PHO5598: Final Assignment

The final assignment for my Lighting Techniques course was to produce a Magazine Cover. We were allowed to make any sort of magazine we wanted, from wildlife to animal based or even crafting or carpentry. I however, chose to do a Fashion Magazine and am so happy with how it came out. Chris was my model and I was able to use my Bowens 400/400 lighting kit for the first time. Chris and I took the photo using the Bowens kit and then I manipulated the background and text in Photoshop. Slap in a fake UPC and create some clever/interesting article titles (thanks to Chris and Dave for the help there) and you have yourself a magazine cover. This can be found on Flickr as well.

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PHO5598: Assignment 9

Assignment 9 was a little difficult for me to distinguish from my other photos as it was all about diffused or bounced flash. I say this because it is very rare that I use direct flash so almost any of my small flash portraits could have been used for this assignment. I ended up submitting the two below photos. The first was shot with the flash in an umbrella setup. The flash was bounced off the white umbrella and onto the subject. The second photo was shot using the small flash attached to the camera and using a diffuser on it while also bouncing it off of the white ceiling above the subject. Diffusing or bouncing the light often enables you to soften the light up which can be harsh and unflattering otherwise. As always, these photos can be found on Flickr as well.

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PHO5598: Assignment 8

Assignment 8 was another small flash assignment – specifically small flash while doing an environmental portrait. I like environmental portraits as it shows the subject in their surroundings (environment). These photos can be found on Flickr as well.

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PHO5598: Assignment 7

Fill Flash was used for most of the remaining assignments. In this assignment we were to use it as Fill Flash in an outdoor photo. Chris came down for a few days last month and stayed with Dave and I. On the first day she was hear we ploughed through my assignments and the majority of them turned out quite nicely. The first photo below is the traditional use of fill-flash where the lighting on background and the subject are balanced with the use of a small flash. The second photo shows the technique sometimes called day-to-night where the flash and background lighting are not balance producing a darker background and therefore giving the feeling of haven taken the shot at night. The photos can be found on Flickr as well.

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PHO5598: Assignment 6

The sixth assignment for my now completed Lighting Techniques course was Night Lighting. We went, as a group, downtown and took shots of the night lights. We started at Nepean Point overlooking the Ottawa River and then walked down to the National Art Gallery and then towards the War Monument. It was a very cold, windy night so our equipment really got a hard test. Unfortunately some people learned that their cameras do not like the cold, one camera even shutdown on its owner. Fortunately for me though, my equipment did beautifully during its harsh test.
These are the two photos I submitted. I have uploaded them to Flickr as well so you can check them out there too.

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Mirrored Beauty

Another image from the shoot with Jenn and Alli. I am so incredibly happy with how this photo came out. The idea was to have Jenn and Alli mimicking each other as if one was the mirror image of the other. I love it!!

This photo was entered in Best Face Photo 2010 contest at iheartfaces.

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PHO5598: Assignment 5

I had been looking forward to the fifth assignment since the beginning of the course: Portraits. We had to shoo the same subject in the five different types of basic lighting  (broad, loop/short, butterfly, Rembrandt and split). Kate was my subject and she did a marvellous job. I am really happy with how the shots came out.

The above images are the five I submitted for the actual assignment, but I finished others and plan on doing even more in the next little while. Check it out on Flickr.

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PHO5598: Assignment 4

 

The fourth assignment for my Lighting Techniques course isn’t as glamorous as others but it was pretty good nonetheless. Reprographics is essentially just photographing works of art. For my assignment I submitted a photograph of a sketch done of my old work, (above) The Forwarders Museum in Prescott, and a photograph of a painting I did when I was in high school (below). I really like how the texture of the paint and canvas can be seen in the photograph below.

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Tricks for Shooting Glass

Glass can be a little complicated when photographing because it takes on the colour of your background. The easiest way to deal with this is to place reflector of the opposite colour on either side of your object.

For example, if you are shooting on a white background, place black reflectors (or pieces of paper) just outside of your frame. This will make the edges distinguishable from the actual background.

The above photo has a reflector on the left side of the image and above it as well to reduce glare from the soft boxes that are lighting the subject. Another trick that helps is to put something in the glass itself (e.g. water).

The above photo has coloured water in the glasses and black cards on either side of the image.

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PHO5598–Assignment 3

 

 

Assignment 3 in my Lighting Techniques course was all about metal and glass. We had to shoot highly reflective metal objects and glass objects.
My metal objects turned out alright I suppose, though to be honest, they don’t excite me in any manner.

I shot the first image (the watches) by using a 9x36 strip soft box on the background and a 24x32 on the right of the subject. White reflectors were also placed on the left of the image to bounce light back into the image. The second one was a bit trickier as the thermos was quite reflective. I ended up using a grid light coming in from the left of the frame through a diffuser, a 24x32 soft box on the right and a boom soft box above. The boom soft box had no light in it, it was merely used to reflect white from above onto the subject.

 

My glass photos came out much better than my metal ones did, in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first image was shot by using a 9x36 on the background and 24x32 on the right of the image. A black reflector screen was placed above the image and a black reflector was placed to the left. A white reflector was placed in front of the image to shine light into the gold name plate.
The last shot it my absolutely favourite! Same lighting as above (9x36 and 24x32) and black reflectors on either side of the image to give the glasses their edge. I then upped the black concentration in Photoshop a little bit. I am so incredibly happy with the result!!

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PHO5598: Assignment 2

The second assignment for my Lighting Techniques course is High Key vs. Low Key. Essentially light and photograph the same image in a high key (first photo) and low key (second photo) setup.

The first image was shot with a 24x32 soft box on the left and left of the subject and a 9x36 strip soft box directed on the background.

This second image was shot with a 24x32 soft box on the left of the image as the fill light and a grid spot light coming from the rear and right of the image as the main light.

 

I am also pretty pleased with these shots – I had them in my head for several days before the shoot itself and they actually came out similar to what I had intended.

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PHO5598: Assignment 1

The first assignment for my Lighting Techniques course was simply to light an inanimate object. My partner and I shot several objects but the following two are what I am submitting to the instructor. Both were shot on a black background (velour fabric for the first and paper for the second) and done with a 24x32 softbox on the left hand side as the fill light and a grid spotlight coming from the rear on the right side as the main light.

I am pretty happy with how they came out, but we will see what the instructor has to say about them.

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Nikon AS-15

I bought this one day before my second PHO5598 course as it is pretty much mandatory for completion of the course. This item itself isn’t essentially, but the ability to plug into the studio lights using a synch cord is and my camera (Nikon d80) doesn’t have that ability without this accessory.
I have however used this before as someone in a previous course had it and let me borrow it for our portrait assignment. The AS-15 is a simple accessory and not too expensive either, only $29.99 (plus taxes) at Henry’s. If you are interested in studio lighting and have an opportunity to use some nice lights, I would suggest picking one up, but check to make sure you need it first (aka make sure you camera doesn’t have this terminal on the camera itself).

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PHO5598

I have attended two sessions of my current Algonquin College course entitled Lighting Techniques and I absolutely love it so far! I have been looking forward to this course for some time now and it does not look like I am going to be disappointed whatsoever. Throughout the next few months I will obviously be learning lighting techniques, but I will be doing so both in and out of the studio and with both animate and inanimate objects. Last week and this upcoming week are for inanimate, non-metallic, non-glass objects. Then we move onto metallic then glass and then onto portraits (formal and environmental). There are some other categories that I can’t seem to remember right now but I am looking forward to all of them.

I put this course off as I wanted to ensure I got the most out of it and felt that other courses were essential to take prior to this one.

Algonquin’s website describes the course as:

"Students learn to use a variety of lighting techniques in regards to subject matter; desired effect are discussed and demonstrated. This course includes the use of electronic flash lighting equipment, lighting ratios, portrait lighting, product lighting, exposure determination using a studio flash meter, and a variety of specialized lighting techniques for studio and location photography."

I will of course be posting my assignments here as I complete them. All of our assignments have to be submitted in hardcopy – prints rather than electronic files, so that should be interesting too.

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Checking the Score

 

The above are my grades in the Algonquin courses so far. SC stands for successfully completed and is used for workshops (not courses). I am pretty happy with my grades so far and think they prove my passion and determination for this field. Just a few more and I will have my certificate.

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PHO5552 Recap

I started taking the Photoshop: Beyond the Basics course at Algonquin in January and actually finished it in April. As i expected the course was not as great as it could have been. Don’t get me wrong, I learnt things and have been able to put them to use in my photography, but I was rarely wowed by anything and the things I did learn were few and far between. I missed a couple courses due to my vacation to Florida and a really bad cold that hit somewhere in the middle, and was never behind in anything. It would only take about 5 minutes for me to catch up upon my return. The instructor was the same guy as the previous course and anyone who has heard me talk about him knows that he is not my preferred teacher. He just doesn’t go about things the same way as I do and I do not enjoy his style as much as the other instructors in the night-time program. That being said, some of the other students absolutely love him so obviously he isn’t an outright bad instructor. Plus, as difficult as he seems during the course, he is apparently a pretty reasonable guy when it comes to the end of the course.
The first assignment we had was to take two images and insert the background of one (photo taken at Versailles) into the foreground of the other (the alps photo). There were a few stipulations, like removing the figure of Neptune and the village in front of the mountains.
                       
When all was said and done, the below composite photo got me a B+, which I wasn’t very happy with. I realize I had missed some of the smaller details like the reflection of the mountains in the water, but other than that is was technically accurate and had all the other features he wanted (like channels, layers, etc). I also used Curves, Levels and other adjustments layers to alter the colour and saturationI figured the next assignment would be better marked. You see in the first Photoshop course I took with this instructor, he marked very unreasonably in the first assignment and then was better in the next ones. However, there turned out to be only one assignment in this course which upset me a great deal.
We had a theory test on which I was the only student to get perfect and then later a practical test on which I got an A-. Somehow I got an A in the course – I don’t understand it, but I am not going to complain because I think I deserved it.

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Motivation Monday - Ray Pilon

Ray Pilon is not only a great photographer, but also a magnificent instructor. I have been lucky enough to have taken a course given by him at Algonquin and will hopefully be able to take more with him in the future. He also happens to be the organizer for the night (photography) program at Algonquin. If you ever get the chance to take a course with him, don't pass it up.He started out with traditional film and has worked for years as a professional photographer. He spent many years with Lee Valley Tools shooting their beautiful magazine covers. His photos are breathtakingly beautiful and yet usually very simple. He is able to do all sorts of photography as well as if he specialized solely in that area, from wedding photography to commercial and real estate. I believe it is the basic understanding of photography he has that makes his photos so great and it is his ability to take these wonderful photos with such ease that makes his work so inspirational to me.
(all photos found on Ray's site (link above) and are his property and under his copyrights)

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I ♥ Faces: Texture

This week's photo contest over at I Heart Faces is texture. I have decided to go a more natural route and am submitting a photo from about a year ago of Chris.
We were doing a photo shoot for my an assignment and Chris decided to lie in the leaves. She was able to stare up at me for a little bit and we got a few really nice shots. I think the green of her shirt compliments the leaves quite nicely.

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Smizing

Another shot from my fifth assignment in the composition and design course at Algonquin College aptly named by Christine Sweeton.

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PHO5552

Photoshop Beyond the Basics is the fifth course I have decided to take at Algonquin College. So far it is rather boring, but definitely has potential. We will be stepping out from the basic commands like different brush sizes, etc (as the course name implies) and into more complex ones like paths and channels, which I am looking forward to.
According to the Algonquin website(and course outline therein):
"Students expand their working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop using more advanced image manipulation tools. Students also learn to use Adobe Bridge and Adobe Image Ready programs located within Adobe Photoshop. Image manipulation, special effects and image enhancement techniques are discussed, demonstrated, and practised. Advanced Photoshop tools include colour correction using Curves, Channel/ Layer/Filter application techniques, device calibration, Scripts and Actions, Path/Pen tool as a selection tool, Advanced Text treatment and applications, Filter use and effects in creating 3D graphics."
To be honest, I am a little hesitant with this one as the last Photoshop course wasn't as magnificent as I thought it would be. It wasn't bad, and I definitely learnt a fair bit, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. We'll see what this course teaches me in due time.

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