It's All In The Way You View It

We've been taught in school that photography is not capturing an image as much as it is capturing light.  The image itself is just what is seen through reflected light that bounces off a particular object and is captured in our eyes, deciphered through our brains, and decoded after being put through filters and blinders and stigma and prejudice and emotion.

It's true.  Though we pretty much all see the same way, physically - for those who can see (and I'm trying to split hairs here - lol), we all don't actually view the same thing the same way as the person right next to us.  That person can be our identical twin with the exact same genetic makeup as us and that twin would have a different concept of what was being seen.

So when I capture light, I would like to do so in a way that pleases *me* most, first of all, and then if it pleases others... awesome.  In so doing I've started to refer to myself as a time cop: I arrest light (and therefore, time, since there are theories about the two being intertwined) and place it under my complete control and scrutiny.  I then bend it to my will, altering its essence in some ways to ultimately put it on display for others to see.

An ant in amber, or a mammoth in Arctic ice have nothing on an image frozen in time and space - virtually incorruptible.

A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of working with a guy who had done many images for myself and my partner to create card art for both online and physical card/board games.  He was skeptical at first, but as time went on, he saw that what we did was not only fun, but interesting and challenging.  After a session where we did a shoot for one particular card game or another, the camera was still at the ready and he and I went for it.  "Tim" was feeling artistic, and wanted to get some images to help him with his own modeling gigs that sometimes popped up.

Some of the results of that shoot have been posted on my deviantArt 'gallery'.  I recently went back through the images we had taken and did a bit of creative editing, the results which I'll post here.

"Tim" has undergone some medical issues as of late, and he doesn't look as you see him above at the moment.  He, like me, has to work hard to maintain his physique - though I have never even remotely looked as good as he does! LOL.  We both are quick metabolizers and lose weight quickly.  For those who suffer from weight loss issues, I must say being thin all the time is no picnic either.  But that's another issue...

Looking at these images allows me to go back in time to the actual shoot and the amount of fun and creative energy that was part of it all.

I don't think that there has been a time where I haven't been nervous about taking imagery of people.  People are much different than taking images of landscapes or buildings  - people have attitudes and are WAY more dynamic and fluid than anything else that can be photographed (with maybe the exception of animals... or water. :D)

To say I was nervous during this shoot is an understatement.  I wasn't yet in school for photography (remember, this set was taken in 2009...) and I was going by instinct and what I had seen in books, magazines, the internet, and TV.  I wanted to ensure I captured Tim in a good light and with enough masculine drama to make it worthy of anyone's attention.

There are those who really like to photograph women with the lack of clothing and in soft, feminine settings.  I have seen so many exceptionally beautiful images of exceptionally beautiful women that they have become commonplace.  I would like to do the same for men, but in the opposite direction: create exceptionally handsome images of exceptionally handsome men in hard, masculine settings.

I tend to think that there aren't enough of those out there, and as a time cop, it's my responsibility to ensure that justice is served.  ;-)

Looking Back a Bit

I wanted to continue adding images from last quarter onto this blog in order to not only show what progresses I've made in my photography, but to also keep the discipline of blogging.  :D

My former entry dealt with my Advanced Lighting class and all its challenges.  This entry will be centered around my Digital Illustration class, which is heavily Photoshop intensive course of study.

The first assignment was to create a panorama using six or more images stitched together in Photoshop that held some visual interest.  I had three different panoramas that I created (and have blogged about them in past entries) but entered the one below as my final for the first assignment.

I added the extra bubbles to the left because the bubbles blown by the model wouldn't fly to the left.  They had this strong desire to follow the breeze to the right and wouldn't listen to creative reason.  Sad, really, that we can't bend soap bubbles to our will.  But I guess that's the ultimate joy of being a free spirit.

Our next assignment was to take an old photo and restore it to a more digitally, and printed beauty that it may not have possessed when it was first taken, or would enhance the image to make it even better than the original.  The image below was the final product of that assignment.  I did write an entry for the entire process for the image below, so if you want to read about what I did to create it (even though I got my port and starboard backwards...), please do!  It was a very interesting process that required quite a bit of patience and dedicated effort.

Assignment Three was to take a color photograph of our own capture (the more color the better) and transform it into a black and white image that would be appealing to the viewer.  To do that colors would have to be altered away from their compliments, shades, hues, brightness and chroma in order to create the varying shades of grey necessary to allow the photo to be visually appealing.  

The following image was taken in color and then manipulated to make it the black and white image you see here.  The swordsman to the far right is wearing red and black.  The lass next to him was in green, as was the young rogue with the machete-like blade.  I had to change the lass' tunic from green to blue in order to separate the couple from each other, but make the color not so blue and to be the same value as the red of the swordsman.  The 'take' of a knight to the far left was easier to deal with since the biggest color saturation was in his cape/cloak.  Tweaking in 10 different color palates was a bit of a challenge, but it yielded some great results.  The biggest complaint for this piece was that the 'tank's' metal legging was 'blown out' and lost the detail of individual plates where the lines were lost to the bright lights.  Also, they weren't 'dirty' enough for their positions as fighters and medieval characters.  Personally, I thought they looked pretty awesome...  :D

Taking what we had learned so far with color manipulation and selection techniques and our growing Photoshop skills, our next assignment was to produce a high dynamic range (HDR) image.

Desiring to expand on my 'Black Balloon' theme, I took my model armed with three black balloons into the light link rail stops beneath the streets of Seattle, WA.  We started at the International/Chinatown station, and worked our way, one station at a time, to the Westlake Station, the last stop in the line so far.  Though we were approached by the security guards at a couple of the stations, we were mostly left alone and allowed to take the images necessary to satisfy the creative assignment I wanted to capture.  

It wasn't altogether easy.  

The balloons, not unlike the free-spirited bubbles of my first assignment, didn't want to stay still very well, and swayed desperately with every pass of a bus or light train.  The image above was one capture of at least a dozen or more different settings with the balloons in different areas and different positions and different lighting scenarios.  Honestly, it was a 'happy accident' that I was able to stop the bus that is zooming by at the exact instant that a clear area could be viewed and my model could be seen through that clear spot.  Sadly, the balloons are not able to be seen, and he looks a little lost as he holds strings that go seemingly nowhere, and looks to me on the other side of the station for direction, though the bus cut us off to each other's viewpoint.  Only the camera's eye was fast enough to 'blink' us together.  

I used a faux HDR effect on this image in order to bring out the lights and darks of the image to make it not only grittier, but more visually correct - since our eyes see more than the camera 'sees.'

Because we had so much 'fun' with HDR, our assignments changed to encompass more of them, and to expand on them.  We were to go and start taking images that actually *meant* something to us and had visual story-telling in the mix.  Attempting to gather images that fit the criteria asked for in class, I went on a small photo walk with my son and we took some shots around town.  It was tough to find any sort of 'muse' in the mix of images, and I didn't really have a 'focus' as far as finding a theme or meaning in what I was capturing.  The following HDR image was created as a result of putting more into the photo than was really there.  By that I mean I gave it meaning when it really didn't have much other than visual appeal to me, and gave me a very small sense of a reminder of my time in the navy.  I was exposed to quite a bit of nautical flora and fauna, and never truly appreciating it for its beauty and complexity.  It was a stretch, and I knew it gave off a scent of cheese, but I went with it.  I really liked the vibrance of the colors and the depth of blue sky.

The major complaint for this piece was the lollipop looking shadows in front and behind the couple walking together to the right.  The moon could have been enlarged as well for a dramatic effect...  I guess the main thing I took away from all of this was to keep looking at the world around me with a different eye.  I walk around with an attitude of more meaningful observations of situations around me.  I look around and inject meaning into meaningless situations, areas of disinteresting scenes, sad and worn out places or human interactions.  Doing that makes what I see be a little more meaningful, for me, but doesn't mean that what I capture in the future will carry any more weight or hold any more interest than the stuff I created or captured in the past...

Lastly, we were to create an HDR panorama.  The ultimate in both panorama skills and HDR skills.  The image was to be the afore mentioned interesting creation that had some sort of personal meaning and theme.  This is what I came up with:

In this image I tried to tell a story that was not only a bit complex, but a bit themed.  I titled it "Color Theory" and told the story that as a rule I don't tell others what I was "thinking" when I create a shot like this. I allow the image itself to do the talking to each person and to allow it to manifest itself within them as a personal "conversation." 

So here's my thought process behind this image: First, I wanted it to be colorful. With that in mind, and with the added difficulty of balloons outside in a breeze (due to the previously epiphany of bubble's and balloon's free-spirited nature...), I set off to do a color theory piece where the shirt and balloon were compliments of each other. That turned into a bit of a statement of creativity and I orchestrated the piece to be a little more interactive. The gist of it is that we're all different, and we all have our talents, imperfections and quirks. From the red shirt with the green balloon talking to the orange shirt with the blue balloon who is paying more attention to the yellow shirt with the purple balloon - that's a bit of a statement about cliques and the way they work. Also about how sometimes those we are interested in are more interested in something/someone else who are seemingly more attractive or outwardly vibrant, even though they are not altogether different than either ourselves, or the other(s) we ignore... 

The green shirt with the red balloon is being consoled by the blue shirt with the orange balloon while the purple shirt with the yellow ballon is walking away, looking down the road. In this set I wanted to show that the creative is always available and happiness is for the taking - even looking to see who else can be taken in by a sunny disposition (yellow balloon). And finally, there are those who "have it all" (grey shirt with all the balloons) and pass us by every day while we are aloof (man with no balloons, hat & glasses) to their potential and awesomeness as people. That was my little story with the colors and such... :D

And yes, I put the Needle on the yellow shirt's head on purpose - I knew the tangency has been and will be a point of contention, remark, and observation. It also stands for the imperfection of the creator of the piece who (seemingly) didn't take this into account. (I have a few images of yellow shirt without the Needle above his head, and chose this for statement's sake.)

So, with all that said, the six assignments allowed me to touch on even more creativity within myself, and draw upon the creativity of others as we all walked along the same road, though not necessarily together, or at the same time.  I can't say I didn't totally enjoy the process of bringing these images to life and to the eyes of others who both enjoyed them and critiqued them to be better.

I'm looking forward to the next installment of this class - Digital Illustration III, in the fall.

Spring Quarter's End

I have no idea why this past quarter has been so shitty.  It was pretty much a general consensus that my classmates and I had a very creatively crappy 11 weeks.

Although they were not of the highest caliber, there were some lessons learned and new techniques acquired that will serve me well in the quarters to come.

From my Advanced Lighting class, we started with a gradated background and a simple product shot:

This was supposed to be a shot where we were to "sell" the product in some way that was flattering and appropriate to the subject.  Since these are Magic: the Gathering cards, and the cards above the pack are cards dealing with 'flying,' I thought this wholly appropriate.  The instructor, however, thought differently, and I had to reshoot...

The above was the result of the reshoot.  The first image is to be black and white, but because I wasn't approved for its go-ahead, I left it the way it was, in color.  The second shot was approved and it went forward.  

Assignment Two was the black on black image that was supposed to be something 'interesting' that would be cool to see in a black on black setting.  I wanted to keep things in the genre that I have been working with for a while now and take the focus away from boring boxes. I previously posted the image in an earlier blog entry, but here it is again for your viewing pleasure:

Though meeting the criteria of the shoot, technically, the instructor wasn't happy with the content of the image and wanted a reshoot to be done.  He found the most nit-pickiest of flaws to call for a new image to be created.  It was then that the nail was driven into the coffin for the final time.  I wouldn't be doing any arguing on my behalf, I would do as I was told and move on.  A reshoot followed:

Here is the result of THAT reshoot.  A very interesting box that was well-lit and a black on black epitome of quadrangular perfection.  Much better than the first image, don't you agree?

Assignment Three was that watch shoot that had us dealing with shiny specular parts of the watch with the pesky glass parts.  I made sure I did *exactly* what was required.  The watch was set at the exact time required, and I set it up on a very manly leather background, propped up on the backbone of a moose from Alaska.  It was quite dead and picked clean when we found it near a glacier.  We deduced the moose was hit by a semi and killed by the side of a highway near the national park where we saw how far back the glacier had receded.

This particular image was allowed to move forward without a reshoot!  Yeay!

Assignment Four was to be a shot of silverware where the fork was the main focus of the shot.  it had to be set up with a particular template layout and look very shiny!  This was my input for that particula assignment:

Needless to say it wasn't good enough.  I had to reshoot this image because the fork had a grey area on the belly of it.  So off to the studio I went not too much later to reshoot the image...

So there it is - the image that made it through.  Notice there is no grey on the fork at all, and it is very shiny!  There was an issue with the image because it lacked enough styling.  There was nothing that stated there was to BE styling, but that's the nature of the way we were given assignments...

Assignment Five was a portrait using a background light, a hair light, a key light and a fill light (which was to be a card to bounce the light from the key light).  The key light could be directly in front of the model (butterfly lighting), at 30º of the model (loop lighting), 45º of the model (Rembrandt lighting) or 90º of the model (split lighting).  I chose Rembrandt lighting for my image because I like the way that looks.  Here was my first attempt:

This, of course, wasn't good enough.  It was too dark and the hair light wasn't right because it lit part of the model's forehead.  So, after a bit of regrouping, I went back to the studio and reshot.

This was the result of the reshoot.  It did come out a lot better, I must say.  With ever redo I was learning some sort of nuance that I didn't have in my toolbox from the first shoots.

Assignment Six was to be a challenge since it was an outdoor portrait with lots of caveats.  I did have a pretty good place to do the outdoor image for myself, and I thought I executed it pretty well...

This was done in a kind of nasty part of town, near the highway and between downtown and an older part of the city that is very 'colorful' to say the least.  This image, of course, wasn't to the instructor's liking, and was said to be under exposed.  I just agreed and looked for another image in my list of images taken that day that would be closer to what he wanted, since going back out to do a reshoot would have been impossible.  Finals were looming and there was a lot of work in other classes that needed attention as well.

This was the image I selected for the 'reshoot.'  It was accepted though the sun was in the model's face, and the fill light wasn't right, leaving a shadowed gap between the light of the sun and the light of the strobe. Oh well - I knew it was not the proper image that time, but I was pressed for time and availability of equipment, so...  I took what I got and was happy to have it.

The last assignment was to take what we had learned and come up with an image that demonstrated our accumulated knowledge of lighting in an advanced manner - on a metal, specular (shiny) object.  It was to be a creative shoot that could be used in an advertisement or catalogue.  Here is what I turned in:

I titled this "Gun Safety Announcement."  I used what I learned from the silverware shoot, plus my modest abilities in Photoshop to create the image above.  There really wasn't that much in the way of Photoshopping done to the image.  I had a few shots with the gun bathed in red light like it was being reflected from an ambulance, as well as a few images done with a blue light like there were police cars present.  All I did was add the blue light onto the red lit gun to create what you see there. The concrete sidewalk was actually just a 16" x 16" slab from Home Depot.  They also had the caution tape.  I got kid's sidewalk chalk from Office Max to make the hand outline.  The revolver is my own and quite legal, thank you very much.

It was met with quite a bit of praise and verbal accolades.  Seems like I did a good job of 'telling a story' with my image.  See, this is the stuff that I want to get into - editorial photography.

I had other classes that were challenges, including Photojournalism, Psychology, Digital Illustration II (the images of which I will post later), and Alternative Processes I where I learned to create images with chemistry on cool papers.  I'll post those in a future blog post as well.  I really liked those classes, but they were overshadowed by Advanced Lighting - the frustration which I displayed above.

I *was* given the chilling warning that I need to step up my game.  I took this very much to heart, and have already vowed (internally, of course) to take the old motto from the shelf I placed it on after an admired colleague left school to pursue a life in our 50th state: "Go big or go home."

Well, now it's the summer break, and I intend to take the motto of the past and revive it.  I'll share the fruits of my labors once Summer Quarter rolls forward.

Thanks for reading until now.  I appreciate your patience...  :D