Long Exposure Studio Session

It's time to catch up!!

Following tradition, below are the contact sheets of all we shot in this session (unedited). My next post should contain a selection of these in bigger size with further comments.

Starting with a note to self, I must from now on try to post soon after shooting, because it's always much harder trying to remember details of what happened a month ago =S

I'll try my best...

So yeah, we did this workshop in groups, and the whole experience was VERY fun! :)

We alternated behind and in front of the cameras, holding up flash guns, contributing with ideas...

We started by experimenting with multiple exposures, which I've never done before, and was one of my favourite parts!

Somebody would be in control of the camera, and would press the shutter button on a long exposure (the very first shot was 13 seconds long, which was way too over exposed. The second shot was 5 seconds long, then we settled on 3.2 seconds), somebody else would hold and manually trigger the flash several times (sometimes moving it around to try to get the light coming from different angles), and obviously, someone would "model" (or most likely "jump around making silly faces" in front of the camera).

As it progressed, I feel we started to get more creative with what to do in front of the camera.

One of my favourite ideas was to perform a "fight"! I think it worked really well and it was a lot of fun!

The one I liked the result best was the one in which three of us walk towards the camera almost looking a bit like zombies (oh, wait, I think that's just me! lol)

Then the next experiment involved using some props, torches and glow sticks.

We did some light painting with bottles and a polystyrene head.

(These were 5 seconds long, with the exception of the last one which was 3.2 seconds)

Then it was time to draw or write in mid-air!

I got to experience this in college, so I skipped "writing my own name" and tried to draw things... well, I attempted writing "Happy Birthday" too, but to achieve something decent you gotta do it too many times, and I didn't want to monopolise the session. I think I ran out of time on all attempts - choosing to write in cursive letters has that downside: it's a lot more time consuming!

Well, yeah, it was good fun, interesting, but the results are far from amazing.

(These varied from 15 to 30 seconds)

It was also good to combine light painting with the flash + model. We were only triggering the flash once, which would be enough light to make the model evident without interfering too much with the rest.

Shame the room wasn't completely dark, so you can see the painter and background too.

Cool, regardless =)

I quite like these meditation ones.

The discussion one has good potential (Laura, I think, was cut out of the frame, unfortunately).

So that's it! I shall add some of these onto a new post "soon" ;)

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave comments! x

Those photos I promised...

Hello again! :)

Below are the selection of photos I said I'd upload from that first shoot (same as my previous post's contact sheet). Now you can see them better (click on image to enlarge).
I've tweaked them on Lightroom, which I'll describe individually:

1/250 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 44mm

Lightroom: Blacks: +3; Vibrance: +45

1/640 sec at f/5.0 ISO 100 43mm

Lightroom: Vibrance: +20

1/320 sec at f/5.0 ISO 100 18mm

Lightroom: Fill Light: +17; Blacks: +4; Vibrance: +56 + minimal crop on the bottom

1/500 sec at f/5.0 ISO 100 20mm

Lightroom: Fill Light: +1; Blacks: +3; Contrast: -18; Vibrance: +29

1/125 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 55mm

Lightroom: Exposure: +0.23; Contrast: +24; Clarity: +43; Vibrance: +47

1/320 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 55mm

Lightroom: Vibrance: +26

1/320 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 25mm

Lightroom: Vibrance: +24

1/250 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 49mm

Lightroom: Contrast: -25; Vibrance: +43

1/640 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 55mm

Lightroom: Vibrance: +43; minimal crop on the left

*Playing with the focus*
Both 1/500 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 49mm

Lightroom: Contact Sheet

1/320 sec at f/6.3 ISO 100 40mm

Lightroom: Fill Light: +16; Blacks: +3; Contrast: -12; Vibrance: +15

1/125 sec at f/5.6 ISO 400 55mm

Lightroom: Blacks: +6; Contrast: -6; Vibrance: +24

1/250 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100 37mm

Lightroom: Fill Light: +7; Blacks: +2; Contrast: -25; Clarity: +24; Vibrance: +52

Top: 1/160 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100 55mm

Middle: 1/400 sec at f/5.6 ISO 400 53mm

Bottom: 1/400 sec at f/5.6 ISO 400 55mm

Lightroom: Contact Sheet

1/500 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100 55mm

Lightroom: Clarity: +49; Vibrance: +54

*The lovely secret houses that I was excited to discover*

1/125 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100 55mm

Lightroom: Clarity: +38; Vibrance: +29

1/640 sec at f/5.6 ISO 100 55mm

Lightroom: Exposure: +0.69; Contrast: +3; Vibrance: +30

*Oh, why can't we have this beautiful blue sky a little more often?*

1/400 sec at f/8.0 ISO 100 24mm

Lightroom: Fill Light: +3; Blacks: +9; Contrast: -25; Vibrance: +36; minimal crop on the bottom

I would have liked to update this earlier, but due to work commitments and the death of my beloved Macbook, I was only able to post now... please forgive me.
And feel free to comment on which one you preferred and why, what you would have done differently, etc etc =)

x

First Uni shoot

Hello there! Welcome to my blog :)

To debut my blog are the thumbnails from my first shoot in Uni. These are just a preview of all of the pictures taken, then soon I'll post a selection of these in full size for a better view.

The weather couldn't have been any better (lucky!), which put us all in a great mood :)
It also became evident how different it is to go somewhere with and without a camera: certainly in my case, as I'm sure it's with most people, I suddenly seemed to notice so much more of the world once I had a camera in front of me. My eyes were seeking interesting shapes, colours, compositions... it's like a whole new place popped in front of me!

The first thing that captured my attention with its potential was this staircase. Ooh, so cool!
I quite like the one that together with its shadow form an "8".

Also the images of the same corner of building with different focuses...

The glass reflection on this car window kind of spoiled what I had in mind (you can hardly see the toys in the vehicle). Maybe a polarizing filter would have solved it.

One of the fence shots had bad lens flares, so I added my lens hood, which resolved it on the second shot (yay!) :)

I also tried to shoot flowers past these holes in the metal fence, which was quite difficult.
It was also great to explore the surroundings of our campus, which had many surprises, such as the beautiful "flowery" houses (that you can see in between the gaps in the fence below - #stalkerfeelings), that I never expected to find in this area! So utopic, so weirdly exciting!

Will post again soon, with bigger pictures, I promise! ;)