Shooting of the Cherry Bomb

Camera and photography hobbyist group Valonkaappaajat recently had a small exhibition and to promote that event there was a contest on the Facebook.

Winner of the raffle had distinguished honor/misfortune to be photographed by Valonkaappaajat. Winner of was a girl who was into punk style. I and other three photographers set to capture her into digital format.
More after the break...

Flash in the stairs

First of my sets were at local recycling center which previously had tons of broken refrigerators and washing machines but was relatively empty at the moment. This was a small setback since I had very particular idea in mind that could not be pulled off due to the lack off scenery. However luckily I spotted nice broken staircase that bathed wonderfully in the light of the setting sun.

First photo is natural light only (with my lovely Sigma 50mm 1.4 at aperture 1.6) but background highlights are really clipping. So on the second one two remote flashes are there to give more light to the model and making it possible to cut out light from the background. As you can see from the lens flares made by the flashes and from the somewhat dreamy contrast, soft focus filter was used in the both of the shots.

Factory blues

Since the daylight was almost gone, it was really starting to get cold and owner of the recycling center was really concerned about the wellbeing of the model, we decided to move into indoors - to the old abandoned sugar factory.

At this point I was kind of tired because some of my ideas really fell flat and caffeine levels in my bloodstream were getting really low. I focused more into simple set ups and playing with ideas. The first one that I really liked was lighted from below and from the front. I tried to go for that 90’s fashion look and I think I nailed it pretty well.

Large factory hall windows also gave me opportunity to test how well one Canon 430EX 2 with a gell lights up an industrial hall. Basically all the blue light in the image are from the flash, while warmer tones are from the last rays of the sunset

What did I learn from all this?

First off, I should have had more coffee because creatively I was not there. After going trough the events and places in my mind, I found lots of opportunities to take some really cool shots. I also found that even half a sleep, I can still maintain decent technical level. That said I really need to learn how to direct the models more, since I barely even put any thought into that. Lastly, I need to make photos of myself where in one photo I push my face backwards and in another forward – these will be used to make convincing the models that pushing face slightly towards the camera gives way better jaw line.

Photos by me
Model: Anna W
Taken: 24.3.2013