Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Part two thoughts on shoot

Even though no one asked for it, here is part two of my thoughts on the shoot.

Here is one of the shots of the flapper i was mentioning that just clicked for me, lighting and everything.
Used the Alienbees ABR800 ringlight with the 30 inch moon unit, here and nothing else. The couch was a good deal from the wall, and i was around ten feet away, using my 70-200 lens. From what i've seen online, most people use ringflashes in a way i don't really care for, and besides looking very samey, i feel it all looks too washed out to me. What they do is stick the model right up against the backdrop, and shoot close up, usually against a white backdrop. Even my shots where i was using a white background, i still kept the model a bit away. I want to say i love how all this looks, but especially her dress and leggings. The light seemed to really grab it well. I also like how the background isn't all lit even, it kind of forms a circle around her, obviously due to the ringlight, but i was thinking i would need to grid for that, but that would have probably unlit her more. I also want to point out, virtually nothing was done to this image out of camera, only a little balancing in Aperture.

Which is something else i want to talk about. I see so many images where they are post processed more, and i just feel "wrong" doing it. It's not a dig at them at all, more i've been in the mode of feeling i have to capture it and show it the way it was. Not sure if it's a thing i've gotten used to from most of the other shots i've done, nature, events, etc. Just every time i do somethings that aren't just subtle, i look at it and think "have i overdone it?" and then just revert it to before. Others i do it to, and i love it, but think "What if they hate it?" and then revert it. Maybe it's also because i did a lot that playing around in Photoshop when i first got it in the mid 90s, using filters on everything and going overboard. Not sure if this is something i need to work on, or embrace my current way of working. Definitely something i need to think about.

One thing i do need to work on is narrowing down shots more. If you've seen the shots i've posted on my flickr of this shoot, you can tell i do "Oh this one is cool, and this one, and... and... and..." too much. It's just some have so many neat poses that look good to me, and i have a hard time saying it doesn't. Maybe i'm not looking close enough at faults, or i'm too close to the images and don't want to reject them. I'm not sure. I do see other shooters settling on only a couple shots out of tons.

Quick thing before i move on, i want a fainting couch now, heh. I'd probably end up using it in too many shoots, and would have to keep the bunnies away from it, but after shooting on one, i want to shoot more on one. Probably doesn't help that i've wanted a sofa or other from Funky Sofa for a while now. Okay, moving on.

Here is the bed in the hotel i was talking about. That sure is a lot of pillows, but they were all comfy and so was the bed. Thrilling eh? Just happy it was probably the first hotel bed i actually found comfy, most are way too hard or way too soft. So there was that.

Here is the main shooting space, a very big warehouse style space, with various backdrops and walls all over. This made me wish i lived in a warehouse or similar space, and even made me wish i lived on a farm with a barn that was even half finished or heated. I've wanted a finished barn ever since going to Circle Sanctuary and seeing their neat set up in their barn, and the house in LaCrosse (Onalaska actually i think)  that had a barn that was finished with an official sized basketball court in it. Not that i wanted to play basketball, but the ground floor was all nice hardwood with a tough sealant, so yeah. I also thought that it would great for parties, heh. I also always thought a converted church would be neat, but those are really rare and expensive. Not like this is going to happen, but it's nice to dream, you know?

So that's about it really, still got a few to get up to flickr, but getting close. I would also like to say i'm glad this weather waited, i would have hated to drive in this down to Racine, that's for sure.

2 comments:

Anne Moore said...

Well, I didn't understand much of the photo speak...but that picture is awesome. Very, very nice!

eveelagenius said...

I like to think of photoshoppery and photography as two separate kinds of art. Somewhat a kin to the painter who works from photographs. The painting isn't meant to be an enhancement of the photo, but a different thing all together. Working toward making your photographs the way you want them through the lens is the photography skill. Adjusting them into something different via the computer is another skill. Besides memory is cheap, do all the photoshoppery you want and save the original too!