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I
invite Savannah to my favorite big comfy chair
in the corner of the living room. You can
see my collection of photography books there
behind her.
Late
autumn & winter here in the Pacific
Northwest can mean dark days, and on this day,
there just wasn't enough ambient light for my
tastes. No problem -- I got the strobes in
the room already, but placing them can be a
challenge. Here's our first exposure, and
while Savannah looks particularly yummy, I don't
like it, because of the reflections of the soft
box in the windows. It's a challenge to
craft pleasing lighting while avoiding unwanted
reflections. |
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Lots
to say about this image.
I
manage to position the camera to
avoid the reflection of the soft
box, but instead, now I'm seeing the
reflection of the bookcase in the
window. Better, but not
perfect.
I'm
using the "auto" setting
in my photo editing software to edit
this. To my eye, this is a
little on the low-contrast side, but
I think that's a weakness of my
monitor. Often, the
"auto" editing is useless,
but for these images, it does a good
job. I think I'll use it.
While
I like the light on Savannah's
figure & on the sculpture behind
her, it's not all that good for her
face. I can fix that. |
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Better.
Cropping removes the annoying window reflection
(but I lose the sculpture & its nice light),
and a minor adjustment to Savannah's head
improves the light on her face.
A
favorite.
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I
like this wider perspective,
including more of the room's corner
in the image. I'm still
fine-tuning this setup -- there are
still elements that are not quite
right yet. |
I
try adding a fill light somewhere
behind my left shoulder. It
eliminates some of the annoying
shadows that were popping up on
Savannah's face, but I'm not sure
I like the light yet. It
looks a little too much like a
"standard studio
setup". If I want to be
an artist, I need to be crafting
the light for each image & not
using a generic setup.
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Sometimes,
I wonder how long a sitting should
last. I usually schedule a
model for three hours, and I often
use all of it, but by the end, I'm
tired. Savannah, on the other
hand, still has as much energy as a
three-ring circus. She is all
over that chair! |
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When
Lucian
worked with Suzi here, they worked
together for about an hour. Lucian had a
lot of energy -- he was on his feet the whole
time, holding his camera in his hand while
moving all around Suzi, while Suzi got to
sit in this chair looking lovely.
I
tend to be more sedate during a sitting, and I
often use a tripod (so that I can look at the
model & not the camera). Still, a
three hour sitting can be very tiring, despite
it not being overly demanding, physically.
Go figure.
I'm
including this image because it's kinda nice,
but it's the kind of image that I tend not to
like: I don't like images of models
looking outside the image frame. I always
wonder what the model is looking at (here,
Savannah is looking at the city street outside
my window). In general, I prefer eye contact
with the camera, and failing that, I prefer that
the model look at something within the image
boundaries.
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I
move around &
photograph Savannah from a
different angle.
That
sculpture in the
background is by a local
artist, named Todd
Kurtzman. He has
this thing -- a ball about
the size of a basketball;
it has a mirrored surface,
so he photographs models
walking around the ball
& uses them as
references for his
sculptures of distorted
figures. |
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More
wide angle distortion fun,
which is especially
interesting with Todd's
sculpture in the
background. I have
mentioned that I live in
an old Victorian house,
built in 1890, and that
the city has grown up to
engulf the house.
You can see the office
building across the
street. I sometimes
wonder what those workers
think when I host a
sitting with the shades
open like this. I
suppose it enhances my
reputation in the
neighborhood. (I'm
just kidding -- Savannah
& I were working
together on a Sunday, and
that office building was
empty -- at least there
were no lights on in any
of the offices). |
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Just
for fun, I forego the
strobes & use the
natural window light for
one exposure. It is
interesting to me that the
strobe lights make the
images feel like evening
images, while these
natural light images are
more daytime in
feel. The camera is
facing roughly west, so as
the sitting went on, the
sun moved more to the
front of the house -- at
the beginning of the
sitting, the living room
was quite dark, but here,
as you can see, there was
enough ambient
light. But I think I
prefer the strobes, at
least this day. Some
days, the living room gets
marvelous light, but not
today. |
Here's
one of my favorites from this
setup:
- Got
that fun wide angle distortion
working.
- Cropping
includes the nice light on the
sculpture behind Savannah.
- Cropping
avoids unwanted reflections.
- Model's
hands are occupied.
- Good
sense of space.
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...
and this one is just
weird. I love
it. It was
photographed by my robot
mouse when Savannah wasn't
looking. |
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