1: Natural light
1. Natural light from the kitchen window (about 3 feet away). It was an overcast day, so I suppose that technically this light was diffused, but when I mention 'diffused' light in the descriptions, I'm referring to the use of a modifier.
2. Natural window light diffused with the translucent middle of a reflector disk. (Are they even called reflector disks? Who knows...).
Using natural light also meant that I had to use settings to accomodate it's dimness. This meant a wide aperture and slower shutter speed, causing a softness to the picture as I wasn't using a tripod, but also creating a smoother background due to the narrow depth of field.
If the natural light is bright enough, it works well with the light tent, even when using both diffused sides, however it does mean you're relying heavily on consistent weather conditions so that some shots don't end up brighter than others, which isn't always possible.
