Hello Everyone, I hope you had a great Christmas, I certainly did. Some of my gifts included candy, socks, video games and lets not forget a DRONE!!!! Well its not a top of the line Phantom but it still gets the job done. Thanks to my awesome girl friend for this great gift. Except to see a few images and videos from my ventures soon!!! But, lets get back to the matter at hand. I finally was able to redo a shoot I did when I first started my photography journey. Lets see how I did.
Round 1 (Camera Settings)
So this shoot is not in the same location as the last but the subject and goals were the same. To effectively highlight my subject, draw attention to the subject and for added bonus create a dramatic effect using lights. Well as you can see from the images below I definitely improved upon these skills over the course of a year. This was predominately due to my improved understanding of the relationship between ISO, APERTURE and SHUTTER SPEED.
For the original shoot (seen here) I did not truly comprehend the issues surrounding high ISO and exposing for the background. I took all of these factors into account with this shoot and as a result increased the focus on the subject along with properly exposing both the subject and the background for light. This requires a bit of fill light and the use of high speed sync. More on this can be found on my previous article (Nature Portraits).
Round 2 (Model & Subject Posing)
Another major issue that I experienced with the original shoot was model poses. I had no idea what looked good nor did I understand how to pose the model to draw certain emotions into the image. For example placing the models hands in an open position beside their head can give the idea of excitement. Another example would be how placing a hand in front of the subjects face can create an image of mystery or desire. These techniques are extremely valuable and can change the appearance of a single location drastically.
Lets not forget the classic joyful head tilt or puppy look as I have heard it referred to. This pose makes the subject appear very happy and expresses joy. I love this pose because it usually receives great praise from my subjects and is very easy to pull off even for the most inexperienced models.
Round 3 (Off Camera Lighting)
Finally, this shoot would not have been possible without the use of an off camera flash. By removing the flash from the camera I was able to create some very dramatic images such as the ones seen below. During my original shoot, I had no idea what off camera flash or high speed sync were. Now 2 years later, I do not know what I would do without them or how I even took pictures without these features. Although they are not always necessary, they certainly help for those extremely sunny days.
All of these images were shot with a yongnuo 568EX flash and a large octagon soft box. The octagon soft box helped to soften the light and drastically reduced the harsh light directed towards the subject. Originally I used small plastic diffuser to cover the diffuser but it did not give the exact look I was looking for. I feel these images are much more appealing and certainly comprise the core of the boundless perception style.
Finally
I hope you enjoyed my brief re-shoot story along with the images displayed. I would like to thank my lovely girl friend for posing for these images and being such a great model in front of the camera. Next week I have special treat for you in the forms of some pics from my most recent vacation cruise. So stay tuned and as always stay boundless!
PS:All the images from this shoot can be found in the album below.