Practice: Some Night Photography April 3, 2009
Posted by Leonard Low in Available Light, Contains Images, Landscape, Night, Outdoor, Practice.Tags: carillon, hdr, high dynamic range, Landscape, Night, Practice
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After last night’s class on portrait photography I went out to the Carillon to do a bit of practise with my new speedlite, which I’m still getting the hang of, and with low-light photography in general. I did get some decent flash shots, but my favourite photos are still available-light ones. This is my favourite photo of the night:
This shot is actually a bit more complicated than in may look. I set up my camera on a tripod over the water after noticing how the rocks broke up the reflection. Keeping the camera stable with the tripod, I shot three exposure-bracketed images 1 stop apart: one for the highlights, one “normal” exposure, and one for the shadows. All three exposures were fairly long, however: a few seconds each, to capture the available light.
I used the High Dynamic Range (HDR) tool in Adobe Photoshop at home to merge the exposures so that I could get the detail of the light through the trees and the subtle reflections on the rocks in the water, without having a massively blown-out Carillon (I think it may still be a bit overexposed). Prior to this subtle HDR merge, the trees and rocks were just black blotchy silhouettes.
Classes: Studio Portraiture April 3, 2009
Posted by Leonard Low in Assignment, Class, Contains Images, Indoor, Portraiture, Studio, Studio Flash, Studio Lights.Tags: Class, lighting, Portraiture, Studio
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Our studio sessions on portraiture have been very helpful for my assignment as they’ve given me a real chance to think about how I want to light my own shots and practice with how to do things like checking the lighting ratios (between lit and shadowed areas on the face).
In the studio session pictured above, we’re looking at lighting ratios and using the two diffused lights on the sides to try to create a low ratio for a more flattering and less harsh effect. The modelling lights were REALLY bright though, and the subjects had to keep their eyes closed while we were setting things up between shots. We were also using wireless studio flash in this session, and it was even brighter!
