Thursday, April 9, 2009

People Photography Course

So about six weeks ago I attended a People Photography Course (like a portrait class but less structured) at the local college (where I also work). It was a 6 hour course (1 hour lunch) put on by local photographer Tom Cooper.

Now I really didn't know what expect for myself from the course. I have a good knowledge of photography basics (Shutter, Aperture, ISO). I wanted to improve my skills with posing in a general sense as I want as "natural" a look in photographs as possible. I also wanted to work more with natural light and maybe some flash or reflectors for fill. I knew one of the major things I would get out of the class would be to watch and learn from all of the other photographers including Tom.

The class was small to start with and then one person had to leave for medical reasons and another was actually a model and left after an hour. The class was a mixed bag with varying degree's of technical skills.


The first hour we talked (we all spoke not just Tom) about how we saw "People Photography" and what we wanted to get out of the day. Tom arranged it so we were in a small meeting room (at the local college) with big windows with some drapes. It offered a a good light to shoot a few shots with.





I was trying out a lens I had just bought the Nikon 35-70 F/2.8. It seems a little soft at F/2.8-4.0 but after that it is very sharp. I am also noticing that it flares (I think that's the right term) when shooting into a bright light source. Does some weird things to the highlights when shooting at certain angles to the sun. I think I remember reading something about this. I digress.


So after some more instruction from Tom we headed outside. Now the sun was pretty bright at this point (a little after 10am) so the first thing I'm doing is looking for some shade to shoot in. A few minutes into the shoot the model had to go. So from that point forward class members were the models. The first thing I tried to do was find an angle I could shoot that didn't have a really bright background as the generally the brightest part of the photograph draws attention. We had the model sitting on a picnic table in a covered courtyard. Beyond the courtyard was another part of the courtyard that was fully exposed to the sun. I found this much to bright to use as a background. So I moved to the other side of the model and shot into the shaded courtyard. This was ok but there was a lot of different lines (part of the construction) that would intersect with the models head and so on.... I thought about using fill flash but I wanted a shallow-depth of field (so large aperture) but with that amount of light it wasn't happening (later I thought using a Neutral-density filter might have worked).



A little later we moved into the shaded part of the college which I liked. I know in certain types of photography there is something called repeating elements (like the posts of a fence). I tried this with the background of the portrait (pillars of the building) but it was more distracting then anything. Might have worked as a lead in now that I think about it.







After this I became the model in the bright sun. I think Tom wanted us to shoot in the bright sun as a learning tool. I know it was good for me to see (even if I wasn't shooting). Tom used a medium size sliver reflector. It actually worked really well even in the intense sun. I have more respect for the models now all those people pointing their camera's at you!! . On top of that the light from that reflector is bright! (Thank-you to another student for providing the photo of me)







After some more lessons we went for lunch. I just went home for lunch. The plan for after lunch was to head to a nearby heritage site. This place has many old (for the area not very old) that have lots of character. All during my lunch I was thinking about the possibilities of the shoot. I even showed up early to check things out.

It wasn't what I would call a good time of day to be shooting portraits (about 1 pm) but we were there to learn and sometimes you have to shoot in those conditions. I just needed to find some shade to shoot in!. I was going to shoot with another student Pam. She had a family friend Mike come as her model. I then just got a call from my girlfriend. She was going to come and be my model along with her two daughters.








So I shot the first 10 minutes with Pam and a family friend of her's. We were given a list of various things to try for our portraits (like shooting into the shade, or into the sun). I found these exercises really pushed me. The first thing I wanted to do was find some shade and use some fill flash. Now a big part of me going to the course was to push myself; I had to fight the urge!



My girlfriend and her 2 daughters showed up to be my models. I ended up shooting my girlfriend while her daughters were off doing portraits with a couple ladies. After some stuggling with my shots I decided to start to push myself and went right out into the mid day sun with my model. I did find that the lens (as mentioned above) was not working shooting into the sun but I kept trying. With Toms instruction I did get an alright shoot at 45 degrees to the sun. I also found this great house in the shade to shoot in.










Overall it was a great day, a great class and a step forward in my photography.



Tuesday, April 7, 2009

A laughting matter

A friend sent me this comic and thought it was good. Love the 4-pixel photo recreate.

www.phdcomics.com

Cheers

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Completely random photo




This is a photo I made of the underpass in City Park. This goes under Highway 97 right near the new Bridge here in Kelowna, British Columbia. I like the angle of the shot but I think it was over done. This one is all for fun.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The biggest influence on my work

I just wanted to post a link to Bruce Percy's website. Bruce's work is probably the biggest influence for my work at the moment. His work speaks to me and his podcasts literally speak to me as well. When I need some inspiration I watch one of his podcasts (I'm saving them for those days that I need them). I would love to go to one of his workshops. Maybe next year.

Bruce Percy

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Lac Du Bois Provincial Park



I visited this great park at the end of my weekend trip to Kamloops two weekend's ago. The light was really terrible but I can't really complain as the day before was awesome for me all day. This was around mid day and it was completely overcast. I knew the photo's wouldn't have great light but I really enjoy these types and trees and thought I would do something with Sepia or B&W. I was also concerned with how much was going on with these photo's (lots of small trees together). I really only liked these two photo's and I am not overly happy with them. I really went up in the park to check things out... was hoping to spot some Big Horned Sheep but I didn't see any of those... next time right. I least I know somethings about the park and below the boundaries. Found a few lakes that might be good to photograph in the morning or evening.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Playing in Photoshop again...



These first two are fairly heavily processed photos. I got the effect I was looking for more in the second one as it didn't have the rock. I did want to see what I could do with the rock; think I masked out that rock to some extent but I didn't fully get to where I wanted to with that one.






The last four are all very similar and in some cases the same photo processing in a different way. I liked what I saw when I pushed these photo's. Most of this is done with the "Blacks" and "Fill-light" sliders in LR2. I got the different color effects with different white balance settings all pretty simple. I think I like the one closest to the original (the last one) best. These were all taken just under a bridge on the local creek. Mission Creek it's called... a great place to get away for awhile.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Playing in Photoshop





So here are three photo's I was playing with. They is nothing spectacular about them but I like the effect some different blurring and blend modes have on them. I would tell you exactly what I did but to be honest I've forgotten... should have created an action at the time. I know it invovles an "overlay" blend mode at any rate. The last photo is not so "Shopped" but is more a comparison shot for the second photo. The last one is warmed up something fierce.