Tron

This was an idea that came to mind one evening, just for a bit of fun and something different. It morphed a bit from the original idea, which was to have the eye with the pattern peeping out between some hair. I messed my hair up to give the image more texture, and decided I liked it better this way :) View it larger over at Flickr!

Planning page is here -

Behold, my rushed handwriting.

So, as you can see, quite different! Natural lighting also morphed into studio lighting using just one light. I used my favourite modifier - the huge beauty dish. It gives a wonderful quality of light. It was positioned about 30 - 45º from me, almost right next to the camera. I played around with the settings until I got a brightness I liked (I forgot the exact settings, sorry!).

The pattern that I used in the eye can be found here and is by Patrick Hoesly.

Bag Lady Part 3, and other recent stuff!

This blog is well overdue for an update. I was so busy with my AoP project "Bag Lady" and getting it finished in time that most other things got pushed to the wayside. I had another project going on at the same time (group cinematics) which didn't help matters at all, as I had to juggle my time and be in two places at once. But, it got done in the end!

I was also really, really ill when I was editing the final photographs. I think I was rundown from too many late nights which didn't help things, as I'd caught the bug that was going around. All I wanted to do was curl up and sleep, but the deadline was fast approaching and merciless.

After a few days of ruthless editing getting 663 images down to the final six and then editing those six, I had the final images at long last. I was so pleased with how they turned out! I would liked to have included more, but the brief only allowed six, so six it was. I'll be working on a couple of others that I liked and uploading them soon too.

So here they are, the final six! (Click for larger version)

Isn't she gorgeous? :D

My entry has been submitted so I'm hoping for some good news soon. Even if I don't get through though, I'm very happy with what I've achieved. I learnt a lot about organising a fashion shoot from the ground up, what to expect, what can easily go wrong and how to prevent it, and working with others was a lot of fun. From start to finish, the project was intensely satisfying to see becoming a reality.

I recorded myself working on one of the images too using a screen capture program, as I've had requests from readers who enjoy seeing the behind the scenes type things, so I decided to include this as an insight to how I work in Photoshop. I was using a trackpad at the time, not the best thing to use I know, but I couldn't use a mouse as I was curled up in bed coughing and spluttering and had nowhere to put it. Eventually I'll try using a tablet, but I'm still looking into which one to get. Does anybody have any recommendations? I'd be interested to hear about them in the comments if you do!



Tomorrow I'll give my thoughts so far on my new lens - the Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. Stay tuned!

Bag Lady

My latest projects are the AoP competition and a cinematic brief for college. The AoP is the one I'm pretty excited about, since it's a live project with a chance of winning. I didn't have a clue what I'd do for a while, and was busy with 365 Days jotting down ideas in my sketchbook. I did have one idea come to me however one night after looking through a friend's halloween dressing up photos on Facebook. They'd dressed up in black bin bags, only they'd made them look like clothes. Some of them looked rather nice, too. The cogs in my mind started grinding and before long I ended up inspired for what was originally going to be a self portrait - I called it "Bag Lady". As you may have guessed, it stems from people telling each other usually on a night out and to somebody whining about their outfit "You'd look good in anything - even a black bag."

I thought about this for a little while, sketched things in my ideas book, and figured it'd be really cool and edgy if the bin bag actually looked like a stunning couture dress. My original idea for AoP was nothing like this however. To put it in the words of my tutor, it sounded like a Timotei ad. It also started out as an idea for a different self portrait that I may still do for a laugh, but for practicality's sake and how much more interesting my second idea was, I decided to follow plan B's route and take on Bag Lady.

Not only is it cheap and fairly easy to make, it's one heck of a lot of fun. I looked for a stylist and a jewellery designer, and I found them pretty quickly. They're just as enthusiastic as me about this and I can't wait to see their designs. We went to this shop in Carmarthen called "Trysordy" which in English means "Treasury". It's a shop that sells a load of recycled things from plastic bottle tops to (unused!) tampon applicators (which I found hilarious). You think of it, they probably have it, and dead cheap too. So I bought the jewellery materials there, and then later on bought the heavy duty plastic bags for the stylist. They should be ready sometime this week! I can't wait!

Next on my list was to find some assistants, a hairstylist and a make-up artist. I went for the easiest one first since we're all in college today: assistants. I got a much greater and enthusiastic response than I imagined I would! I said I was looking for one or two people who'd like to help, as it really would be a great opportunity for them to see what a fashion shoot is like, what second year is like, and to learn lighting techniques and the like. It's generally a lot of fun for them and an excuse to bunk off a bit (in an educational way! Win!) :P I got one person interested straight away, then another, and then two other people. So I now have at least 4 people from first year who would like to help and join in. Awesome! I hope they have a great time and learn plenty of new things.

The casting call is this afternoon, and last night I got a little nervous. I'm not as nervous anymore, mostly because I know Rick is in and he said he'd help guide me through it. It shouldn't be too difficult. I'm wondering how many people will turn up, and if anybody suitable will turn up too. The posters I put up in The Quad (coffee shop in the uni next door) kept getting taken down despite there being no indication of it not being allowed. Thankfully however they've stayed up elsewhere, so I'm happy. I'm just glad I can speak Welsh as part of their policy is that the poster has to be bilingual, even though not many there actually speak Welsh. So after being told by a couple of different people I could probably find a translator, I was able to say quite happily "I can speak Welsh!" I even got all my mutations correct. Awesome.

So, sometime this week, I'm going to have to find a hairstylist and a makeup artist. I might have to do this by phone as the only time I can realistically get to Pibrlwyd's campus on the other side of Carmarthen is on Thursday, and I'd like to start planning things out by then. I don't have much time left - a week or two. I need the model and I need everybody else I've mentioned. Things are getting a little tight. Plus there's my cinematic brief that needs sorting, so I'm even more pressed for time. I'm quietly confident I'll pull it off though, one way or the other. I don't have much choice but to succeed since my grades are depending on this. The question is if I'll do it well! :)

I've kind of put 365 on the back-burner for now too. It's a lot of time and effort and with two major projects on the go (one of which is live) a third is really pushing it. I've thought about this somewhat and have decided that I will make images as and when I'm able to. To do it every day is really taking its toll on me and I can't always manage it, so to preserve my health, enthusiasm and sanity, it's going on a semi-hold. I'd like to make each photo interesting and not just a shot in the mirror with my camera, so expect at least one or two a week, maybe more depending on how busy I am. I'll still be doing 365 images though. It might just take me longer than a year to complete :/

I'll include some of my latest images later on, as they're on my external HDD which is at home, and I'm currently at college. In the meantime however, you can see them over at my Flickr. Enjoy! :)

A creative use of flowers

Well, it's the second week of 365 and I'm still going strong, I love this project so much. It really tests you and drives you to do better pictures. So yesterday, I was in the studio again, large tea and toast nearby while I got ready to set up. It was a lot of fun, and involved flowers, petals, glue and my face. And a ring flash. I've included images of the setup I had, along with failed photos with reasons as to why I consider them failed, so to give you insight into my thought process as I work.

First of all though, here's some recent photos from the project:

More can be found over at my Flickr photostream.

As you can see, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Now, on to yesterday!

First of all I acquired the roses, which was no easy task. There's only one florist, and she was a bit reluctant to sell me the sorry-looking roses. In the end however I managed to get them for a very cheap price and made my way back over to college. I bought some artificial flowers too as a backup plan but they weren't needed. I'll use them for something else.

I set up, and figured a beauty dish and a reflector (read: bit of polystyrene) resting on my chest would give me the best lighting.

Vignette due to me trying and failing to remove flare with lens hood

Neat huh? Well, not really. It gave me this:

Incidentally, this type of lighting is called "Butterfly Lighting"

"What's wrong with that?" I hear you asking. "It looks fine to me, nice soft shadows, good tonal detail and even coverage. Am I missing something?"

No, you're not missing anything. But the photo is. Sure, it's fine from the front, and would be great for some portraits with dramatic lighting, but it's not what I'm after. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the rim-light.

It really is a flash. Not a gun.

See that flash with a snoot hanging behind the chair like a spider? That's the rim-light. This is where it gets interesting. Using a rim-light, as above, gives me this effect:

Ooh!

The edge of my head and shoulders have been illuminated in a subtle way, making me stand out from the dark background rather than blend into it. This little pop of light isn't powerful enough for me though, so I tweak with the flashes, get myself ready by curling my hair, putting on makeup and gluing on the petals and leaves. I took a load of photos, but before I show you the final image, here's an unaltered (apart from cropping it down) version with a ring flash. I was curious as to how it looked, and it was clear from the get-go that it wasn't going to work:

Uhh....no.

So, why doesn't it work? It's too harsh for the atmosphere I'm after. It's great for no-nonsense "I've got attitude" or "I'm really happy" portraits, though not so great for times when you've constructed a flower on your face. So, away the ring flash goes for another day.

I had a bit of help from the technician, John (who is amazing at what he does and very helpful), we altered the light setup a little bit, moving the rim-light off to camera left and bringing it closer. We also moved the beauty dish around a bit but I decided I liked it in its original position.

After tinkering around in Photoshop I came up with this:

Click for larger image!

So that's how I did that!

Oh, and just for laughs, here's a video of me removing the petals and leaves. It was just as much work taking them off as it was putting them on! But it gives you an idea of how I attached them, and it might give you a giggle.

365 Days Challenge

Some of you may have heard of the 365 days challenge, and others might not have done. For those who don't know, there's a group on Flickr called "365 Days" where the sole aim of the group is to show a collection of images from several people all over the world who take one photo of themselves each day of the year (or as many as they can manage) and then upload it to the group. It doesn't have to be of your face, it could be things like your shadow, footprints, an object that's dear to you - though they prefer it to include some part of your body more often than not. I'm currently on day 6 and have managed to take all 5 previous photos and upload them. I have to say, I never expected I'd latch on the way I have. I've become slightly obsessed. I thought I'd try it out for a laugh but I really enjoy it. I love the fact that it forces me to think about new ways to take a photo and to keep it interesting somehow, and I learn something new every day whether it's about myself or the techniques I use. It really is a lot of fun and I've even inspired my friend Andy to take part too! Some days I'm bursting with ideas and have to write them down, other days it's like I don't feel a shred of creativity in me. I carry on regardless though, driven by the determination to upload one photo to the group a day. My first milestone is 7 days - tomorrow! It's gone by so quickly and I'm really loving it. Here's a few of the ones I've done so far. A lot of the time I'm just playing with lighting conditions and seeing how they come across in the photograph. Different angles give different moods, as do different intensities of light.

I'm curious to see how this project holds up when my workload gets heavier, since right now I'm not really doing a lot in the way of college work. I'm finishing off my summer project (I don't have a lot to do) and I'm getting introduced to AOP tomorrow in college, and after that I have the rest of the week off. Anybody would think I'm a part-time student...it's incredible the amount of days we have off sometimes. This could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing - the good thing being you have more time to yourself to be creative, you can come in and use the studios if they're free, you can book out equipment to take with you anywhere, and you can also get direction and feedback from the tutors. The bad thing is that if you're in the wrong frame of mind you could end up doing the bare minimum and scrape by, and I also sometimes wonder where all the money goes...it's a very good course though with excellent facilities, and the tutors are great and don't mince their words when it comes to helping you improve. I love the fact that I have access to a PhaseOne camera, RB67s, Bowens lighting equipment, a huge studio with infinity curves in several different colours, iMacs, printers the size of a small car, a dark room, black and white and colour processing, toning, and many more things besides...so it all adds up in the end. I'll also go from being in 1-2 days a week to three before long, with the introduction of critical and contextual studies on a Monday before long.

So, everything is settling down and I'm keeping myself busy :) The Margam Park shoot should happen in about 2 weeks, since that's the only time we're all free. I'll probably do a few things inbetween then though. It's gonna be a blast :D

Monsters! Grrr...arrrrg!

Yesterday I figured I'd try a new self portrait, and I toyed around for a while with ideas, wondering what I'd do. I somehow came to the conclusion that a monsters theme would be a good idea. Maybe it has to do with various film trailers I've seen recently, or certain adverts on the internet, or the sudden influx of halloween merchandise in the shops, but I sat there smiling to myself as I decided to wait patiently until nightfall. Then the camera would come out.

So first of all, here's the final image:

The product of an overactive imagination

Scary enough? :P

Ok, how did I do it? How did I get those shadows on the wall when the light source is behind me, and how did I get that ominous green hand trying to wrench my blanket away while I was still on the bed?

Well, I live in a really old house, so I asked the monsters nicely if they'd help me out and they agreed they'd do a bit of modelling if I ordered them a pizza. Deal!

Oh alright, not really. All you need is to know how to use layers, layer masks, and the brush tool in Photoshop, and have a few photographs to hand. A tripod or other solid surface helps, and a way of taking the photos while you're in front of the camera (I used my tripod, worked tethered to my computer which is out of the shot, and my wireless remote trigger). It's pretty important that the camera doesn't move while you take all your images, or you're going to make things very difficult for yourself when it comes to stitching it all together. First of all, here's some of the images I used for the final image (I used 8 images in total).

There's a few other shadow images but you get the idea. After that it was just a matter of overlaying the shadow images on top of the image of me curled up in a corner, adding "hide all" masks to the shadow images and using a large soft brush to reveal the shadows on the wall and the hand on the blanket. The green skin colour was just adding a black and white adjustment layer, inverting it with cmd+i, and again revealing the black and white tones with a brush, though this time with a smaller and harder one. Then it was just a matter of choosing the shade of green as a tint. Finally, I altered the tones and colours of the overall image and voilà, one scary monster picture :D

I got into a bit of a funny mood by the end of it though, and started to get silly...

On a more serious note, as you can see in all of these photos, my only light source was the desk lamp on my bedside table. That's it. No flash was used. I did experiment with the flash a little however:

Go into the light my children!

Too red

D:

For the first image, I decided it was too bright. The light bounced around too much and there just wasn't any point in me using the flash down there like that. But what about a coloured flash? I grabbed a red t-shirt and wrapped it around the flash a few times (very high tech as you can see). It fired (after fighting with it for a little while, it's a little temperamental so I'm getting a new one soon) and it clearly didn't work. So I gave up on that idea. I turned the trigger on the flash off and put it out of the frame. Weirdly though, while I was doing one of the hand-under-the-bed shots, the flash decided to go off on its own volition. Me being under the bed at the time, and in a bit of a strange mood, felt slightly weirded out by this and in the end decided to ignore it. Like I said, the flash is a bit strange (and senile I'm guessing. It tries though.) I took a few more photos just to see if it would do it again, but it didn't. Creepy!

So there we have it. That's how I made my composite monster image. And if you're wondering what those white things on my fingers are in some shots, they're paper claws. Click here and watch the same video I did to learn how to make them. They are truly awesome.

Have fun!

I'm running away to Cardiff!

...for the duration of tomorrow, anyway. I wanted to be a teeny bit spontaneous and also wanted to take some photos of examples of symmetry and pattern in the city for my project, so what better place than Cardiff? I'll end up in Swansea at some point too, though not tomorrow. So, I'm going to get ready for a hike around the concrete jungle.

I figured Cardiff would be a better option for me because I'm less familiar with it. I still know it and won't get lost, but I've been to Swansea more times than I care to count. I'm more likely to overlook things. A little fresh scenery will help things, I think.

Plus, there's museums. There's museums in Swansea too, but Cardiff has more art galleries than Swansea. It's a big city full of great architecture and I'm sure I'll have a great time. I'll be adding a few of my favourite photos here after I've edited them. The rest will be on my Flickr page, of which you can see recent uploads to the right of this post. It automatically updates too.

Recently, I had a little editing-fest with some of my symmetry in nature experiments. I went to Llanelli and bought a bunch of fruit I don't normally eat, some that I do. All in all I ended up getting strawberries, a huge orange, a grapefruit, a pomegranate and a red delicious. I then proceeded to cut them in half and took photos of them in various ways. So far I have the strawberries, apple, tomatoes, onion and melon done. Just a few more left.

Course, this isn't a project that's just about fruit and veg. This is only a small part of the "nature" section. 

My entire summer project is about Symmetry and Pattern, and how we find it everywhere in both nature and man-made things. It's such a deeply ingrained part of who we are it governs the way we perceive things like beauty. Indeed, a large contributing factor in what we consider aesthetically "beautiful" or "attractive" depends on how symmetrical it is. You only have to look at a car, a building, a new gadget or even the human face and body to see that.

And despite this, it's so often overlooked and taken for granted.

We're creatures of habit, and gravitate towards that which we find aesthetically pleasing. We try and make sense of everything around us - even the clouds in the sky and the stars out in space as we lie on a grassy bank somewhere and gaze upwards. From the microscopic to the enormous - electrons orbiting protons and neutrons, and planets orbiting a sun - symmetry and pattern is everywhere. It's in nature and it's in our own creations. 

We cannot escape it. 

And given the option, I don't think we'd want to. 

My project looks at this through the medium of photography, and how this subject brings a sense of order to an otherwise messy and chaotic world.

Making New Habits

Life has a habit of throwing you curveballs from time to time. But I'm glad to say I'm back on track and producing more work! Remember those images I kept promising I had? Here are my favourites!

Also, I resubmitted my Model Mayhem application the other night, and woke up to it approved and ready for work. So, before long I should have a few shoots with other MM users and models under my belt. I'm looking forwards to it and can't wait to see what I can come up with.

In the meantime, I'm going to play around with some of the Alice in Wonderland photos I have from the same day. At some point in the future, I'm going to try the shoot again (because it was so much fun) and possibly on location or with more props, might do a Harley Quinn shoot, and probably any other fairytale characters I can think of.

Freeeee!

I'm free at last! I get my results for my last project on the 7th along with a summer assignment, so that'll be interesting to find out. I've been editing some past shoots since I did all the shortlisting in my project, so they'll be up after I've finished painting and decorating :)

So yeah, I just thought I'd let you all know I'm still around and haven't forgotten about you :)

To prove I do have some of these elusive photos, here's one I made earlier :P

Here comes the bride...

Today I'm sitting among all the fashion students on the verge of sneezing my brains out due to the high percentage of hairspray in the air. I'm on my second day of shooting for a BA1 fashion group who have all made bridal corsets. I had a great time yesterday and got some fantastic images that I'll be sharing (I'll have a LOT more free time after today, editing here I come!). Since I'm waiting for makeup and hair to be finished by the hairdressing and makeup students from another campus, there's no reason to panic even though we're running 30 mins over schedule. I'm reasonably happy watching students use tools that look like they were designed for torture and learning about what they're actually meant for.

Again today I have 3 models in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, thankfully we've been blessed with good weather again today so if need be we can work outside. The second group yesterday were certainly keen on doing that and I can't blame them, we got some gorgeous shots with some blossom trees and a willow. The lawnmower man was adamant that he'd be included in some of the shots however. Bring on content aware fill from CS5. I'll have it some day I'm sure. The corsets were all lovely and there's some more interesting ones on the way. Not all have finished yet in true student style :P Everything is ready and waiting, so while I carry on waiting I'll put my laptop on charge and hope I can get everything done in the time given. I'm quietly confident it'll all get done :)

EDIT: Disaster strikes! Well, sort of. My camera battery had less juice in it than I thought it did. It has about 20% left but I have the college's Canon 450D on backup (and currently on charge). Course, the only day I don't bring in my camera charger too is the day I need it. From now on I'm never leaving the house without it. Lesson learnt!

Busy Bee

I've been so busy over the past few weeks, and it's been so much fun. Starting from my last post, a week after it I went to New Word Alive, then started my third and final term for this year (year 1 is almost over!), and then the photoshoot requests started rolling in like nobody's business. All very, very good things to have happen. I had to re-read one of my texts as I'd missed that it wasn't just one person but an entire group that were asking me to take photos of their work. What's more, it's a bridal project. I think this might mean it has something to do with weddings, though I could be wrong if it's some terminology I'm unfamiliar with :P I'm going to take the literal stance with this. If I'm right, it also means that I could well have some content in my rapidly growing portfolio that could set me up to take wedding photos should I so choose. Bonus!

Anyway, back to New Word Alive. In short, I loved it. Every single minute. I especially liked lying under the stars next to the beach at night taking long exposures. The talks were of course very good with several fantastic speakers. Jerry Bridges was so popular in fact that they had to change venues for him. I went to one of his talks but that was all I managed. I'd have gone to more but there were so many things I wanted to go and listen to it kinda got put to one side. Several of the things I wanted to go see happened at the same time too. I learnt after my first full day there that it was very easy to burn yourself out from going to too many things, Jonathan (our church pastor who was also there with his family) wasn't wrong there. One morning I'd wandered down to listen to Jerry Bridges talk and sent a text to a friend of mine who I knew would probably be going too. I got told that he was in fact going to Snowdon with a bunch of others. I figured he wasn't going to invite me so I invited myself. One of the best things I did for myself all week :D I literally ran back to my caravan and got changed, made myself a packed lunch and grabbed my camera equipment. Not too long after all this he turned up and led me to the 2 or 3 cars that were waiting.

It took us all around 45 minutes to get there from where we were staying. It was a fantastically sunny day which by this point wasn't anything new (it was glorious sunshine all week). The views on the way there were wonderful. I got a little concerned that I'd be too cold in my shorts and t-shirt, I had a jumper though so I figured I'd be fine. I was. I was actually glad I was wearing shorts about a third of the way into the walk because your legs heat up so much from the constant movement that to wear anything else that day would have been fairly uncomfortable. We passed quite a few on the way up, and there was one scary event where a german shepherd slipped its collar and started trying to find a quick way down. It wasn't a fantastic scene to witness. Thankfully everything was fine though. I took pictures of the views all the way up which can be found here on my Flickr photostream. We got to the summit about 2 and a half hours later, and it took us another 2 hours or so to get to Llanberis which is the village at the foot of the mountain. All in all it was an amazing experience and I'd do it again without hesitation. The views are simply stunning. It's good exercise too! Out of the week, that was my favourite day. The day after was pretty good too. Next year I'll make sure I bring proper walking shoes. Trainers were fine but my ankle has been playing up.

It wasn't long after I got back home to South Wales that I started to get back into the swing of college work again. I did two photoshoots with a different model than originally planned since the designer's model had cancelled on her at the last minute. Needless to say it was irritating for both of us because not only had I come in that day just for that shoot, I had the studio booked for the entire day. I either had to find somebody and hoped it went well or just cancel the entire thing and rearrange. Obviously, the second option wasn't viable. Thankfully I remembered a model from a previous shoot who turned out to be pretty good at modelling. She was up for it and came to the studio. The clothes looked fabulous on her and she did an excellent job, saving the day. I'm still editing those photos though and need model release forms, so I'll be getting those up soon (along with the other photos I said I'd get up but never did).

With my portfolio growing this quickly, I figure it's about time I have my website up and running. I have more than enough content for it, so it's just a matter of finding out what I want it to look like, what I have to design, and then stitching it all together. I'm aiming to get it done in a week or two.

Alice

Ok, so here's two photos I edited a little in photoshop from the Alice shoot. Not a lot done to them really. I cloned out the background where it was needed, removed any shadows on the infinity curve and changed the skin tone slightly. Blacks were enhanced and a warming filter was applied to the second photo. If you'd like a more in-depth explanation, feel free to ask me over at Flickr where I'll be adding more photos. You'll find a link to my photostream over on the right :)