Strobist
fashion (2 of 52)
Love them or hate them, Crocs are a fashion statement. The fashionistas among you will be cringing with that statement, but too bad, I actually like them, not because they look good, not because they have a bit of a following, but because they are comfortable. If you’re interested, these are the new Hover Slip-on‘s.
This shot is part of my 52 Weeks project … and was inspired from the 52 Weeks:2012 Edition flickr group’s weekly theme “fashion” … i’m trying to push my ‘strobist’ skills, using off camera flash to improve the lighting of my shots. There are a lot of amazingly talented photographers who shot some incredible shots with basic speedlights off-camera. One of them that caught my eye during my 365 Project was a guy called Rick Nunn, who shot a great series of images for 50 days straight using a 50mm lens (see his Fifty of Fifty project here), and posted each with a lighting diagram, and often a video, showing how he took them – a great help for absolute novices like me – so thanks Rick.
And so I can come back to remember & learn from what I’ve done … here’s my lighting diagram:
time to celebrate
That’s it … i’ve done it … a photo a day for the entire year !!!
It’s truly been a memorable experience – and a great challenge. I set out on the project to improve my photography skills (which i’ve definitely achieved) and to enhance my creativity (which I achieved some of the days … others there was no creativity at all !). I knew it would be a challenge … what i didn’t realise is how much of a challenge it would be some days, while others it just seemed to all fall into place.
Personally it’s been a bloody tough year, and doing this project has certainly been a useful distraction at times. And it’s been wonderful to tune into flickr each day and see what other 365′ers have achieved with their latest shot … so to all my flickr contacts, thank you !
Here’s to the next challenge that lies ahead … and may 2012 be a wonderful year for all.
Lighting info:
Canon 430Ex with DIY drinking straw grid pointing up & slightly behind the mirror ball, full power
Canon 580ExII, in Westcott Apollo, partially collapsed, camera left, full power
YN560, bare, camera right, 1/8th
strobist self
Way back on Day 81 I entered the strobist world, and since then I’ve found it a challenge to drag them out … but now, with a little more space, I’ve had more opportunity to play.
Tonight I thought that I’ve give a high key white a go. There are a lot of ways to do this, like lighting a white background with a couple of strobes, but I saw a novel way of doing it earlier today … shot directly towards a soft box and use it for your white … works like a charm.
A little bit of photoshop later (e.g. erasing the sides of the soft box that were just in the frame) and abracadabra !
Strobist info:
background: westcott apollo softbox, canon 580exii at 1/4th
camera right-high: westcott umbrella, canon 430ex, 1/1
camera left-low: YN560 1/16th
re-strobe
After last night, I thought that I’d give it another shot … after all, a wise little green man once said “do, or do not, there is no try”. I’m doing it, but I’ve got a long way to go before I’m a Jedi like some of the flickr strobist masters.
Lighting info: YN560 @ 1/8th in westcott Apollo softbox, 1/2 CTO camera left + 430ex @ 1/16, bounced off wall, camera right. Blue rim light if from the building across the road (nothing I can do to adjust it 30+ floors up). Base exposure set for bokeh lights, adjusted flash power until correctly exposed.
let there be light
Tonight I thought that I’d take last night’s light trail one step further … this time, creating the light, and letting the subject stand still – and who better to stand still than Mario & Yoshi.
I think there are going to be a few more or these during the rest of this project, because I’ve got a lot of work to do to master it. That said, I’m happy with the results, so happy actually that I’m having trouble picking today’s ‘keeper’.
Probably this order:
Lighting info:
backgrounds with an magnetic LED grafitti light from thinkgeek.com
subject lit with YN560 at 1/64th 80mm zoom, triggerred manually via test button.
new glass
200 days
It’s been a great ride so far and I’m absolutely stoked that I’ve made it to the 200 day mark !
Some days have been a struggle (especially after long days at work), some days have been easy (when an idea just appears), and some have been just great fun. And I’ve learned a hell of a lot as well … including today’s shot.
I’ve wanted to do a ‘light painting’ for a while, and no better than to celebrate day 200 than with one. It was actually a little easier than I thought (or perhaps my skills are getting better) … bulb mode held open with YN602 wireless trigger, dark room, LED flashlight, then a flash fired immediately before shutter closed.
Lighting info:
Bulb mode, held open with YN602 wireless trigger
Lego flashlight (from day 136) to paint the 200
Canon 430Ex through cardboard snoot, 1/32nd, fired with 2nd YN602.
samoca le-ii
It’s a long time since I’ve shot any film, but I think I need to fire this baby up before this project ends.I got this camera from my Grandmother many years ago … in fact I’d kind of forgotten I even had it (complete with it’s original moulded leather case). From the late 50′s, it’s pretty amazing really … a rangefinder with f2.8-f22 50mm with a built in selenium light meter. There’s certainly no auto focus, white balance, jpeg, or any of the other modern conveniences – everything on this little beauty is RAW – as raw as it gets, a full blown manual.
Lighting info:
lemon slices
On Day 133 I did a similar shot with an orange. It was my first attempt at a shot like this back then, with the aim of returning back to see how my skills had improved over time. So, 65 days later … is there much difference ?
Possibly not by the look of the shot alone, but definitely in the way I got there. The colour balance of the orange shot was pretty good SOOC, but not this one. The chopping board was an ugly blue-grey, and the colours just a little out – definitely in need of some post-production to fix it up.
I’ve been admiring the images from a lot of other photographers on Flickr, and one thing that many have is a really cool kind of matte look, with great colours, well balanced. While I still have no idea how they are doing it, I have been teaching myself a lot about post-production with photoshop, and something I hadn’t used before … curves. I’ve always tried to fix things with levels, but stumbled across a tutorial explaining how curves work and how they are much more useful. So this image is corrected with curves.
Only thing to work out now is ….. what to do with some lemon slices ?
Lighting info:
MT24-ex handheld above camera ETTL -1 e/v
Canon 580ExII reflected in Westcott umbrella, triggerred via slave
Silver reflector under camera for fill
kelly
A shot tonight of my beautiful (and incredibly impatient) wife, as she left for her firm’s year end function. I didn’t quite get the lighting how I wanted it, but I only got to snap off a few shot before she lost patience with me .. so this is the best I could to tonight.
half way
I’ve made it past the halfway mark in my 365 project … just another 6 months to go.
The ‘half’ stuck in my mind, so I thought that I’d try to light half my face only – which is actually quite difficult to do – while keeping everything else black (without using photoshop!).
strawberry splash
Another shoot to cross of the list. I’ve seen this done plenty of times, and it is definitely as hard as I knew it would be. The only secret is LOTS of takes – your ‘keeper’ rate for a photo like this is very low. I think this one turned out all right.
Lighting info:
Canon 580Exii overhead reflected into white Westcott 43″ umbrella, full power.
Silver reflector underneath aquarium to get some bounceback from below.
[148/365]
i shot myself
I was playing with my old Canon 350D tonight …. after using a 7D almost exclusively for a year or so, I can’t believe how small the 350D is, dwarfed in my seemingly gigantic hands ! It is still a pretty good a camera.
Lighting info:
Canon 580ExII reflected in Westcott 28″ Apollo softbox @ 1/16th, camera left.
[140/365]
viking v samurai
Inspired by the Fox TV show ‘deadliest warrior’, tonight was the battle of the ancient vikings and the samurai warriors. Who will reign supreme on the seamless lightcube battlefield?
[138/365]
Lighting info:
Canon 580ExII 1/8th lightcube left
YN560 1/8th lightcube right
Canon 430Ex 1/4 lightcube above rear
All three triggered by YN602 receivers
flickr eyes
A little bit of experimentation tonight … and after playing with a few different things, I learnt one big lesson …. shooting RAW is awesome. This is my first RAW shot, and I’m amazed by the difference in the image, especially compared to the jpeg version shot with the exactly the same settings.
I think i’m converted.
Yes, i know the files are huge, yes they take a little longer to process, but WOW … so, here’s my venetian make with ‘flickr eyes’.
Camera info:
Canon 7D, Sigma 50mm 1.4 @ f4.0, 1/250th, ISO800
Lighting info:
Eyes gelled with blue and pink gels, lit with Canon 580EXII on 1/128th
[132/365]
no fuckin clue either
Hey Loko, tonight I’ve got no fuckin clue either ! It’s been a long day, but there is always tomorrow.
Lighting info:
580EXII @ 1/8th, 1/2 CTO, through Westcott 43″ Umbrella, camera left high
430Ex @ 1/4, CTO, reflected in Westcott 28″ Apollo Softbox, camera right low
[130/365]
bazinga
I was browsing Flickr tonight, pondering my shot for the day, and as soon as I saw this I just had to do it ‘bazinga’ style. So this is kind of a tribute photo, to the awesomeness that is Big Bang Theory, and to this shot by djokosantoso.
Lighting info:
580ExII behind, red gel, 1/4, 24mm zoom
YN560, camera right, CTO, reflected in Apollo 28″ Softbox, 1/1 power.
[124/365]
drip drip
For something as simple as a drop of water, it’s amazing how hard they are to photograph … but when you catch it, they look so cool!
Setup for this is a baking pan with water, bag of water with pinhole to drip hanging overhead on a boom (or in my case, with no boom, a broomstick hung between a woodcarved ornament & a tripod), with flash (camera left) bounced off a white reflector behind.
Camera info: Canon 7D, 100mm f2.8L @ f8, 1/200th, fired by wired remote.
Lighting inf0: 430ex, 1/16th, triggered by YN602
[121/365]
cliche wedding
It’s impossible to avoid weddings today … especially cliche fairytale weddings … so I thought i’d add to the cliche. I know this has been done a thousand times before, but it’s a first for me, and that’s what this project is about – learning new skills, and giving some things a first go.
Camera info: Canon 7D with 100mm f2.8L lens @ f4, 1/250th, ISO 100, tungsten WB.
Lighting info: 430ex with DIY grid from behind, CTO gel, 1/64th power, 24mm zoom, fired with a yn602 wireless trigger.
[119/365]