Day 2 of shooting the Science Olympiad team featured the builders, which meant that there was more action in the room.
The first thing I saw when I walked into the room was a group of guys crowding around a project. The way they were turned, I envisioned having a light source in the middle of the group, sending light emanating through them.
I placed my flash on some textbooks and faced it so it would bounce off the back of the bookshelf instead of directly hitting the subjects. The first angle I used didn't create an interesting composition, and though the flash was beginning to rim the subjects, it didn't have the strength of have an effect dramatic enough to my liking. In retrospect, I should have tried dropping the ambient exposure.
I then changed my angle to show the subject's faces, which made the photos more engaging. One issue that I see is that having the flash in the bookshelf snooted the light beam, so only their torsos were receiving light.
The first thing I saw when I walked into the room was a group of guys crowding around a project. The way they were turned, I envisioned having a light source in the middle of the group, sending light emanating through them.
I placed my flash on some textbooks and faced it so it would bounce off the back of the bookshelf instead of directly hitting the subjects. The first angle I used didn't create an interesting composition, and though the flash was beginning to rim the subjects, it didn't have the strength of have an effect dramatic enough to my liking. In retrospect, I should have tried dropping the ambient exposure.
I then changed my angle to show the subject's faces, which made the photos more engaging. One issue that I see is that having the flash in the bookshelf snooted the light beam, so only their torsos were receiving light.
Next, I attempted to loosely recreate David Hobby's self-portrait, at right. I faced into the window to backlight the subject, and bounced the light from the flash sitting on the keyboard off of the screen.
The first photo I took was a bit dark, so I increased my ambient exposure and, if I remember correctly, my flash's power, to compensate. The final result looks nice, but because the flash was moved about 6" away from the screen, the area hit by the light, and therefore the specular highlights reflected in the subject's glasses, were larger.
The first photo I took was a bit dark, so I increased my ambient exposure and, if I remember correctly, my flash's power, to compensate. The final result looks nice, but because the flash was moved about 6" away from the screen, the area hit by the light, and therefore the specular highlights reflected in the subject's glasses, were larger.
For the next shot, I wanted a simple portrait of a student working. I brought out the umbrella, and first tried crosslighting against the window light. While this looked decent, I tried having the light head-on to the subject and up high. This gave a nice mix of light and shadow, creating a subtle spotlight look.
My next idea was to try rim-lighting again, using the ambient as the main light. I had the speedlite bare and behind/above the subject. A challenge that I faced was trying to get the flash high enough to rim the subject without getting in the frame. Moving the flash higher made the rimlight stronger, as seen in the second photo, but I think that next time I need to have the flash somewhere off to the side, shooting into the frame.
Another thing I didn't like was the fact that there was a strong specular highlight on the table. I wanted to gobo the flash so it would shine only on the subject's back, but I couldn't find anything to fashion into one.
Another thing I didn't like was the fact that there was a strong specular highlight on the table. I wanted to gobo the flash so it would shine only on the subject's back, but I couldn't find anything to fashion into one.
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My final shot before I left was an idea I came up with while noticing a bin of supplies on a table. I had a friend hold the flash underneath the translucent bin, and positioned the flash and bin so that the subject's chin line would be accented.
During this second shoot, I accomplished my goal of being quicker and shooting more subjects. I was able to due this partly because I didn't have to spend time working on equipment issues, and partly because I spent less time trying different lighting ideas on the same subject. This makes the portfolio more diverse.
This was my second shoot, so I am still trying to get a feel for shooting in a real-world environment. The group today was busier, so I had to try and stay out of their way while getting my job done.
As for my technique, I expanded to different setups (rim-lighting, different ambient/flash balance) instead of just falling back on using crosslighting and dropping the ambient exposure (like in Shoot 1). While I'm not afraid to keep trying different things, I want to be able to consistently get shots with an appealing use of flash.
Total Time: 30min shooting, 1hr 15min reviewing, postprocessing, and writing these descriptions/reflections.
This was my second shoot, so I am still trying to get a feel for shooting in a real-world environment. The group today was busier, so I had to try and stay out of their way while getting my job done.
As for my technique, I expanded to different setups (rim-lighting, different ambient/flash balance) instead of just falling back on using crosslighting and dropping the ambient exposure (like in Shoot 1). While I'm not afraid to keep trying different things, I want to be able to consistently get shots with an appealing use of flash.
Total Time: 30min shooting, 1hr 15min reviewing, postprocessing, and writing these descriptions/reflections.
Photo Hosting
To display my photos and share them with Science Olympiad, I chose to use picsurge.com. Found through a quick search online for photo gallery sites, I chose to use Picsurge because it is quick and easy to upload photos, and it displays them in a clean layout.
https://picsurge.com/g/omKaDd
https://picsurge.com/g/omKaDd