Project 52, 1st Quarter by Janis (purplehaze)

[purplehaze]

I was meaning to devote some serious time to my resolutions for 2015 and here the new year is almost upon me and I have given them very little thought. But I don't have to dig to know what my desires are, generally, and so I am going to list them here; if I make headway in any one of these areas, that will be an improvement over this past year, when I made very little progress at all.

#1 Shoot more, at least several times a week, if not every day.
#2 Learn more about my camera (including its optimum white point and specific colour profile) and more fully explore its features to see what useful things I might have overlooked.
#3 Become more adept at my use of my lighting equipment.
#4 Learn more about colour management and printing.
#5 Learn Photoshop CC, with a view mainly to doing the things I am unable to do with my other tools.

[ShaneS]

Nice list Janis and quite ambitious (it's good to aim high)! Do you have any goals style/subject wise? You early birds are making me want to join the party but I still have a week to procrastinate

[IzzieK]

Janis...I just joined in at Pinterest recently and found some ideas for photographing monthly, daily, weekly, etc. and put the whole shebang in my list...I have 4 more days left this week to photograph something for the challenge too, Shane as I am still waiting for my new camera to arrive...and I have just the 50mm to use with until I buy my ideal lens. Dang! I still have two cropped cameras so I can use them in the meantime....still thinking..might get one theme from my list of lists...shoot and shoot more and shoot better is my goal this year and as I had already said, learn my softwares, Nik, Topaz. On ONe and DXO Optics. Not actually learn, but play too will be a nice goal...too many ideas I think more like lack of motivation...

[FrankMi]

Looking forward to seeing your images Janis! I know they'll be special!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Frank; I will be looking forward to yours, which will no doubt be as inspiring and informative as in the past.

Izzie, I'd be grateful if you could point me to those ideas you gathered, for those times when I have none of my own.

As far as style goes, Shane, I haven't become technically proficient or knowledgeable enough to develop my own personal style. Am still developing my "eye", and that is a challenge in itself. As far as subjects go, I guess I have developed my eye enough that my areas of interest have broadened, though I have always been, and probably will continue to be, partial to nature abstracts. And in this season, in this location, that implies learning how to shoot without freezing batteries and fingers.

[Shadowman]

Nice plan, looking forward to seeing the results.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, John.

I just recovered some of my specific goals, which got lost amidst the flotsam and jetsam of the holiday and they are:

#1 Copy some of my favorite slides from my travels in my youth and see if I can't make wall art out of them.
#2 Make a composite of a copy of one of my dad's old slides and an image of my own.

The second goal is one I have been thinking of for a couple of years now and it (making composites) is my main reason for learning Photoshop. My dad passed away when he was younger than I am now, which is to say too young for us to have truly become friends. I am thinking his collection of slides would be a way to learn more about him. Photography was just one of many things we had in common, and so I may just end up learning more about me. In any case, given our often fractious relationship, I like the idea of paying him homage through a collaboration.

[IzzieK]

........Izzie, I'd be grateful if you could point me to those ideas you gathered, for those times when I have none of my own. .........

Here it is Janis...'hope this helps...quite a lot of ideas here...

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pin...tocomplete%7C1

Here is one from the first link:
http://www.behindthecameraanddreamin...-week-two.html

You will find that on the long link, you have to be a member of Pinterest to access so I got the first link for you to start from.

[IzzieK]

What a noble idea for a project...I am sure you will learn a lot from your dad and yourself. Also your Mom???

Thanks, John.

I just recovered some of my specific goals, which got lost amidst the flotsam and jetsam of the holiday and they are:

#1 Copy some of my favorite slides from my travels in my youth and see if I can't make wall art out of them.
#2 Make a composite of a copy of one of my dad's old slides and an image of my own.

The second goal is one I have been thinking of for a couple of years now and it (making composites) is my main reason for learning Photoshop. My dad passed away when he was younger than I am now, which is to say too young for us to have truly become friends. I am thinking his collection of slides would be a way to learn more about him. Photography was just one of many things we had in common, and so I may just end up learning more about me. In any case, given our often fractious relationship, I like the idea of paying him homage through a collaboration.

[purplehaze]

Thanks for the links, Izzie. I didn't realize Pinterest was no longer browsable.

Yes, my project will be an opportunity to probe my mom's memory banks and I am hoping it will be a rewarding activity for her as well.

[IzzieK]

Janis I do not like joining any social network because I am busy during the day and have not much time at night but I decided to join because there are so many things that I can get through that website. I do not contribute at all. It is not necessary unless you are inclined to so I decided to keep it. You will enjoy that website...if you want to join...and no it is not browsable at all. Very annoying actually when they put that big barrier so you cannot read not click on anything but joining change that.

[purplehaze]

I will think about joining; thanks again Izzie.

Well the year got off to a good start, anyway. Was pretty exhausted yesterday from entertaining on New Year's Eve and morning (some of my guests stayed overnight), so I spent most of the afternoon and evening on the couch. I watched two hours-long video tutorials on flash; read my SB700 manual cover to cover and portions of my camera manual, and occasionally got up from the couch to test certain functions.

Things I used to know but had forgotten:

#1 I have to put the camera on spot metering to switch the SB700 from fill to standard mode.
#2 Flash exposure compensation on the SB700 is added to flash exposure compensation on my camera; i.e., neither setting overrides the other, but they are cumulative.

I confirmed that I really do have to compensate for bounced flash, bouncing off a coloured ceiling introduces a ghastly colour cast, and the coloured filters for incandescent and flourescent lighting that came with my flash may actually be useful (the incandescent one does a passable* job of colour correction).

I tested controlling the flash power by inputting the flash to subject distance and found it did a pretty good job. Still, I would like to methodically test for my flashes' actual GNs; apparently they may not be as advertised.

I am determined not to rely solely on TTL, but to eventually conquer the math.

Am feeling vaguely ill today, so don't know how much I will get done, but I have some knitting to shoot for my online portfolio, so I will try to apply what I have learned to that little project and share it with you.

Happy New Year to all.

*Edit: more than passable, in fact. When the exposure is correct, the colour is bang on.

[IzzieK]

Janis all my camera are on Spot metering most of the time. I only change it when I need to show all the background for environmental effect or something like. I am very glad you enjoyed your New Year celebration. I went to bed at 8:30pm. New Year here in this household is boring...

Just a thought -- when I have a video I wanted to watch, because I am busy most of the time during the day, I just do a video capture and watch it later on on my own good time. KimC told me it is good to follow a video tutorial, but I was against it at first until I discovered that I can capture a video and follow it offline. So thanks to KimC, I had changed my method of learning.

As for Pinterest, as I have already said, you will not regret joining the website because I consider it like Google on adrenalin or high drugs (i am lost for words here...) It is not easy to please me when it comes to accessing websites because my system is set but I had changed in the latter half of 2014 because of KimC, I am still open to change I think...

[purplehaze]

It's important to stay open to change, Izzie. I know I can feel myself ossifying, especially with regard to some of the language change I witness every day at work. When did I stop embracing change, I wonder? These days I approach it sideways, size it up carefully, and then maybe give it a polite, but guarded, handshake.

The videos I watched are on lynda.com so I can watch them anytime. I also have a series of Joe McNally videos that I watched more than a year ago, but will have to watch again.

I am mortified. I shot my two scarves and a baby blanket using gelled flash under tungsten in the basement last night, and one of the scarves again today in the sunroom using a combination of natural and fill light, but I have nothing from those two shoots I want to share with you.

I have to deliver one of the scarves at the airport tomorrow afternoon, so I had to get it blocked. After pinning it out, I shot this record shot for my portfolio with a single gelled SB700 on the camera, under tungsten light. Hopefully I will be able to get a nice finished shot of it before I let it go, because I'm loving how it turned out. The pattern (not mine) is called Nymphalidea and I think it just brilliant; it is a great way to use up leftover sock yarn.

Blocking Bryn's Nymphalidea by onesun1moon, on Flickr

My main takeaways from the last few days:

#1 It is important to keep in mind that flash photography consists in two exposures and you need to control for them both.
#2 Gelling your flashes for tungsten and florescent light does a great job of preserving colour accuracy.
#3 You have to remember to compensate your exposure when using gels (1 stop for my tungsten filter).

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi janis.

Thats a great list!

Ive found some interesting stuff on the bowens site, most of it is not speed light oriented but the principles are the same. Here's a link.

http://www.bowensdirect.com/bowenstv

Sectonic also do some good stuff here.

http://www.sekonic.com/classroom/web...dwebinars.aspx

and of course pocket wizard where they do a ttl vs manual comparison for speedlights here'

http://blog.pocketwizard.com/tag/ttl/

looking forward to seeing you work and improvment, cant wait to get home and get my lights out!

[purplehaze]

Mark, thanks so much for the links. There is some great stuff in there, and stuff very much relevant to my current struggles.

I took a break from flash tonight to play with continuous light. I am including this image here, because one of the lessons I learned from it is relevant to flash and that is, anything facing away from a coloured light source will not be affected by the colour of that light source. I am referring to the fur on the backside of my bear's arm, which of course did not pick up the green tint.

DSC_1354 - Version 2 (2) by onesun1moon, on Flickr

70-200 mm f/4 lens at 75 mm, 4 sec. at f/16 and 100 ISO
Lighting consisted in two strands of battery-powered Christmas lights less than artfully arranged in a milk glass and set inside a frosted glass light globe.
Cross-processed in Aperture, selective brightness adjustments in Viveza.

[Mark von Kanel]

Love it Janis! very creative! from what i understand continuous light is much easier to use for still life, where the models dont complain about the heat!

I take it that you have a copy of light science magic? and that you know about strobist.com where the great 1o1 & 102 strobist courses are?

[IzzieK]

Lovely job, Janis...I wish I can see more of your creation...My ex-mother-in-law taught me how to knit but I never picked up on it because I was taught how to crochet when I was young and had done quite a few until I forgot I can do it. I admire people who persevered with this and in my mind, only Westerners do this knitting thing and my mindset is as Asian as anyone can be. I do not belong. Funny thoughts but I picked up on origami and do so every now and then, children ones...

Mark, I think it was Inkista who kept telling me about Strobist on lighting. I haven't picked up on that either. I always have an excuse why I shouldn't. I think her words to me was "information overload". I think it has more to do with laziness and learning so much of many un-interesting stuff instead... one day I will be able to read a complete article there on lighting...<fingers crossed>...

[purplehaze]

Check for Light Science and Magic, Mark, though it's been quite a while since I picked it up. The Strobist courses were part of yesterday's reading. Great site, highly recommended.

I also wanted to mention, for anyone else who may be wanting to dip their toes in these waters, Neil van Niekerk's site Tangents. A good place to start is here.

Thanks, Izzie. I taught myself to knit at age 20. I worked on a lobster boat in Nova Scotia for a few weeks, learned to make nets with a shuttle, and got hooked. Went on to learn weaving and spinning (wheel and spindle), dropped it all for 10 or 15 years, but then got back into it. The rhythm of it puts me in a meditative state, so it helps keep me sane.

[Mark von Kanel]

Mark, I think it was Inkista who kept telling me about Strobist on lighting. I haven't picked up on that either. I always have an excuse why I shouldn't. I think her words to me was "information overload". I think it has more to do with laziness and learning so much of many uninteresting stuff instead... one day I will be able to read a complete article there on lighting...<fingers crossed>...

Your quit right Izzie, it is a lot of information, i for one am guilty of reading it all but not putting it into practice! and then i forget it and have to re learn it! but it is some of the better stuff ive found, there's lots more but its mainly life subjects that are involved and im not sure Janis is doing that stuff...... YET