Faceless Portrait - week 7
Week 7 of project 52 brings something a bit more exciting, it let's you be creative and opens up a lot of options. I really enjoyed the faceless portrait theme.
My model was my wonderful boyfriend who waited patiently and posed as per instructions. It was Valentine's day so I think he wanted to be nice. Most of the times he doesn't have the patience for this.
Usually a faceless portrait is created either by focusing on other parts of the body, by making your model turn around, by covering their face, or hiding it into shadow and creating a silhouette that holds no details.
I feel like these type of portraits are more conceptual and give the viewer the opportunity to create their own story. They can't really see the model's face and what feeling it portrays. I enjoyed reading this article about The Faceless Portrait as an advanced type of portrait photography.For this week I chose the following image as the best for the theme.
Candy - Week 6
I can't say the 52 photo project is going amazing but I am keeping up. In this post I will continue where I left off: Candy and week 6. This was a tough one and didn't had a lot to choose from.I tried making my own candy using a lollipop recipe. Photo not great ..and candy not great either (sticky and too sweet). I'm definitely better at baking.
I tried inverting my lens (here is a little tutorial) and creating a super macro of sugar granules. And this was the best image of the week in my opinion. I used my 50-200mm Nikkor inverted and held on to the camera with my hand (no reverse lens adapter to help).
And I also tried a little product photography of Raffaello, one of my favourite sweets.
To be honest I'm not a big candy lover .. but I will always go for some chocolate cake or Baileys ice cream from Haagen Dazs ;)
Black and white - week 5
Week 5 theme has been: Black and white landscape. As I go through with these I find landscapes definitely the most difficult to shoot or at least the ones I'm less satisfied with.
I don't want to say that it's the place I live in cause that would be silly .. it's really a combination of factors. With landscape you need to be patient, to know the maps and places, to wait for the right light and time, maybe even visit the location on multiple days, notice the changes in colours and weather and what it does to the final view. Also for me landscapes are about nature, and you can't control nature.
I have to mention here one of my favorite photographers and an amazing black and white landscape artist: Ansel Adams. His images are well known around the world and he didn't even have the convenience of post processing or clarity, contrast and exposure sliders.With black and white photography, shape and contrast are what I looked for. The image I chose as representative for this week's theme is the one in the header of this post. I have used Lightroom for post processing trying to enhance the sky and its patterns. You can see the colour original here.I notice yet again that I tend to prefer wide negative space in my photos, look at that sky!
Headshot - week 4
I've been so busy lately and have fallen a bit behind with updating my blog regarding the 52 week challenge. It's going well by the way! I'm at week 7 now but will continue on the blog where I left off: the headshot for week 4.I was lucky enough that lovely Alex, an acting student here in Cardiff, wanted to have some new headshots.
I felt this week's theme was quite easy, if one takes into consideration the definition of a headshot, you can have a winner image just by following a few rules:
- Use a wide aperture lens that can give you a lovely blurred background and make the subject stand out. (I used my 35mm 1.8 lens but heard that the 50 and 85mm are amazing too)
- Focus on the eyes, make them spark and stand out (I struggled with this one a bit, not sure if it's my eyes or the lens who weren't cooperating)
- Find good light either in the shadow of a building or in the studio or shoot on an overcast day (which ended up being my choice whether I liked it or not ... me living in Wales and all)
- Keep it clean, a classic headshot is normally used for marketing oneself, and it has to represent realistically their appearance.
Even if I did think it is quite straight forward I ended up researching it quite a bit to see how the professionals do it. Loved reading the following articles: Setting Up a Successful Headshot Session Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. And I love Dylan Patrick's attitude, professionalism and results!
During this week I also found a new way of editing skin and I'm obsessed with it - it's called Frequency Separation Retouching.As you can see in the images, the skin looks very clean and fresh, still keeping its pores and its natural texture. One little problem: the technique works best with a headshot at good resolution, with skin that has clear texture(no blurry images). Also if dealing with other skin imperfections a combination of this and other techniques might be needed: patch, healing brush, dodge and burn etc. Her skin was beautiful already and the editing only really enhanced the image and removed any pigmentation or uneven tone.
The final headshot was the one selected for the week's theme, I just loved her smile and youthfulness. How about you .. which one would you pick?
Red - week 3
Third week already?! The theme was: Red. And I tried to go in a few different directions with this.Red light - a rainy evening on busy streets, as a passenger in a car I find things to do :). I think it turned out quite nice.
Colouring - I discovered zentangle and the art of adult colouring and how relaxing and visually pleasing it is so I thought it could go well with the theme.
Red berries and desserts <3. I found a delicious looking fruit tart at the Sunday Market on the riverside and had to take some photos :)
Macro - with an inverse lens was interesting to try but the amount of writing in focus is so small I can't argue it was worth it at for this challenge.
Red lips - as seen in the following photo - but in this case maybe some red nails would have been a good addition to the look. Also I must admit I desaturated my top in Adobe Photoshop (it's originally purple)
I'm starting to wonder if I should focus on one image per theme but in the same time I think that trying different things will help me find a style I love in time.
Landscape - week 2
The photo challenge this week continues with another theme which I personally found quite difficult: a landscape.The weather hasn't been amazing now that it's winter in Wales and it's been quite wet and cold and gloomy.I managed to get a few images in different locations but if I am honest I am not particularly happy with any of them. Still I'll document some of them for future reference ...by the end of the year I'm hoping my skills will improve in this area :)
The following photo was taken from the car.
The next images were from the walk we've been on this weekend on Garth mountain. We found out about this place from a list of amazing walks in Wales. It was so beautiful and even if my boots weren't really made for walking on steep hills through slippery mud I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And the last ones are taken an early morning before work in front of my apartment in Cardiff.
Self portrait - Week 1
This year I decided to give myself a more difficult photography challenge and have weekly themes. So I'm actually joining the Dogwood 52 Week Photography Challenge . Week one theme was: Self portrait. I didn't want to go for the idea of a simple selfie so I tried to create something different.Tools used: an Ikea candle lantern (pretty right?!), a tea-light, Giottos tripod, Nikon D7000 camera and the night shirt I got for Christmas(H&M)Exif data: ƒ/3.2, shutter speed: 1/5, ISO: 250;
A few things to take from this little session:
- Be careful to not move too much when shooting in the dark- Because of low light I used long exposure and it can get blurry if not holding still for the right amount of time.
- Make sure your camera is well positioned on the tripod and that the tripod head is not sliding under it's weight. (I'm not in the photo as I ran to fix the issue)
- When working with only one source of light, learn to lean your (the model's) face towards it. Practice before maybe in a mirror, and be patient. In some of the shots the shapes on the lamp I used made shadows on my skin that were not very attractive.
To follow me or others on this journey and maybe even join in have a look at the following links:
- My Flickr Album
- The Flickr Group for the 52 photo challenge
- The Facebook Group for the challenge
- My Instagram @silviaddot