Using a Reflector

Equipment Tip: Using a Reflector

One of the first lighting tools I added to my photography gear was a reflector. They are fairly inexpensive and extremely portable which makes them a perfect lighting tool when you are just starting out. While I have additional lighting now I still carry a set of reflectors with me because of how often they are enough to control the lighting without having to set up any additional gear. 

For this shoot I was interested in the pattern of the light as it came through the blinds on the window to the right of the frame. In the first photo I really wanted to emphasize the way the dot patten lined my model's face. I liked the look achieved by leaving the left side of her face in the shadows since this really brought attention to the dot pattern on the right side of her face. So for this shot I used only the window light with no reflector.

For the second photo, which was taken within 5 minutes of the first one, I added a reflector to the left side of the frame to even out the light on each side of her face. I was shooting indoors so I was able to hang the reflector from a tripod and adjust it until it was reflecting the window light the way I wanted to see it reflected.

With the simple addition of a reflector I was able to get two very different looks with the same window light. Neither look is "incorrectly" lit. Instead, with the use of a reflector I was able to create two different looks by controlling the light to get the look I wanted for each photo.

Challenge 8: Collaborate with Another Artist

Creative 52 Challenge 8: Collaborate with Another Artist

Inspiration: For this challenge Lindsay asked us to think of a way to involve another artist in a creative shoot. In her book Lindsay listed fashion designers, painters, graphic artists, set designers, hair stylists, makeup artists, dancers and clothing designers as possibilities for collaboration.

My Solution: I immediately thought of Amber LeMar. Amber has been refining her skills as a make-up artist and often does the make-up for the burlesque group,Vandetta Vixens. Knowing how much she also loves to create a head to toe look to reinvent herself I asked her to create any look she wanted for this shoot. In her apartment there was a small red wall that I used for a backdrop. Lighting was done with two Nikon speedlights and shoot through umbrellas. I think she knocked this look out of the park!

Technique: While I was the Creative Live, workshop Shooting in Crappy Light, Lindsay did a segment on post production in Photoshop. She talked us through using frequency separation for fashion photography editing. This method allows touching up of skin without taking away the texture of the skin. I've been practicing with it since getting home and wanted to share a before and after of this shot to not only show how well it works for editing skin but also what a great job Amber did with her hair and makeup as very little editing was needed to get to my final image.

Credits: I want to thank Amber Lamar for collaborating with me! You are always such a joy to work with. And, as always, thanks to Lindsay Adler for her continued inspiration. 

Challenge 7: Go Beyond the Print or Digital Image

Creative 52 Challenge 7: Go Beyond the Print of Digital Image

This week the challenge was about getting my images off my computer and digital galleries and, instead, presenting my images as works of art. 

Lately I've been seeing so many images printed on metal. While I'm not sure I would like the medium for every type of image I couldn't stop thinking about how my grainy concert photos taken with my point and shoot camera would look as metal prints. I decided to send in a couple of photos I had taken at a Brandi Carlile concert. I am thrilled with the final product and love having them on display in our music area. Thank you again for the inspiration Lindsay Adler!

Until next week keep challenging yourself and stay creative!

Challenge 6: Go to a Museum

Creative 52: Challenge 6: Go to a Museum

Inspiration: For this challenge Lindsay asked us to get out of the house and see the art around us. Well, it's been just a tiny bit cold in Minnesota so a trip to a museum didn't quite work out. Instead I went online and absorbed myself in art. All art! Sculptures, paintings, photographs even graphic design! I was especially drawn to paintings, primarily portraits of women. But what was drawing me to certain portraits over others? I concluded the portraits I was drawn to made me want to go back and look at the painting again. And what made me want to go back and look again was often a feeling that I  wanted to know more about the person in the painting. What were they thinking or feeling at that moment? I was also drawn to unique lighting and the use of light patterns.

My Solution: My model, Amber is a budding makeup artist so after we picked out her clothes and talked about the concept she applied makeup to play up her eyes. As I was playing with the blinds on the window I saw a creative possibility to highlight her look even more by letting the light create lines across her face that almost mimic a warrior look. The window was to the right side of the photo and I used a reflector on the left to even out the light. While I took a number of photos I was especially drawn to this one. The little hint of a smile and the arch of her eyebrow  seem to imply she knows something the rest of us don't know yet and I found myself wanting to know more about what was behind this look!

Credits: I want to thank Amber Lamar for being both my model and make-up artist! You are always such a joy to work with. And, as always, thanks to Lindsay Adler for her continued inspiration.

Until next week, stay creative and keep challenging yourself!

Challenge 5: Create a Symmetrical Image

Creative Challenge 5:  Create a Symmetrical Image

The fifth Creative 52 weekly challenge involved symmetry. I had so many ideas for this challenge and ended up home sick for the majority of the week. By Sunday I had resigned myself to the realization that I would have to be my own model again (forcing me back to my week three goal of getting more comfortable in front of the camera).  I was especially challenged with me as a model as I am far from symmetrical. My eyes are incredibly different in size, my lips are crooked, I have moles on one side of my face that are not present on the other and even my nostrils don't seem to be the same shape! I was not hopeful about this! I wrapped my non-symmetrical hair in a scarf and was determined to use posing and lighting to attempt to make me look more symmetrical and was not beyond the assistance of photo shop if I could get an image that was close. I knew I wanted to shut my eyes and they seem to appear closer to the same size that way. So I put the self timer on my camera and repeatedly put myself in front of my camera and tried to compose myself for the shot in my 10 second window. I took shot after shot and was not happy with any of them. I only seemed to see how far from symmetrical each of my images appeared. Preparing for one shot I must have hit my focus button (which would have focused on nothing since I was not in the image) and was surprised when I cam across this completely out of focus image. The more I scrolled through my images for a final shot the more I was drawn to this one for this challenge. Because our minds are always seeking symmetry I was able to find symmetry in this image that lacked the amount of detail necessary to prove my eyes and brain wrong. While in real life my eyes are still incredibly different in size, my lips are crooked and my nostrils are not the same shape, in this moment, in this photo I don't notice any of that. My brain sees symmetry. So while this is not the image I imagined in my head, this image taught me a very valuable lesson about perception that I can take forward with me in my photography journey!

Until next week, keep challenging yourself and stay creative!

Challenge 4: Use Negative Space

Creative Challenge 4: Use Negative Space

This week the creative challenge involved using negative space as an essential element in an image.  I  was inspired by the challenge to shoot this high contrast image of our cat, Thomas napping in the sun. I played with our blinds to adjust the way the light fell on Thomas and shot from a number of angles until I got the image I wanted. Because the majority of the image is left dark dark, my eye goes right to the strip of light on the chair leading to Thomas' sleeping face. Enough detail of his head and body remain to let me know the image is of a cat but the focus remains on his face because of the use of negative space for the majority of the image. I love the artistic feel of this photo and doubt if I would have shot in such high contrast light conditions if not for the challenge. So I thank Lindsay Adler again for her creative inspiration!

 Until next week stay creative and keep challenging yourself!

Challenge 3: Tell a Story

Creative Challenge 3: Tell a Story

This week my challenge was to tell a story with a single image. As a scrapbooker I have always tried to tell a story with my photos so I really struggled with what I wanted to say that I hadn't already tried to say with my photos. My daughter was home over the holidays and had me watching the One Direction "This Is Us" DVD and some of their recent music videos. Their video for Story of My Life, especially the behind the scenes version, stuck with me. Thinking of how much family photos mean along with knowing how rarely I let myself be photographed made me feel I have been preserving a very lopsided family history for my daughter. I know exactly why I'm not in photos - I'm terribly uncomfortable in front of the camera with my fear being evident is almost every adult photo of me. This week I decided I needed to figure out how to be comfortable in front of the camera as both a way to face my fear and to be able to help the people I photograph who may be feeling just as uncomfortable. As with my other creative challenges I also challenged myself technically this week. I decided to set up two medium Apollo softboxes with my Nikon Speedlights. I recently bought the Odin Phottix flash triggers and decided it was time to figure out how to use them. My grids for my softboxes had arrived this week and I wanted to try adding that additional control of my light so I put grids on both softboxes for this challenge. After setting up my lighting it was time to try to get a photo of me that I liked, but that also told my story. I found that the more I applied posing techniques and reminded myself to relax my shoulders, hands, mouth, etc... the more relaxed I started to look in the photos. After looking through all of the photos this is the one I chose to tell the story of my fear of being on this side of the camera.

When I was done taking photos my dogs, who had been crying on the other side of the door, finally got to come in the room so I took a few more photos with them. Suddenly I wasn't thinking about whether the light was aimed into the direction of my hair part or which side of my face is my best side. I was simply enjoying the moment with my dogs. I think I have another goal this year - to learn to be this comfortable in front of the camera without a dog in my arms.

Until next week stay creative and keep challenging yourself!

Challenge 2. Create a Portrait of Someone Without Showing the Face

Description

For the second of my Creative 52 weekly projects, Lindsay Adler challenged me to communicate the essence of one or more individuals without the ease of allowing their faces or expressions to tell the story for me. 

Inspiration

My daughter was a dancer throughout her school years. While I took many, many photos of her competing, I never seemed to take the time to capture the essence of her as a dancer. I saw her ballet shoes and suddenly knew what my photo had to capture. While attending the Unleashed Dallas workshop I had the opportunity to shoot a photo of a dog's silhouette in front of a huge soft box. I hadn't tried to set this technique up at home since I don't have a large enough light source. However, I thought I could do something interesting with my 7' shoot through umbrella and a two Nikon speed lights. While I probably did everything technically wrong on this shot, we both love the results! The spines of the umbrella, that I'm sure would disappear if had more light coming through the umbrella, add an interesting patten that draws my eye toward her profile. The angle of her profile leads my eye to her pointed toe and the laces of the toe shoe. I love how this photo captures so much of the dancer I continue to see in her.

Until next week, stay inspired and be creative!

Challenge 1. Create an Image Based on a Single Color.

This is the year! I have finally have figured out what I want to do with this blog and am ready to get started. Last fall I had the opportunity to attend a Creative Live workshop in Seattle. The workshop was all about shooting in crappy light and the presenters were Lindsay Adler and Erik Valind. I left inspired but apparently needed a bit more of a push to get myself motivated and start applying what I learned. Lindsay provided the next push with her book Lindsay Adler Creative 52.

The book is a list of challenges conveniently paced to last me the entire year. The logical part of my brain concluded it would be easiest to start at the beginning of the year so I could easily keep track of where I am supposed to be. For 2014 I will be completing a weekly challenge from Lindsay's book. In addition, I plan to document photography techniques and tools that I am using as well as any post production skills that I add along the way.

With all that said, it's time to start with Challenge 1. Create an Image Based on a Single Color.  As Lindsay described the challenge "your image should scream a specific color." Now anyone who follows Lindsay knows she loves red. Being a Nikon shooter, I'm not such a fan of that particular color. However, I decided to overcome my aversion (it's time to face my photography fears) and make red the focus color of my photo.

Andrea is home from school and I grabbed her for my first model. Her hair was recently colored and has great red highlights. To eliminate other colors in the photo I used a black background and had Andrea dress in black. In ensure the red highlights dominated the photo I  had to light  them. I set up my flash with the Rogue XL Flash Bender strip box to add a punch of light to her hair. The flash with the Rogue Flash Bender strip box was set on top of a cabinet slightly higher than Andrea with the head of the flash aimed slightly down towards Andrea's hair. I had her step a few steps in front of the flash set up to limit the amount of light spilling on the her face. After taking some posed shots I decided that movement in the hair was needed to really show off the highlights. I had Andrea flip her hair to get the movement I was looking for. It took a number of tries to get the combination of hair movement, position and facial expression I was looking for. However, I think this photo shows it was worth the effort.

Thanks to Erik and Lindsay and all of the Creative Live team for the original inspiration, Lindsay for the additional inspiration of manageable weekly creative projects and Andrea for her willingness to model for me and her trust in me to do whatever I ask of her. Until next week, stay inspired and stay creative!