question the tools (Tim Lewis Photography): 5/18/14

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Identity Facade Idea

Quick idea I had a while back, for an image showing a person projecting a more perfected image of themselves onto a screen, while at the same time being a little bit less than that ideal in reality. I was just thinking about how with social media networks we are all creating these online personas that may or may not have all that much to do with our reality. They’re all exaggerated in some way, whether intentionally or not. So I kinda wanted to explore that idea in an image, and this is what I came up with.

Identity Facade Idea

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Inspiring Photographer - Saul Leiter

I am amazed by Saul Leiter. I just watched “In No Great Hurry” and it was an amazing introduction to his work. All of my Reflection pictures lately have been inspired by Saul, and it really feels like I’m just scratching the surface of what is possible there. Very exciting stuff.

Inspiring Photographer - Saul Leiter

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

In Search of Reflections

I went on a photowalk yesterday around downtown Eugene, looking for reflections. I found a few, and here they are.

In Search of Reflections

Like Barn Doors on a Speedlight

Sometimes you want to add a bit of light to a small, well defined area of your image. Maybe you want to splash some warm light on a subject’s face, or create a rim light that only outlines your subject’s jawline and not their hair/shoulder. Light control of this kind can be difficult to achieve. Grid spots can work, but the falloff can be undesirable. With bigger studio lights barn doors are often used to flag off parts of the image from getting too much light, however on speedlights (which usually don’t have modeling lamps) it can be hard to tell where the light is going to go and where the shadow areas will begin.

I had these old barn door attachments for small studio lights, and I wanted to set up a speedlight rig with them. so I taped one to the front of a speedlight, and then wedged a “visor lamp” into the top. With that arrangement I had a small modeling light to see where the light was headed, and barn doors on the speedlight to restrict the light from going everywhere.

It’s not a perfect setup. The “visor lamp” is a bit off center, so the light from the speedlight goes just slightly above where the lamp indicates it will. But it works pretty well at giving you a sense of where the light will go. It’s a great arrangement for throwing some hard light on a subject, or splashing light exactly where you want. I’m looking to get a subject in front of it soon, I’ll be sure to post the results here when I do.

Like Barn Doors on a Speedlight

Monday, May 19, 2014

"Steal my Ideas" by Seth Godin

This article by Seth Godin has a lot of things in it that I’ve been turning over in my head here lately. Ever since I started this blog 2 months ago and started putting some of my ideas and bits of my process on here I’ve been inundated with new ideas, new techniques to try, new viewpoints on things that I’d previously considered and then set aside. I’ve been chalking it up to the fact that in order to explain something on here, I really have to think about it in depth, and that has caused me to examine my own approach and find weak spots or places where things could be done differently. It’s a little bit like that quote that “If you really want to learn something, go and teach it” (apparently that quote is attributed to Phil Collins… see? learning by teaching).

Maybe it’s just happenstance. Maybe my getting on here and saying “go do this to get ideas” is sinking in to my own self on some level, and I’m ultimately following my own advice. Who knows? But please, steal my ideas. I guarantee you won’t do them the way I would have, and your approach might be better than anything I could’ve done. You can’t steal it from me. It’s all ours.

"Steal my Ideas" by Seth Godin

question the tools (Tim Lewis Photography)

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Identity Facade Idea

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Inspiring Photographer - Saul Leiter

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

In Search of Reflections

Like Barn Doors on a Speedlight

Monday, May 19, 2014

"Steal my Ideas" by Seth Godin

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Joe McNally walks us through shooting Bicyclists with Water