Since I found my lost password to the blog: Filling / Balance

Filling / Balance Self Evaluation

Qi An

   I believe I am getting familiar with flash… several weeks ago when I began using flash I felt I was stuck in a bottleneck and could not find a correct way out; however, now I begin to feel that I know something about it, though still too little.

   Take 1 is taken under the columns in front of Jesse Hall; I passed by the lawn and noticed the girl sitting on the base of the columns, with Macbook on her knees and bicycle at her side. I guessed that would make a beautiful composition. The sun was in the back so the columns made the girl sitting below in shade. She was wearing a hat, which put her face in shadow. I tried to shoot her from an angle as low as I could reach, so that the flash could brighten her face under the hat; but after checking the outtakes, I realized I was still not low enough. I also asked her to raise her hat several times, to make it more convenient to light her face well; but the hat kept falling down probably because of her hairstyle.

A problem I met was the shadow caused by flash: it was difficult to hide the shadow completely behind her. Decreasing one or two stops could make the shadow less distracting, but when I moved farther from her, I was afraid the flash became too weak. Also I tried bouncing the light on the columns; it may be a good solution if I could have done it correct…the fact is that in many of the bouncing pictures, the columns are over-exposed.

Take 2 is taken at the corner of the stairs in RJI second floor. The girl sitting in the sofa seemed to be quite enjoying her private, cozy, warm, little space, and I asked her if I could take pictures. Against the window light, it was not easy to decide how bright the flash should be. I made several over-exposed shots before I got some correct ones. It took me some time to make the flash light look natural and harmony with environmental light. It was a problem that the bouncing technique seemed to be useless, since it caused shadows on the glass window, no matter bouncing from the ceiling or the walls. I hope to know how to solve this.

Actually the biggest challenge for me in this assignment is the weight of camera: with camera in one hand and flash in another, I could not control my hands shaking, and many of the pictures taken later were blurred…I am now considering some practice with dumbbell ^^

Since I found my lost password to the blog: Single Flash

Qi An
Single Flash Self Evaluation
This is my first experience of flash photography except shooting still life. The two
scenes I shoot are both indoor activities and have some environmental light but not
bright enough.
In the dancing class scene, the room was lit by a few light tubes on the ceiling. I
tried the bouncing technique but it seemed to be not enough to make the subject bright;
so most of the pictures were direct flash light. The shadows were very hard and
unnatural. Another problem I found was that I could not release the shutter too
frequently, since the flash needs some time to restore energy. Sometimes I forgot this
and just pressed the shutter button whenever I felt it was a good moment. The result
was that the flash light did not work on some pictures.
In the Tai Chi class scene, the ceiling was so high that it was impossible for the
small flash light to reach. Some of the walls were blue in color. The only choice for
bouncing was the wooden floor, but the effect was not obvious. On one side of the
room there were some windows, so I tried shooting the subjects from another side, so
everybody in the frame was back-lighted but only the one subject I chose was lit by
flash. However, it still looked unnatural.
For this assignment I do not come with many specific questions because I know
too little in flash photography; everything is unfamiliar, one assignment is only an
unsuccessful experiment. Possibly I need more practice and then I know what I need
to improve.

Since I found my lost password to the blog: Glass

Self Evaluation on Glass Assignment

Qi An (Angie)

   My goal of this assignment is correctly completing basic steps and creating the effect as the textbook shows. Since I know nothing about shooting glass before, I think I should learn well how to do the very basic setup before trying to be creative. So I did not do any trick when shooting this assignment (though I know Rita and Allison want more than a simple photograph of glass bottles), but did exactly what textbook and lab told me to do. So far I just want to make the glass clear and clean on the photograph.

   However, the effect comes different from what I expected, which makes me really frustrated. Here is some of the problems:

   Bright field: I used a big light source behind the background as guided, and two black boards to cover the parts within family of angles. But I did not see the strong, black edges of the glass, it came gray. I could not raise the contrast between the color of glass edges and of background. If I increased aperture, the whole image became over-exposed. I also tried adding lights on the top or from the bottom; it changed little except causing more over-exposure.

   Dark field: That was a nightmare. Problem still lied in that I could not make enough contrast between glass and background to show they were two separate things: the glass looked like melted into the background. I tried to keep the background pure black while at the same time draw the outline of the glass with correct light, but it turned out terrible. I was also confused on how to make a fine-looking highlight: as the glass goblet was spherical, the highlight area appeared on more than one side of the goblet.

   Anyway, I learnt some primary rules of photographing glass and I got a practice – though an unsatisfying one. Here I have an additional question: what if photographing something made of china? Porcelain may be kind of glass, but it does not transmit as much light. How to photograph a translucent porcelain and create proper highlight?

Since I found my lost password to the blog: Studio Portrait

Studio Portrait Self Evaluation
Angie
This is my first try of studio portrait, and my goal in this experience is to try as
more ways of lighting as possible, rather than to take a good photograph. So I tried
both high-key and low-key, different positions of single and multiple lights. Some
provided good effect, while some looked really weird.
In high-key portrait, my model is Sonja. She is a very active, sunny girl; so I
would like to make her pictures bright and clean, with most shadow reduced.
Therefore I did not completely trust the light meter when shooting her, I purposely
over-exposed to make the whole image brighter. But it proves that they are
over-exposed too much – details on her face are lost.
I learn that single light is not enough for a high-key portrait. I tried butterfly
lighting but I did not see obvious effect except that her forehead was over-exposed. In
two-lights experiments I use a filling light to brighten the white background, and it
seems to work.
In low-key portrait my model is Han. He is a shy, silent man; so I want to make
his portraits darker. When reviewing the pictures, I find his glasses a big problem as it
reflects the shape of reflector. I do not know how to solve this – perhaps taking off
glasses should be the only solution. In some pictures I intentionally hided one or two
of his eyes in shadow.
I tried to use Rembrandt lighting on him; but I did not do it well, it just did not
look correct. Need more instruction on this.

Since I found my lost password to the blog: copy work

Qi An
Self Evaluation for Copy Work

What I learn:
How to shoot two-dimensional subject and avoid unwanted reflection;
Being more familiar with bracketing exposure; if not sure about what exposure is
perfect, just apply several more and see which works best. One big advantage I find is
that on the small screen of the camera, it may not be convenient to decide whether the
exposure is satisfying or whether the details and textures are presented well; using
bracketing allows me to take several images and put them on computer screen to
select;
A better sense of what camera sees: as it regards “correct” as 18% gray,
sometimes if I do not want the subject be 18% gray, I should not blindly trust the light
meter. For the exercise, I prefer the VII 1/2 shot as it is white as the wallpaper’s
original color, while showing enough texture;
A better understanding of what light is, how different they are from each other,
and how white balance impacts the color effect. White balance “Daylight” makes
images warmer, as mentioned in textbook, skylight has a blue tone, so if you tell the
camera “the light has a blue tone outside”, it will correct the image by adding some
yellow.
A blurred sense of how to intentionally set different white balance to achieve
different color effect and create special mood. Still need more knowledge.

What I am not satisfied with myself:
I pay too much attention on fining different light condition and ignore the contents
of the images. Most of them are not worth seeing.
I prepared other two images for copy work; but in studio I found they were too
small to fill up the frame even if I used longest lens. Then I had to use another two
from a photography magazine, which were actually not straight photography. Though
they are also my interest: I want to learn more about environmental portrait lighting,
but it’s my fault not being well-prepared.

What questions I have:
Still not very much clear about different effects created by tungsten bulbs and
fluorescent tubes. I used both of these two white balances in mood lighting
assignment, but I still mix them up.
What should I do to shoot extremely white or extremely black subjects if I want to
show the texture? Or at least, if I do not want them to be over / under exposed? Or
sometimes the subject does not have much texture, like snow, but I still do not want
the snowy land looks like a piece of pale plastic paper?

Color Correction

Color Correction Self Evaluation

   The assignment allows me a second practice on single flash. Both takes were shot in a small room so that I could practice more on the bouncing technique.

   First take was in a fluorescent light environment; the light color was yellowish and I used a pale gold gel to match it. From the left side of the room there was a small window, which provided a little window light but never direct cast on the project. So when shooting from the left side, there was a mix of yellowish light and relatively cold sky light, which made me change the gel for several times.

   Second take was under tungsten light, which was warmer and yellower. The flash came with a light orange gel. In both takes I found the camera sometimes were much too smart: by changing the white balance setting, it corrects the color extremely strictly. For example in second take, if I use tungsten white balance to correct the yellow tone, the photo color becomes exactly white, which in fact does not look pleasant. I actually prefer the warmer tone, but “pleasant” and “correct” is not the same thing. I do not know which should be the goal of this assignment, so my outtakes contain both auto white balance and tungsten/fluorescent white balance; the former is “preferred” while the latter is “corrected”.

   An additional question is how to shoot something like a computer screen. In the first take, the interesting point is the three screens which are working at the same time in the office; but I do not think I successfully emphasize that they are all turned on. I want to know how to make the screen look normal, not too bright nor too dark, while people can tell something is displayed on them.