Hi all
I’ve finally made a start to project 3 in Part two, which I am thrilled about. I feel that the progress I’ve been making with this course has been a lot slower than I originally wanted. So I’m trying to work out how I can pick the pace up and still create stuff I’m happy with.
Below is the first exercise for project 3, People in light. This exercise wanted us to look at different ways in which we can light the subject we’re shooting. For this task I wanted to challenge myself a bit and shoot in darker environments and use various different kinds of artificial light. Using artificial light is not something I’ve previously shot with, so I thought It’d would be interesting to see how the images would turn out and how I would combat the lack of light.
equipment used:
- Canon EOS 750D
- 50mm f/1.8 lens
- tripod
- Fairy lights
- Car lights
- TV
- Lighter
- Desk Lamp
2.7 People in light – The Grid
For this task I wanted, to try and get a bit more creative with my lighting choices, to see what I could create. I decided on fairy lights, using the headlights and brake lights on my car, a flame light, TV screen light, camera flash, light from a lamp, day light by a window and daylight being fully outside.
For many of the images, I was shooting in darker conditions to what I am used to, shooting like this brought up some issues that I found hard to get around. For example, because of the low light, I had to shoot on a lower shutter speed, which caused a lot of camera shake, so I had to use the tripod. I found myself playing around with the ISO a lot to try and compensate for the lack of light. However, I didn’t want the images to really have too much light. So I did my best in post production to adjust the exposure to aid in illuminating my subject.
Most of the photos I was actually able to shoot in ISO 400, however for the darker shots I shot in ISO 800-3200.
Exercise 2.8 Fill-Flash
So for this exercise we had to take a short series of photos using the flash. Framing our models against the sky. Of course, they day I planned to do this I got a solid white sky. I’m not sure how well this worked. However the model does really stand against the white sky.
I actually enjoyed getting to figure out how to shoot in daylight with flash. I’ve never shot using my flash before, I’ve always been a bit off put by flash photography. But I found myself feeling a bit excited to actually be using a camera feature I haven’t previously. It’s always interesting to try and experiment with different techniques.
To get these shots these shots exposed to a level I was happy with I mainly played around with the aperture. I typically shoot at f/1.8 and rarely move it, because I love a shallow DOF, however these shots were showing up very washed out and over exposed, so I changed the aperture to f/22 and that made the world of difference instantly.
Equipment:
- Canon EOS 750D (I used the built in camera flash)
- 50MM F/1.8 lens
2.9 A night Portrait
A night portrait, is as it says in the title. For this project we had to go out and shoot as small series of 3 photos shot in 3 different ways at night. However, before we set out on our shoots, we were advised to research a photographer known as Weegee. You can check out all my research for Weegee on this separate post here.
For this project I originally planned that I wanted to edit my shots black and white, Like Weegee, however based on the end of shoot results, I didn’t think they would have benefitted from being in black and white. There was a little light interruption in some of my longer exposed shots which I actually really love the look of and decided to stick with, and because of that I wanted to keep the photos colour.
This project I actually found pretty tricky. I’m finding it quite hard to enjoy night photography. At least without a flash anyway. I never thought I would enjoy it, but I do really like shooting with a flash. I like the effect it gives off, it gives me a disposable camera feel about the photos, which for me feels a little nostalgic. So I would definitely like to experiment and play with night time photography and flash more.
My favourite shot of the three above is the long exposure shot. A bus happened to pull in behind mid way through the 30 seconds shutter and it caused this beam of light to flash its away across the top of the photo and while, unplanned, I really enjoyed the effect. Had I known that bus was going to find its way through my shot and do that I’d of told my model to look up. I think it could have made for an interesting photo. As for the blur, I do like effects of motion during a long exposure, however I don’t feel it works in this sense. Maybe it’s a personal preference thing, I don’t know. I just think with my model against a city/ brick backdrop, the blur isn’t quite working for me.
Equipment used:
- Canon EOS 750d
- 50mm F/1.8 lens
- Tripod
- Street light
If I was to do this project again, I would think more about location and clothing. A lot of the time with arranging a perfect time and day with my models, is proving tricky and they tend to be spur of the moment arrangements, therefore I don’t always get too much say in what my models are wearing. However, I definitely feel I need to think and focus a whole lot more on location and outfits. I definitely feel stuck sometimes for locations especially and I think thats because I’m so used to my surrounding environment I struggle to see the beauty in it the way a fresh pair of eyes might see it. So, I think I need to start looking for new towns or digging a little deeper into what’s already on my doorstep.
Please feel free to leave any constructive feedback down in the comments below
Thanks for reading
Georgia 🙂
GPowell OCA Photography 