Another Portrait...

So this weekend I had a Hasselblad out of the Uni stores and started to shoot a few portraits with it. The portraits I have shot.. or hopefully shot have not been in the style that my final ones will be as this shoot this weekend was just to get used to using a camera I haven't used before. However, the shots I have got I am very pleased with.

In colour:

This isn't the original, I have edited the tonal range slightly, increasing the magenta present.

In Black and White:

Not only did I push the colour out of this shot, I removed the bags under the eyes present in the above photo.

This image was produced with a reflector on the right hand side of the face, If I were to change it again slightly it would be to add a bit more definition to the left hand side of the face where the light coming from the window is bleached ever so slightly. 

Portraits

We've got a new module on at Uni now, it's all about portraits. Unfortunately for me, portraits aren't my strong point. I get scared of not being able to manage the light properly and then looking silly in front of the person I am photographing.
So today, in order to start getting over my fear of photographing people I have taken some shots using natural light and with somebody I know.

We started off like this, just stood normally in front of a large window.

I then started to limit the amount of light so there was much less and got this result.

Personally I found this very beneficial and I'm going to try it again soon with the use of reflectors and absorbers of light to see how much difference they make as well. 

Pittville Park

It's been bloomin' busy recently with lots of hand-ins and deadlines and oh so much. But today I've had my second hand in, tomorrow is my third and final one. It's gunna be nice then to have a break and relax.

Anyhow, today has been very foggy in Cheltenham but Pittville park looked beautiful in the fog - all mysterious. Even at 3pm.

It took me ages to get this shot of the man walking across the grass between the trees in the fog.

The grass looked so pretty with all the frost on today.

These two lads were having great fun playing in the icy puddle.

This shot was taken much later on in the evening.

I really enjoyed shooting in the fog today, it's not something I've done before properly to this extent so I found it really interesting to see what my camera took in a different speeds.

Only A Little Edit

I'm taking a break from doing my essay. I think I deserve it, I've written a full 88 words so far... yeah that's how long the title is. I hate essays. However after this post I am going to try my very bestest to do it.

First though, I've had a little play with Photoshop. Only a tiny tiny play with photoshop because I don't actually like photoshop (yes it was a distraction).

The original

The edited version

What do you think? I think I prefer the edited version but I'm not sure... The only real difference is a bit of desaturation in the grass, a small pushing of the blacks in levels and the tiniest of crops.

Lighting Session #1

We had a lecture today introducing us to working with different types of lighting. I found it really interesting and whilst image wise the photos aren't amazing, I was surprised by the different effects you could create - although we didn't delve too much in to that this today.

Natural light, next to a window.

Natural light, next to a window with some reflection from white wall opposite.

Channelled natural light through the window using a black board.

Flash gun, two stops over what would be required for this distance usually. 

I want to start using my flash more, getting to grips with bouncing the light off of other subjects and so on. I really enjoyed today's session, I found it really useful.