day 10 - triple shadow

 

i almost feel like i shouldn't show anyone this move. like this style of kung fu is too powerful or something. it's sad, but this is probably the best idea i've had so far.


anyone can figure this one out. the triple shadow. three hard light sources spaced out so as to throw hard, graphic element type shadows on a nearby background (my living room wall, in this case). it was much easier to accomplish than i thought it would be.  now i'm going to have to figure out ways to mutate the idea. 


still, easy to set up, easy to do. stick someone in front of a blank wall, three hard flashes in a row, done. i like the graphic design type feel to it. reminds me of an old olympics design or something. there's a famous american artist who used to paint three distinct shadows on every object he painted, that's where the idea came from. can't remember his name. oh well.


strobist info: one nikon d-60 on a tripod. iso 100, f 4.8, 1/125th of a second. three sb-28s camera right, more or less evenly space out, each one at 1/16th power.

day 9 - abstract

 

this is a lamp shade. it has a fluorescent bulb inside, creating the yellow glow, and i put a green/blue gel on a sb-28 to put that blueish rim light on the left side. i think it came out well, it has a recognizable pattern, but it's hard to tell immediately what it is. i like the short depth of field as the lampshade curves out of focus on the left. 

strobist info: nikon d60 on a tripod. iso 100, 1/200 of a second at f1.8 -- sb-28 at 1/64th power behind the lampshade with a blue and green gel, rimlighting the edge there. adjusted the colors a bit in lightroom, and dropped a vignette on it. done.

day 8 - colored rim

today i wanted to explore using a colored flash as a rim light. i've done this before, but only with cto gels, trying to mimic the color of sunset light (usually just after sunset). this time i went a different way, putting a 1/4 cto on my fill light, and a blue gel on my rim. it was good, but not intense enough on the rim color. so i double stacked, a blue and a green gel on the rim. i think it worked out well, the colors still seem correctly balanced, and the blue/green rim really contrasts nicely with the warmed up fill tones.

i'm a fan of being able to see the flash in my pictures.... it destroys a bit of the illusion, but i still like it. and you can always hope for cool lens flares.

strobist info: nikon d60 on a tripod. f4.5 1/200th of a second. iso 100. one sb-28 at 1/4 power through a 42" shootthrough umbrella high camera left, with 1/4 cto. one sb-28 behind the very attractively lit model, with a ctb and green gel stacked up on it firing at 1/8th power.

day 7 - shower curtain

 

i thought a flash through our shower curtain might look good, have some vertical lines and a nice broken up pattern to it, and i was right. it came out well. i'm thinking i'm going to wind up using this as a background for a portrait at some point. when it's this easy, why make it hard?

 

strobist info: one sb-28 in the tub, pointed up at 1/8th power. no gel. custom white balance set for a more blue feel. that is all.

day 6 - golden triangle

find a golden triangle composition somewhere in the apartment.

on this one i broke one of my big rules. i usually keep the horizon level. i nearly always get annoyed with people who tilt their camera for no reason. but i was looking for a golden triangle type composition. a golden triangle is a less-well-known cousin to the golden ratio and golden spiral. you take your canvas, and put a diagonal line in from corner to the opposite corner. then pick one of the two remaining corners, and draw a line from there to form a 90 degree angle to the first line. where the 90 degree angle is becomes a very strong focal point for the image.

another composition rule being broken: don't create lines that point to corners. the viewer's eye will travel right off your image. 

with this picture i wanted there to be no mistaking my intentions to make a golden triangle composition. i figured the best way to do that would be to tilt the camera, making the top of the couch into a line from corner to corner, and then have the guitar create the other line, up to the upper right hand corner.

i think the composition is strong enough that you almost forget the tilted horizon. it does have a certain held energy. looking at the picture everything feels almost locked into place.

strobist information: the camera is a nikon d60, iso 100 - 1/100th of a second @ f5.6 --- there is a sb-28 camera right at 1/4 power, pointed mostly into the ceiling, partly toward the guitar. there is another sb-28 camera left at 1/8th power, gridded and pointed directly at the guitar.

tweaky stuff - i ran this through one of kevin kubota's photoshop actions -- b/w satin #2, i think. put a slight vignette on it (most of the shadows are from the lighting) and that's that. i had a sort of a warmed-up-black and white idea in my head while setting up the shot, and this treatment got me pretty close to what i had in mind.

diagram:

From tim's 365 project

day 5 - dof

depth of field shot where part of my face is in focus, and the rest isn't. use the 50mm lens and set up a light stand for focusing assistance.

--saw @ded do something like this, and had to try it with my own spin. 

strobist info: one sb-28 at 1/8 power from the top of the stairs, triggered by pocketwizards. nikon d60 on a tripod, iso 100, 1/200th of a second, f1.8 (my 50mm lens) -- b/w conversion in lightroom. no photoshop at all.

day 4 - epic picture

make an epic picture out of something small.... i'm thinking a shot of something on the bathroom tile for starters.

strobist information : nikon d60 iso 100, 1/200th of a second @ f4.5 (for the short dof). works out to 26mm focal length. flash was an sb-28 at 1/64th power through a lumiquest sb3. triggered w' pocketwizards.

that is one short depth of field.

day 3 - shake and bake, mofucka!

trying a little shake and bake. our new apartment has a fluorescent light above the sink. i turned it on and positioned alisia in front of it. then i shot the picture with a cto gelled flash through a 42" umbrella lighting her. leave the shutter open a while to bake in the fluorescent goodness, shake the camera a bit to make it more interesting, and there it is. shake and bake.

strobist info: nikon d60 iso 100, 1/2 second exposure at f 5.6 (55mm). one fluorescent tube above a sink, one cto gelled sb-28 at 1/8th power through a 42" shootthrough umbrella high camera right. correct for the cto, tweak the colors a bit, and you're done.

day 2 - find (don't make) a great composition somewhere in the house

strobist info: nikon d60 iso 100, 1/200th second @ f4.5 (26mm). one sb-28 on a stand firing at half power directly up into the ceiling above my head.

day 1 - dramatic photo of innocuous item

take crazy drama picture of boring item.

strobist information: nikon d60, iso 100 1/200th of a second at f4.0 (22mm). one sb-28 @ 1/8th power through a lumiquest sb3 high camera left. triggered via pocketwizards. flash aimed almost more toward far wall, just grazing the bath thingy.

mission statement.

this is my new 365 project. i'm going to take, edit and post one picture a day for 365 days. the stated goal of this project is to break new ground, try new things and push myself out of my comfort zone. i'm not trying to make "good" or "great" pictures here. i know how to make "good" pictures, and unfortunately it's become a bit formulaic. this is where i'm going to take risks and make colossal mistakes, where i'm going to fail and fail and fail and learn from each successful failure. the goal of this project is to try many new things, figure out what works and what doesn't, and hopefully put some new tools in my toolbox. if i come up with just one new technique over the course of the next year, then i will consider this project to have been an overwhelming success.

i might not post every day, but i will be shooting every day. the subject line will be my day's assignment, and i'll include all the strobist information i possibly can.

i'm excited about this. i can't wait to see what happens.

tim