A thread for my Editorial class assignments/projects

[SoulfulRecover]

I thought it would be fun to start a thread to post up my assignments to get critiques and help me along the way through all of it. Our first assignment was to shoot 2 indoor/2 outdoor portraits using ambient light only. It went ok. I struggle a bit with it for various reasons including lack of creativity. But it seemed to go over quite well with the teacher and the class. If you are interested in those photos,

see here (NSFW): http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/341100-nsfw-portrait-class.html

and here: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/people-photography/340904-portraits-class.html

For our next assignment, we are to shoot 2 indoor/2 outdoor portraits using strobe burn (ambient light with a flash for fill). I have only done this a two maybe three times so its still new to me. I am shooting with a Nikon D300, 50mm 1.8, 35mm 1.8, Alien Bee 800, PCB 22" beauty dish, crappy little no name shoot thru umbrella. I am waiting to hear back from someone local with a Vagabond II battery pack so I dont have to run an extension cord to power my light and most likely a 48" PCB shoot through umbrella.

Normally these assignments are due the following week (4 hour class once a week) but because a lot of people seem to get confused on how to use the shutter/aperture for ambient/flash lighting, he wants to spend more time on it in class. Next week he is going to bring his camera to class with some lights to show how this is done. Should be a lot more fun than the previous shoot.

Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this thread and enjoy teaching me a long the way. Ive always gotten great feed back on this forum

 

[DanOstergren]

What school are you going to?

 

[SoulfulRecover]

The Art Institute of Austin. I graduated high school in 2005 and went to Colorado State University Pueblo for three years. I started photography my second year I think it was but they dont have a real photography program. Just an art degree. Eventually I moved back to Austin and went to the Art Institute for 2-3 quarters before dropping out. Long story but I realized I have to go back to school for my own good and after 4 years of being out of school, I am back in it and I am no longer on academic probation as of last quarter. I am pretty excited about that.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

The person who I was trying to buy the power pack from still has not emailed me back so I am having to change my idea a bit. I was going to shoot in a dry lake bed but now I am going to shoot in the woods next to my dads place so I can run an extension cord for my light. I want to get a long piece of thin white fabric to have my subject hold and have it trailing behind her in the wind but I am not sure what to use. Should I just get a bed sheet or ? We are also going to change the outfit from a black dress to something else now too so that she will stand out when shooting with the darker wooded back ground.

 

[dsiglin]

A bed sheet is probably going to be too heavy to have blow in the wind. Is the idea to have her hold the fabric up over her head with two hands and have it trail behind? Wind can be unpredictable so a box fan might be a good idea. Of course you'd have to control it so it doesn't blow her hair around.

 

[Derrel]

One thing to keep in mind is that outdoors, studio flash loses some of the "incidental fill" that you would normally get when shooting indoors in a low-ceilinged room or apartment living room; there, there when using shoot-through umbrella with studio flash, there is quite often some of what is called "ambient spill". Shoot-throughs send much of the light through the umbrella, but with larger,more-powerful light like 200-,300-, or 400+ Watt-seconds and the circular flash tube in a monolight or studio flash head, a good percentage of the light in a shoot-through bounces off the walls and ceiling and floor, and provides "ambient spill", and tends to fill-in shadows. I've seen a number of in-home baby photographers who cannot seem to figure out why their lighting is so "flat" when shooting with a large, shoot-through umbrella and a powerful Alien Bee flash--in an apartment living room with 8 foot high ceilings!

Anyway...I hope the shoot outdoors goes well. Keep in mind that the beauty dish has steep fall-off and might not cover her head to toe. And keep in mind that at longer distances, the flash will tend to be "harder", because the distance makes it effectively a smaller source in relation to the subject. If the flash is 20 feet away, the umbrella will not have "all that much" softening effect. Also, be mindful that you'll need to watch for how crisp the shadows are and how hard the light is. You very well might consider using NO modifier, just the standard reflector on the AB. Of course, it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

If you use the Alien Bee with just the standard reflector, no umbrella, you might be able to get some cool lighting effects by back-lighting the fabric, and using the sun/daylight + slowish shutter speed as your "rim" light. Or, another, bare speedlight aimed at her from off to the side and BEHIND, somewhat.Moving the side-light or rim lights more ":behind" the subject DRAMATICALLY shifts the diffuse/specular reflection, and can create a VERY HOT, crisp highlight using very,very little flash power if the light is moved "behind" the subject more than off to the side. I mention this because pairing a speedlight with an Alien Bee introduces a lot of power differential. If you want to use the speedlight to create rim lighting or accent, it needs to be more "behind" and at a flat (shallow, small) angle in relation to the camera-to-subject axis.

WHat I mean is, if the subject is a 12 o'clock, and the camera is a 6 o'clock, if a speedlight is placed at 9 o'clock, the rim light will be fairly mild; if the speedlight is moved "around and back, behind" to the 10,11, or 11:45 positions, the rim light becomes MUCH "hotter" and "crisper" and more-specular.

anyway, just a few thoughts.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Thank you very much for all the information. I figured I would have to shoot with no modifier on the light but Im not quite sure yet. The area has very tall thick old pecan trees so there really isnt much light coming in yet. The trees here still havent dropped their leaves yet.

Heres a screen shot of the location. Facing towards it, you are looking east. There is a decent opening in the middle so I may be able to have her back to the west/south west as the sun is coming down to get a natural rim light then set up the AB as the fill. Or flip it and shoot with the AB as rim and the sun as the main. North is my dads house so I want to avoid having that in the photo and ideally avoid having the road/cars/guard rail in the photo as well. camera facing east and south are the best directions to avoid any of that back ground clutter.



Luckily this Isnt due next week so I should have some time to play around with it and hopefully get something decent. Hell maybe ill get her in the river back there hahahaha

 

[Derrel]

I LIKE the way there's some serious slope there!!!! That could be really,really nice, allowing you to get a low camera placement!!!! Maybe even have her moving up-hill so the fabric trails behind and downward. I am totally following your ideas on direction and sun/flash or flash/sun. Sounds like you're really thinking this thing through, Overall, I have been impressed with the approaches you've taken in fulfilling your assignments in this photo class, and your results I've seen have been pretty darned good.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Thank you! I figured the best way to improve and push myself would be to treat each assignment like its a final project or at least push myself in trying new ideas and techniques. Its really my only photo class this quarter. The other one is printing which I am scared to death of because the teacher is a great guy and all but he isnt very clear on how to do everything. Plus we are required to print outside of class time so I could end up doing the entire thing wrong and not know.

I know what I would like to do in photography but that doesnt mean it will end up being what I do. So by trying new things, it will help to develop a "style" or show what I excel at or maybe Ill find a niche that I never knew about and it will change my mind completely on what I want to do. If anything, I love teaching and would love to be a photography teacher but I really want to do high end fashion. Ive got a LONG way to get there but I dont mind.

If you are ever in the Austin Texas area let me know. There are quite a few places I would love to shoot but the ideas and whats needed is beyond my capabilities although I would love to be an assistant for someone out shooting at them.

Im not sure going up the hill will work too well though. Its MUCH steeper than what you can see from the screen grab. Ill get a few photos of the area while Im out there so you can get a better sense as to what its like.

 

[dsiglin]

Printing as in lithography? That will be a fun class.

 

[rexbobcat]

The printmaking professor at my university is scary lol. She's so intense.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Printing as in lithography? That will be a fun class.

No like printing on a nice Epson/Canon photo printer. The Canons we have are like a grand each, there is an Epson that is like 2 grand then there a huge Epson 9900 or something thats like 5 grand. I dont want to touch them haha. We also are ordering various papers and learning the differences between them and how to set up the programs on the computers in order to print for those papers. Ive never done anything like this or have ever heard someone talk about it so my knowledge is zero when it comes to this stuff. I do have a friend that has taken the class though and she said she would help me out.

Lithography would be awesome though. Im sure Id be terrible at it haha

 

[dsiglin]

Oh THAT kind of printing. derp.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

Well the shoot didnt go overly well. There was zero wind, almost zero light and the mosquitos were absolutely insane. Made it maybe ten minutes of shooting before we had to pack up from getting bit so badly. So we didnt get to really try much of anything.


Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr


Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr

 

[dsiglin]

Glad to know SC isn't the only place infested with mosquitos this time of year. Well, you win some you lose some. Interesting "dress". What is that made out of? It looks rather heavy.