Thursday, March 24, 2011

Balance/Fill

This week I used my flash as a fill light as opposed to being the key light. I sat down with Jack Smithey, a strategic communications student at the university, as he played banjo on the quad around high noon on a sunny day. I used the flash to fill in his face, eliminating distracting shadows caused by his hat. Here's the resulting image:


MU student Jack Smithey plays banjo on Francis Quadrangle. Having already learned guitar, Smithey has been practicing banjo since Christmas.

Here's a lighting diagram to show how I did it:


I also used my flash to balance an indoor setting with the brightness of a sunny day. To do this I went to Yogoluv, a local frozen yogurt bar, to try to show how business was picking up due to the sunny weather. I bounced my flash off the ceiling to brighten the inside setting. Though I didn't choose it as my select, here's one resulting image from the shoot:


(Left to right) Brenda Liewalt, Brittany Kenhagan and Emily Hartwood enjoy frozen yogurt on Sunday afternoon as temperatures reach the mid-70s.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Color Correction

This week I worked on using flash in bad lighting environment's. To do this, I went to local bike shop Cycle Extreme and took pictures of bike mechanic Benjamin Moore at work. The lights were fluorescent and gave off a light-orange or peach colored tint. In order to make the image's colors look normal, I used a light orange gel (Roscosun 1/2 CTO) over the flash and changed my camera's white balance settings to fluorescent. Here's the resulting image:




Here's the lighting diagram of how I made it:

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Single Flash Assignment

For this assignment I took my new SB-600 flash out and used it in multiple low-light situations. First, I photographed students playing billiards at Mort's in the new MU Student Center using direct flash. I then used bounce flash to photograph another student filling her car with gas, reflecting my flash off the gas pump itself to light the situation.

MU student Kelli Dawson fills her car with gas at the Conoco station for $3.39 a gallon. Despite the recent spike in gas prices, Dawson considers purchasing gas unavoidable as she lives off campus and drives to class daily.



MU student Karl Chwiesiuk plays billiards at Mort's in the recently completed MU Student Center.

Though I chose the above image as my select, a lot of other images from the billiards shoot turned out well. Though the lighting is imperfect, I particularly like the content of this one from a journalistic, interaction-based standpoint.


(From left to right) Trevor Howes, Michael Owens and Karl Chwiesiuk watch as Tom Collins takes his turn. The four students regularly play billiards at Mort's in the MU Student Center.

Here's a lighting diagram for how I created my two selects:

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Metal/Glass Assignment

For this assignment I worked on shooting metal while my classmate Sarah shot glass. For metal, I used an iPod with broken shards of CD's surrounding it to represent the change in technology that has overcome the music industry in the last decade. In order to keep the iPod's shape and writing visible,  I used a reflector and generally low lighting so as not to blow out the color. Below is the photo and lighting diagram.



Between 1999 and 2009 U.S. CD sales were cut in half, forcing music retail stores to cut back on stock or go out of business. This decline in sales is largely attributed to the rise of digital technology and online piracy.




Here's a rough sketch of how I lit the scene: