Week 16 – Simple

This week’s entry, chosen from 86 photos:

This week I wanted a photo that was literally simple. Simple composition of a simple subject. I have had my eye on a tree that sits right off the road near my in-laws for quite some time. I finally got out there with my camera and the results were disappointing. I’m blaming the overcast sky. With no strong light source the scene just came out flat. I did my best to edit the photos, but was unable to bring them to life.

I searched for another idea. I tried to think of all things simple. Simple joys. Simple pleasures. Simple living. I finally hit on simple machines. One of the six classical simple machines is the screw.

I got out the materials I needed plus my new macro lens. Working with this lens definitely changes my view on aperture. With my other lenses I’ve always loved opening the aperture all the way up. If you do that with a macro lens, you end up with a tiny depth of field. For this photo I set the aperture to f/8 and still did not get the entire screw sharp.

For the edits I straightened, auto leveled, bumped contrast, then added a Hard Light layer at 70%. I’ve used the Hard Light layer the last few weeks. It has a way of adding that extra pop to the image.

16 weeks down. 36 to go.

Week 15 – Movement

This week’s entry, chosen from 184 photos:

I had a hard time coming up with a concept this week. I wanted to show movement, but I also wanted to have a sharp, crisp photo.

For this shot I flipped a bike upside down to keep it stable, then attached a taillight on the inside of the wheel. I gave the wheel a spin and used a long shutter speed to capture the glow of the taillight. Light coming from inside the house lit up the metal components of the bike.

When I started shooting, I framed the shot tight enough that you couldn’t tell the bike was upside down. As I continued though, I moved farther and farther back to get more of the bike in the frame. I ended up flipping, rotating, and cropping the image to account for this. I also worked the levels and contrast, then added a Hard Light layer.

15 weeks down. 37 to go.

Week 14 – Circle

This week’s entry, chosen from 232 photos:

I took a lot of pictures this week. Circles are everywhere, but I was having a hard time capturing them in an interesting way.

I started out setting things up in my light box.

Here are some hair ties. Jeremy said this photo is “like the Olympics, only better”. I liked it, but it was too flat.

Here’s one of my lenses. It’s in the light box, but I ended up moving one of the lights to shine straight on. I needed more light to get a sharp shot, but the background washed out. This one was also flat.

The dogs were hanging out with me during my photo shoot. I wasn’t feeling very inspired by circles, so I turned my camera on them. I’m excited about these shots because I took them in Manual mode with a custom white balance and they turned out great. These two are straight out of the camera.

They get bored pretty easily, but that’s good for me because they slow down. Here they were hanging out at the top of the stairs. I didn’t set a custom white balance here and ended up converting to black and white because the tungsten light gave such a strong yellow cast.

I continued my search for circles the next day. I wandered around the house searching for inspiration. While in the kitchen, I looked up and saw my red colander. This is another item we received as a wedding gift. It is purely decorative and sits on top of a stack of cookbooks. I love the deep red color.

I pulled it down and started shooting. I realized quickly that it worked best to have light coming through the drain holes. To accomplish this I held the colander in one hand and the camera in the other. I also wanted to get only white showing through the holes so I ended up standing on a chair and using one of the other chairs as the background. To add to the challenge, I had to hold it at just the right angle for the light to reflect properly and steady enough for my desired shutter speed.

            

I worked the manual exposure again this week. I’m pretty happy with the results I am getting. The three set up shots above are all straight out of the camera and I love how bright they are.

This final shot has a lot of depth and a lot of circles. I like the combination of the bright red and the bright white. My favorite part though is the orange/yellow color on the left side. This came from the grass outside reflecting on the shiny surface. The edits here were pretty simple. I used levels to set the white of the background and gave a little bump to the contrast. I added a layer and set it’s mode to “Hard Light” which gave it a little more pop.

14 weeks down. 38 to go.

Week 13 – Purple

This week’s entry, chosen from 164 photos:

I tried something new this week. For the first time ever I dialed my camera to M.

That’s right, Manual Mode. Crazy.

I learned a thing or two last Saturday about getting correct exposures in Manual mode and decided to give it a whirl. I still have a ways to go, but I’m pretty happy with the results.

I went grocery shopping and thought I might find some purple inspiration. Outside I spotted several racks of pansies. I had my camera in tow so was able to have a mini photo shoot right there on the sidewalk. This is one of the shots I got. I like the color, but the composition is not very strong and the purple isn’t prominent enough for me.

Purple pansies. Straight out of the camera.

I made my way through the produce section, picked up a red cabbage and dropped it in my cart. I got home, grabbed the cabbage, a knife, and my camera and went to work at the kitchen table. Daylight was fading fast.

I metered the light, adjusted my aperture and shutter speed, then started shooting. I was having a hard time getting a fast enough shutter speed with available light so I flipped the overhead light on. I thought I was getting some good shots. It was a different story when I got them on the computer. The mixed lighting gave the shots an off color and there were too many shadows. I did my best to fix my favorites in the GIMP, but it was not working.

Fading Daylight + Overhead Tungsten Light = blah.

The next evening I tried again, hoping there would be enough light. I set up on the table and quickly realized the light was still uneven. I attempted using my homemade reflector to light the other side of my subject. It softened the shadows, but did not remove them.

Homemade reflector held up by canned goods. Fancy.

Uneven Daylight

I needed more light so I dug out some poster board and set up outside. I stayed in the shade to avoid the harshness of direct sunlight. This arrangement worked out great. I had even light over my whole subject and the shadows were eliminated. I metered the new light and adjusted my shutter speed accordingly. I tried several different angles, but decided I liked the simplicity of the straight shot on this one.

Poster board backdrop in Open Shade

I was much happier when I pulled these shots up on the computer. The color was still a little off, but was easily corrected with levels. I straightened the image, then cropped slightly. I decided the photo would be better without the large piece of cabbage. I added a new white layer with a full transparency (black) layer mask. The layer mask kept the new layer invisible. I “painted” the layer mask with white to reveal the new layer, covering up the cabbage.

This week taught me it is good to push yourself. I have avoided Manual Mode because it seemed scary. Armed with the correct information I was able to successfully use it. This is a whole new challenge to tackle and I’m excited to see what happens.

13 weeks down. 39 to go.

Week 12 – Past

This week’s entry, chosen from 59 photos:

I dug out my old yearbooks to use as my subject this week. It has been 10 years since I graduated high school.

The book on top is the Senior Memories book I convinced my mom to buy for me at the beginning of the school year. I remember it being somewhat pricey, but I’m so glad I got it. That thing is packed full of pictures. There are pages of messages and signatures of classmates. There are snippets of scholarship letters. What I like most about it is while there are lots of pictures from special events like Homecoming, the class trip, and Prom, there are other pages that really capture the day to day life of that year.

Here’s a glimpse inside:

It’s so nice to have all of these images bound together in one book. It’s a great snapshot of that moment in time.

I like that this photo excludes the name of my school. It wasn’t intentional, but gives the photo a more universal appeal (or at least universal to anyone who graduated in 2001). I cropped the original image and worked the levels to get a truer white background.

12 weeks down. 40 to go.

Week 11 – Curves

This week’s entry, chosen from 44 photos:

Several months ago we bought a used drafting table. A friend of a friend of a friend was moving to Florida for retirement and selling everything in his workshop. Jeremy picked out the table and brought it home. This purchase also included all of the contents of the table. There were some very cool, old drafting supplies in there.

This set of French curves was one of those things. I’m not sure how old this particular set is, but they still looked interesting.

I stuck them in the drawer of the table and started shooting.

The main edit I did on this shot was the levels. This really made the wood background pop. I bumped the contrast a tiny bit and called it a day. This shot turned out great. It’s interesting and the wood gives it a real warmth.

11 weeks down. 41 to go.

Week 10 – Mess

This week’s entry, chosen from 177 photos:

I needed a subject this week. So, I made my own mess. Then blamed it on the dogs.

We’re innocent.

OK, OK. I’m sorry.

What a mess!

Nom nom nom

Before & After

10 weeks down. 42 to go.