2017 Project 52, First Quarter by Janis (purplehaze)

[purplehaze]

Time to haul myself back on the wagon. I won't go into all the reasons for not finishing out the last quarter of 2016; suffice to say, I did shoot some weeks and, as I have to process those images for other people anyway, I might as well post them as a record of my progress or regress, as the case may be. For that reason, you are liable to see some activity in that thread at the same time as this one.

So, objectives for the quarter ahead:

1. Learn to use my Wacom tablet. I don't think I told you, but I purchased one this fall and have yet to get comfortable with it.
2. Join a local photography group. The Manitoba Camera Club meets weekly from September through April, and offers a cycle of a member contribution night, a field trip or practical demonstration night, an invited speaker night and a competition results and review night. They let you attend two meetings before committing, so I plan to check it out next week.
3. Master flash. As it turns out, the camera club is meeting at my local photo store for a hands-on workshop on flash photography in two weeks. This is timely, as I have been asked to shoot head shots of all the seventy-odd members of our dragon boat team when we start dryland practice in February.
4. Capture something of this extraordinary winter with its record-breaking snowfalls. This will not be easy as it has been bitterly cold, but the beauty out there is breath-taking, and it will be useful to learn and practice some cold weather techniques.

I have many other objectives of course, but a short list will help to keep me focused. I will try to post an image here before the week is out.

[Wavelength]

Wishing you all the best for your photography venture, for the first quarter of this year

[Shadowman]

Nice goals to start out the year, best of luck and have fun.

[Geoff F]

If you work with layers and carefully edited masks, Janis, a drawing tablet is definitely the way to go. I use mine on virtually all my images; but you may need to adjust the pressure sensitivity to suit exactly how you work. Choosing the size, softness and opacity of the brushes does take a bit of mastering but will eventually give you a lot more flexibility with your editing.

[purplehaze]

Thanks Nandy, John and Geoff. May have bitten off more than I can chew this month, as I am taking a knitting design course that involves lots of homework. Weekends are not long enough. Spent a good part of this one cataloguing my stash of yarn as I am tired of coming home from the store with some impulse purchase only to find that I already have something similar. The cataloguing involved shooting the yarn, be it full balls or remnants, for reference as to the colour and texture. I shot in a light tent, with an SB700 on either side. Yesterday I shot head on, and this morning top down. I had a lot to do, and needed to work quickly if I was to get everything put away by tonight, so some of the images could have been better, and may yet be improved by editing. Some of the images have colour cast issues, and so will serve as material for learning how to deal with that in Capture One.

#1
This is an example of one of the head-on shots. (There isn't going to be any yarn left over, so I had to use the project as my reference shot.) The flashes are on equal power. All shots are with Nikkor 50 mm 1.8.



I don't like that hard edge cutting through the image but haven't found anything suitable to use in the tent as a sloping backdrop.

#2
I spent more time shooting these projects from last spring that I had never properly photographed for my portfolio. I haven't yet made a proper studio space for myself in the house. I tried shooting the first of these hanging from the hall light fixture against a white backdrop, but creases. I am going to have to get a hand steamer for that. In the end I just shot them both against a white textured wall. I shot this with a remote SB700 positioned at a 45-degree angle about three feet away and an SB5000 on camera about six feet away, also at an angle. I put myself at an angle, thinking it might help provide some depth; don't know whether that was logical or not. Both flashes had their diffuser panel down.



f/3.5 (oops, thought I was on f/4) @1/60, 100 ISO +1 EV

I really should have sat down with a book before jumping in as I really need a refresher on all this, but didn't feel I had the time.

#3


f/4 @ 1/60, ISO 100, +1.7 EV

[Shadowman]

Nice start to your project(s), not much to critique as you've kept both lighting and compositions simple.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Janis #1 seems the best of the set. I'm sure some experienced indoor shooters will give you ideas about lighting for more attractive compositions. And I'm hoping to learn something from their comments too

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John and Binnur. Was working under pressure and didn't have much time to get creative. Space is a problem; I need to clean out the basement and create a little studio setup for myself, but that will be the work of a weekend in itself. It will be salutary to jettison the junk that has accumulated, though, and I am in an organizing and de-cluttering mood.

Btw, while I was looking for the video to remind me how to collapse my humungous backdrop, I came across this review of the Lastolite Hilite illuminated backdrop, which I thought was kind of interesting, if even more unwieldy than the backdrop I already have.

[Geoff F]

With #1 it appears to me that you have managed sufficient difference in shading on either side of the horizontal dividing line to make it appear intentional. If you can't hide something, make it a feature.

But there appears to be some rather faint streaking in the top right corner area.

The others look OK. Possibly with #2, I would have liked to either see the hanging hook just as a straight piece of vertical wire, or show all the hook; but that is a very minor thought.

So all in all, some tricky subjects have been well handled.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Geoff. You're right; the creases in the wall of the light tent are showing. I should have used shallower DOF.

I too think I should have showed all of the hook. All in all, it was a pretty lame effort. I am already thinking how I might challenge myself this weekend: that cowl you see is being made to go with a black-and-oatmeal-coloured cape (black on the outside; oatmeal on the inside) and I think I will try to shoot the two of them on a black background. Gotta finish the cowl first, though.

[purplehaze]

Well, I may be behind in posting, but I have not been entirely inactive as the next few posts will show.

Week 2

I have had a lot of trouble sleeping of late, and one night, I just decided to get up and shoot the snowy scene outside my bedroom window. I was mostly playing with depth of field.

#1 Such a shame there wasn't a figure to frame. I have tucked this away for possible use in a composite someday.



f/6.3, 6 sec, 165 mm, 100 ISO

#2 Not the greatest composition, but I like the effect of the blurry snow in the foreground.



f/4, 2 sec, 150 mm, 100 ISO

[purplehaze]

Weeks 3-5

I did in fact join one of the local camera clubs and have been to four meetings so far. One of the meetings was at the camera store in my neighbourhood and consisted in a demonstration of off-camera flash technique. It proved to be very timely as one of the executive members of my dragon boat team asked me to shoot head shots of the members to help our dryland trainers learn all of our names. We do our dryland practice at a local school gym. I had been advised that it might be best to cut out the ambient light and let the flash do all the work, and so that is what I did. I set up in a corner of the gym on our first night of practice, propping my collapsible white background against the wall and seating my subjects on a stool a few feet in front of it. I had the flash on stand beside me at about a 45 degree angle to my subjects, covered with a Rogue flash bender and diffusion panel. It was my first time shooting manual flash. My shutter speed was set at 1/200. I shot a few test shots of my first subject, adjusting the power of the flash until I had it right. I then shot with my 50 mm at about f/4. I think I could have used even shallower DOF. The shoot went very quickly; the equipment was all quite nicely portable and quick and easy to set up and I am quite pleased with the results. I don't have permission to share any of them with you, so can't invite your criticism. I have almost fifty headshots now, and so am learning to use the batch processing tools on my software. After processing in Capture One, I am exporting to Aperture, so that I can use Border FX to add each member's name to the bottom of their photo in large print. I will be printing them all as 4x6s and they will be mounted on something that can be put up on the gym wall at each practice. It has been a really fun and informative exercise and I was honoured to be asked to do it.

[purplehaze]

Week 6

The weather turned mild this weekend and so I went down to The Forks yesterday to check out the river skating trail and the warming huts. This is year 7 of an annual competition to design winter warming huts that attracts submissions from around the world. On this day, I was particularly attracted by a hut that was a large piece of culvert, with smaller culverts sticking out of it at all angles. The interiors of the culverts were painted in primary colours and the whole structure, inside and out, lent itself to abstraction.

These were shot with my 70-200 mm lens.

#1



#2



#3



#4



#5



#6



#7

[Urbanflyer]

Nice work! great colors! would love to see the overall hut

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Judith. I did take a grab shot with my Sony, but there are some better images on the designer's site, here. The mound of snow that originally covered the hut has disappeared, which is why I was able to shoot the unpainted steel exterior. This particular hut is very popular with the kids, who love to climb up the smaller culverts.

[Shadowman]

Nice subject matter and captures for week six.

[bnnrcn]

I especially like the color images Janis

[Wavelength]

Your images really reveal your talent; interestingly unique

[skitterbug]

Well, I may be behind in posting, but I have not been entirely active as the next few posts will show.

Week 2

I have had a lot of trouble sleeping of late, and one night, I just decided to get up and shoot the snowy scene outside my bedroom window. I was mostly playing with depth of field.

#1 Such a shame there wasn't a figure to frame. I have tucked this away for possible use in a composite someday.



f/6.3, 6 sec, 165 mm, 100 ISO

#2 Not the greatest composition, but I like the effect of the blurry snow in the foreground.



f/4, 2 sec, 150 mm, 100 ISO

Hi Janis,

I like your use of imagination for your shots of the hut, but I like these two even better because I like trees and such! There probably was a kitty at the top of the steps in #1 that just left! <grin> I like the way the snow is prominent on the branches and the use of DOF. Apparently midnight is a great time for pics!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John and Binnur. You give me too much credit, Nandakumar, but my ego thanks you anyway. Glad you like the fruits of my bit of midnight madness, Sandy; they were certainly fun to do.