Another mentorship is COMING SOON!

Another mentorship is COMING SOON!
And, omigosh, it's Eric Raeber mentoring!!! If you've ever wanted to learn from this amazing man, tune in Saturday (April 4th) at noon PST for the sign-up post of "Lighting With Intent" The sign-up post will ONLY be on his profile stream, not here, so set up a reminder, an alarm, or something you know you'll trip over on Saturday ... ;o7.

▶▶▶*PLEASE NOTE*◀◀◀ that this will be an advanced workshop! In order to participate, you must have a solid understanding of your camera and exposure in manual mode. You will need a camera with a flash hot-shoe (SLR or mirrorless). You will also need certain lighting equipment that will be listed in the sign-up post.

Originally shared by Eric Raeber

How I found my reflection

Behind the scenes

My goal, with my  #selfysunday  for this weekend, was to create a specular reflection in the background of a portrait. This was actually an exercise by www.strobist.com Lightning 102 class. The goal was to use a single light source both as the key light and creating the reflection on the background.

I started in the kitchen, attempting to reflect the umbrella in the wall. Paint in the kitchen (and bathrooms) is generally more glossy than in other rooms. It turned out that it was not reflective enough and the wall color was so bright that the entire background turned white.

Next stop the wooden cabinets. With their clear pearl varnish coating, they created a fantastic reflection. Unfortunately as the background had to be at an angle from the camera in order to place the reflection in the middle of my image, I did not like the resulting perspective the cabinet doors patterns created.

I then realized that we have more wood in the house: the hardwood floor! So I went on and placed my umbrella and my camera for the reflection to fall where I wanted it, on the floor.

I started with a by sitting on the floor, looking up at the camera. The area around me was too small for the reflection to play a significant role. I then decided to lie down on a toolbox, about a foot above the floor and and simply hold my head up. This worked much better. The rolled up carpet, strategically placed where I would be in the image, helped my adjust my setup.

The resulting problem, however, was that half my face was in the shadows. I needed a reflector on the other side. The tripod was perfect to hold, in addition of the camera, a reflector. I started by using a white reflector, but it was not reflecting enough light. I then turned it around and used the silver side, which produced too cool a light. I finally hung another gold reflector to partially cover the silver and I had the warmer light I needed to match the color temperature of the floor. I also inserted a 1/2 CTO gel on the flash and I was set.

I am a an engineer. Photography is sort of my artistic relief valve. I could talk about the many similarities between visual arts and software engineering, but I would digress. I will keep that for another post. However, in this shoot yet again, I find that the iterations, the problem solving skills and the trial and errors faced by conceptual photographers are not that foreign to the problems engineers face and resolve on a day-to-day basis.

#behindthescenes