Photo final for Art 448
Jean Kveberg
In addition to my iPhone 5 and point-and-shoot consumer camera, I have recently picked up a Canon Rebel T6 EOS. The model was chosen mostly because I found a great Black Friday deal on it and one of my best friends has a similar model, so she can help me trouble-shoot! I still have a lot to learn about it, but most of the below photos were shot with the new photo.
The first range of images were shot indoors, but in an area with excellent natural light. Using the diffusion box just caused the silver to appear dull against the blue linen background, so it was abandoned for these photos. Unfortunately, that means that there are some pretty deep shadows as well, despite attempts at bouncing light with a white card or side-lighting with other illumination sources.
Instead of hiding from the inevitable shadows, I tried playing with them some, allowing them to give the images depth and motion, which I felt was at least less visually boring.
I also seemed to have more luck in the diffusion box if the fabric itself had some dimension and sheen, like these reproduction silks, but the sparkle was much less pronounced than in the direct sunlight shots. Interestingly, the posaments look better against the blue silk in person, but in photos, even when trying to capture lighter sheen of the silk, parts of the posament image were still overexposed. Against the gold, which is a little less pleasing a contrast in person, the posaments actually fared much better.
I had shot some earlier photos with my iPhone out-of-doors and had been pretty pleased with the results. By finding a location with dappled light, I could selectively place parts of the pieces in more or less light – getting some good direct light on the posaments and direct-to-shaded light on the silk, to showcase its sheen without washing out the whole photo.
The new snow gave me an idea – I wanted the bright sunshine, but not to overexpose my posament image… so if I placed the posaments out in the snow, where everything was prone to being overexposed, maybe I would hit a sweet spot… and – Voila!
I’m particularly pleased with the last set, since the posaments mostly come from Birka (Björkö) – the Island of Birches.
I still need some practice and I’m not sure what I’ll do come spring, but the posaments in the snow photos really seem to be where it is at – it’s the right atmosphere for them and even when they cast harsh shadows on the tree trunks, it is much closer to the images I had envisioned for them.
Thank you so much for this class! I learned a lot and I look forward to learning more as I get more experience with my new camera and more practice shooting posaments and other images!