day 102 - staring at the sun

this was initially an accident. i had a blue-gelled sb-28 at full power behind my head to do that rim light thing. then in one picture i accidentally let the flash go directly into the lens, saw the results and made an executive decision right then and there that i should embrace this mistake and pretend that it was my intention all along.

but i got to write something, so then i went and wrote all about it.

my first idea for this picture was to play the "what else can i do with this stuff" game. it's where i've got a bunch of things set up already, and i have to switch it all up and see what other configurations i can come up with using only that same equipment.

so this is another look using only the stuff from day 100. i like how it came out. the beauty dish on the floor is doing very little, but the sb-3 is revealing my face nicely, i thought. it's doing it's usual hardish soft light magic.

setup shot:

day 101 - rainy flowers

yeah, i just get such a kick out of my 50mm lens..... even without autofocus, it's still so much fun to play with. so it was drizzling earlier today, i went outside and took some picture of our neighbor's flowers. it's late in the season, so they're starting to show wear and tear, but that's part of what i found appealing about them..... beauty and decay. like a picture of a quickly aging supermodel. you can see what was, and what's disappearing little by little every day.

day 100 - beauty dish

yep, so i wanted to use my home made beauty dish again today, so i set up this shot. i was at first working a two light sources in front angle, beauty dish camera right, and sb-3 camera left, but decided after a few shots that the single light source on the face would be more interesting. so the sb-3 got demoted to a camera right rim/slash light, and the beauty dish went it alone.

i dig how this came out. good light on my face, good quick falloff, good rear rim/slash lights.

setup shot:

day 99 - double diffusers

i'm really digging these diffusion panels i got.... the 40" one was only 40 dollars, and the trigrip (totally superior product) was 130. i got them for outside midday stuff, and to use as reflectors, but i've been using them all over the place.... they're just so handy.

setup shot:

day 98 - chinstrap

so, i was thinking that i have in the past set up two from behind hard light sources that come over the shoulder and "edge" out both sides of the face. you mix that with a soft light source (either reflective, or an umbrella / softbox) and you get a very nice effect. for today i wanted to do something similar, but have the light be connected at the bottom.... making sortof a U of light around my face/jaw. a chinstrap, if you will.

so, setting up the sidelights... not hard. took about 30 seconds. for the under part, it was a bit trickier. i set an sb-28 on the floor, pointed up at my chest, and then rubberbanded a couple of pieces of notebook paper around it as a gobo. i was worried that too much light would hit my (otherwise not-very-illuminated) face from that unflattering up angle. so i wrapped the paper around it, and made sure when i sat down i couldn't see the flash head from where my head was.

so, most of the flash on the ground is going up into my chest. this would have been a problem if i was wearing a white or light colored shirt, but as the case happened to be, dark blue tshirt for the win.

then i set up a reflector camera left to throw some light on my face.... it's no fun if it's completely in shadow, after all. i like it. it's like hard light all around, little island of soft light in the middle.

the setup shot shows a golden reflector bouncing light back into my face, that's something i experimented with towards the end, when i put on my hood and wanted an evil monk type look. but this shot was using just a silver/white reflector, not gold.

setup shot:

day 97 - big up small down

usually i rock a large main light source, and a small secondary / uplight. with this one i decided to go opposite, and have my main light smaller, and my uplight the large one. it worked out well. because my face is so far from the uplight, and so close to the main, it's almost not-noticeable.

one thing i didn't mention in the setup shot is that the uplight has a slight blue gel on it. oh, and i've started doing this thing where i plug my camera into the tv so that everytime i take a picture i can see it on the tv right away, instead of having to get up, walk around to the back of the camera, and push a button to see if my head got cut off or not. so that's really helpful.

oh, and i wanted to try a texture on this one, so i dropped that spill up on there. seems a bit cheesy, but i wanted to try it and see if it was something i was into. maybe in the right setting / with the right subject, it could be cool. but not so much here.

setup shot:

day 96 - sandwiched in

had this idea while i was watching this week's "sons of anarchy", and i had to stop everything (loves me some tivo) set this shot up and take a few pictures. but it was totally worth it. i love this setup. i even love the raw light spilling past the diffuser onto my arm and shoulder. i feel like this is a surefire setup. guaranteed to make good pictures.

setup shot: