Project 52, 1st Quarter by Janis (purplehaze)

[purplehaze]

Success!! (Of the happy accident kind.)

I got a decent shot of the completed Nymphadilea a minute before its intended wearer was at the door to pick it up.

I laid foam core on the floor of the sunroom in the indirectly-lit portion and shot down at an angle (handheld) with the SB700 on-camera facing forward and an SB200 on the floor at 45 degrees camera right, the latter because I was thinking it would help play up the stitch definition. I meant to use the flashes as fill, but forgot that my meter was set for spot, which means the camera was thinking the flashes were key. I think the camera was metering off the green; the initial shots left room for ETTR so I boosted flash compensation by one stop. What looked fine on the camera's LCD looked less bright in Aperture, so I boosted exposure about a third of a stop in post.

Bryn's Nymphadilea by onesun1moon, on Flickr

f/11 at 200 sec, 400 ISO (auto) using 70-200 mm at 70 mm

C&C welcome.

[Geoff F]

That looks fine. There is a fraction of shadow in the upright area but that is difficult to fully avoid unless using carefully placed studio lights. Might be possible to edit it out.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shots Janis I'm learning from your trials too.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Geoff; if you mean the shadow left and right just below the neck of the bottle, I saw that too and meant to try to edit it out. If it is something else you are seeing, please let me know.

Thanks, Binnur. I find flash really challenging. I could probably devote my entire 52 weeks to it alone.

My niece graciously allowed me to share this with you. I should have backed off the zoom to get the entire shawl in, but she is so beautiful, I forgot what my subject was.

I shot this with bounced flash; instead of dialing in exposure compensation, I opened up the aperture.* Still, the meter, which was now on matrix, got fooled I think by the light background and again, I had to boost exposure in post, by two-thirds of a stop this time. I really am going to have to shoot every day to have half a chance of retaining all of this.

DSC_1380 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr

f/8 at 200 sec., 450 ISO (auto), 75 mm

Edit: *This might have been the right thing to do had I been shooting on manual (as I thought I was), but I just checked my EXIF and--doh!--I was on Aperture priority. So no gain there. What use are my glimmers of understanding if I cannot apply them correctly, I ask?

[Shadowman]

Thanks, Geoff; if you mean the shadow left and right just below the neck of the bottle, I saw that too and meant to try to edit it out. If it is something else you are seeing, please let me know.

Thanks, Binnur. I find flash really challenging. I could probably devote my entire 52 weeks to it alone.

My niece graciously allowed me to share this with you. I should have backed off the zoom to get the entire shawl in, but she is so beautiful, I forgot what my subject was.

I shot this with bounced flash; instead of dialing in exposure compensation, I opened up the aperture. Still, the meter, which was now on matrix, got fooled I think by the light background and again, I had to boost exposure in post, by two-thirds of a stop this time. I really am going to have to shoot every day to have half a chance of retaining all of this.

DSC_1380 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr

f/8 at 200 sec., 450 ISO (auto), 75 mm

Nice portrait.

[FrankMi]

The last two images are particularly well done and complement each other very well, Janis. You are fortunate to have such a lovely niece to model your handiwork for you!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John. Thanks, Frank. I am lucky indeed, I just wish her equally beautiful sister were as cooperative.

[IzzieK]

I like both...before and in your niece's neck...absolutely beautiful creation...

[purplehaze]

Thank you, Izzie, and thanks for that list you pointed me to on another thread. Good list, and I like that woman's work.

[Manfred M]

Janis - I must say you have set yourself some rather ambitious goals for 2015. Good luck! I'm not nearly that brave, and once again have refused to set any firm goals for myself, other than to push myself in different directions. I find that I tend to grow my skills more organically; my direction just sort of happens, and once I reach a skill level I like (and can reproduce over and over again), I tend to start off on a new tangent just to see where that takes me.

I look forward to seeing your work and think it will be fun to look at your first images of 2015 and compare them to the last ones to see what direction you ended up taking.

Good luck and have fun!

[ShaneS]

As a fellow knitter I applaud you on your beautiful creation and photography of same...

[Mark von Kanel]

Janis you have suceeded well done great work!

[purplehaze]

Janis - I must say you have set yourself some rather ambitious goals for 2015.

I think of it as more of a wish list. No failure where there are no goals

As a fellow knitter

Thanks Shane! Are you on Ravelry? Would love to see your work, and your product photography, if you do any.

great work

Thanks, Mark. I'm sure the portrait could use some touching up, but I will have to look at it another time.

[Kaye Leggett]

Janis I love the images - and thanks for the narrative as I too struggle with flash (better than I was a year ago, so that's something !!)

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Kay. I think this subject has the potential to occupy me for quite a while, so long as I take it slow and go one step at a time.

[mknittle]

Nice work Janis,
Both the photography and the scarf.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Mark. I've gotten quite carried away with reading about flash photography and watching videos and am hoping to do better on my next round.

[wilgk]

What a great start to following your resolutions/goals!
It has been great to read through this thread & see how you learnt along the way, great shot of Teddy, I am glad I am not the only one who conscripts forgotten 'stuffed' family members to assist in one's photographic development.
Flash or continuous lighting in conjunction with ambient just adds another whole dimension of variable ingredients. I find I get all my lights out & set something up, and feel I've learnt a few things ... Then I put it away & next time I take time to set up again, I'm back to square one. So I'm so glad you've shared your images & techniques so far for us to learn with you.
It is an exquisite scarf & a lovely portrait of your niece wearing it.
Best wishes for the rest of the project.

[Shadowman]

Thanks, Geoff; if you mean the shadow left and right just below the neck of the bottle, I saw that too and meant to try to edit it out. If it is something else you are seeing, please let me know.

Thanks, Binnur. I find flash really challenging. I could probably devote my entire 52 weeks to it alone.

My niece graciously allowed me to share this with you. I should have backed off the zoom to get the entire shawl in, but she is so beautiful, I forgot what my subject was.

I shot this with bounced flash; instead of dialing in exposure compensation, I opened up the aperture.* Still, the meter, which was now on matrix, got fooled I think by the light background and again, I had to boost exposure in post, by two-thirds of a stop this time. I really am going to have to shoot every day to have half a chance of retaining all of this.

DSC_1380 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr

f/8 at 200 sec., 450 ISO (auto), 75 mm

Edit: *This might have been the right thing to do had I been shooting on manual (as I thought I was), but I just checked my EXIF and--doh!--I was on Aperture priority. So no gain there. What use are my glimmers of understanding if I cannot apply them correctly, I ask?

Nice portrait/model (scarf) endeavor.

[purplehaze]

Thanks for your encouragement, Kay and John.

The following is my contribution for Week 2.

I really had fun tonight. I finished the shawl for niece number two a couple of days ago and spent an evening shooting the unblocked version against black bristolboard with a single SB700 inside a 24" x 24" softbox (triple diffused) and no ambient, but didn't much like the results. Was shooting down again and the light was spreading too much for my taste. Tried again tonight by draping the shawl on the only thing I had readily available and by putting an egg crate grid (purchased today) in the softbox. Much better. Hanging the shawl helps show the drape and creates much nicer shadows. The grid seems to have helped contain the spread of light, but I can't be sure because I wasn't comparing apples. The other thing I did was experiment with an SB200 behind and below the shawl, aiming up, hoping to create a bit of a hairlight effect. In some shots, the rear light was quite effective, in other shots like the one below, not so much. I have very limited shooting space in the basement and the area ended up being a bit too short for my 70-200 mm, so I switched to my nifty 50. Could have played all night, but tomorrow is a working day, so I stopped here. Let me know what you think, good or bad.

Haley's Nymphadilea by onesun1moon, on Flickr

f/5.6 @ 1/200 sec., 100 ISO, Nikkor 50 mm 1.8D; two flashes fired, one (the rear) at -1.0 EV