Playing with Light

Light; when one searches www.dictionary.com for a definition, they are immediately given thirty nine definitions in which to choose from. The first definition is that light is something that makes things visible or affords illumination (www.dictionary.com). Yes, light does both those things, but is is also very fun to play with, especially with long exposure shots. There are two ways one can capture light with a camera, it works better if you have an SLR or a DSLR, but some point and shoots give you the option to change the shutter speed. You are also going to need a tripod or something to rest the camera on to make sure that the camera does not move. Next, choose your location. Here are a couple of suggestions for locations, though you can really go anywhere you want. First, someplace with cars, because the camera will capture the light of the headlights and the movement will create a light blur. Personally, I think this ends up looking wicked cool, especially if you do it at night and there are a lot of cars (like a freeway or a busy street). You can set the exposure for as long as you want to, just make sure it is more than a second to fully get those light trails! If you are feeling a little experimental (or arsty, I think those terms mean the same thing), you can try moving the camera a little or zooming in and out to create some interesting effects. Just experiment until you find something you like.

Now the above was just plain old long exposure photography, the next thing I will mention adds a little twist. Shoot the flash during a long exposure. Yes, you heard me correctly, I said shoot the flash, it won't ruin the picture I swear. Shooting the flash during a long exposure can create some interesting effects, such as freezing the subject of the photo but still causing some light blur around the subject. Now, you can either set the flash to be first stage or second stage (the flash firing once or the flash firing once). However, since it differs from camera to camera, I can't really tell how to turn on 1st and 2nd stage flash, you'll have to find out yourself. When it comes to long exposure photography, this is one of my favorite techniques because it really allows you to play with light. There are many subjects to use this technique with, such as bands or people moving around in a city. What you photograph is really up to you. Now the photos above are a combination of the two types. I hope you enjoy them and give me some constructive criticism.

Post-Processing Fun Times!

When most people think of post-processing, they probably are thinking of what magazine editors do to the covergirl, brightening up the image, removing any blemishes, making the image just a little bit better so that people will like and thus buy the magazine. Now don't get me wrong, I have been known to do the exact same things to some of my photos, but that is not all that I do. I'm guessing most of the people you readers know who process their photos use Adobe Photoshop, probably CS2 or CS3. Now, being a college student, I cannot afford the hefty pricetag that comes with Photoshop. Instead, I use Adobe Lightroom, which has many of the image tweaking features of Photoshop, but I cannot make composite images. For what I do when it comes to processing photos, Lightroom works just fine.
Now, like I said earlier, I don't process my photos in the standard way. I do things differently when it comes to editing my photos. My editing approach and technique is different from photo to photo. On some, I just do the basic processing like making the picture a little bit brighter and adjusting the white balance. Then there are the times where I just start playing with sliders and presets over and over again until I come out with an image that I think looks interesting or just plain cool. That is the case with all of the images that are going to be posted below. My advice to all you photo editors out there, break convention and go with what is in your mind.

Comment System

For those of you reading/looking at this blog, the comment system is in place. Anybody who wants to comment on the photos can, there is no restriction and you don't have to sign up for Blogger! However, I will be moderating the comments just so you are aware. Remember, be constructive if you criticize!

Ethan

Pictures of Campus

If you want more info, ask

Some random B+W photos

Just some random Black and White photos that I took. If you want the EXIF data, please just ask and I will post it.

Acoustic Night at the PCA

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The photo set above is from the Acoustic Night at the Parish Center for the Arts, which is a old church in Westford (my home town) that hosts concerts and events. This acoustic night was held on January 11th over winter break. Because I am an avid photographer who is always willing to expand his photographic skills, I attend most PCA events and just start taking pictures of pretty much everything. In my camera bag that night was my camera body, Digital Rebel XTi, my Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 lens and my Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. I also brought something new to the concert, my Speedlite 430EX, which is an external flash that attaches to the camera. Since I just got it for Christmas, I had not had many chances to shoot with it, and I found the acoustic night to be the perfect opportunity. I took around two hundred photos that night, but I only picked five to post to this blog, four of which have been post-processed in Adobe Lightroom.

The first photo is straight from the camera and has not been processed. The first photo is of my neighbor during his set, and if I remember correctly he was covering “Creep” by Radiohead. That was a real crowd pleaser, everybody starting singing along. The next photo down is starting to explore my more artistic, both in my composition and the way I processed it in Lightroom. The subject was playing the piano part of “Fix You”, a song by Coldplay. It was a duet, but the photos I took of the singer weren’t that great. I shot the photo from a low angle with an exposure of one second and shooting the flash, and then in Lightroom I played with the contrast and vibrancy to make the subject jump out of the photo a little more. The next three photos were me exploring my more creative and artistic side. The third photo probably looks a little weird to you, like the subjects arm is managing to be in two places at one. That was because set the camera to a longer exposure, shot the flash and zoomed in and out at the same time! That decision, along with some contrast adjustment, produced what I thought was an interesting photo.

The last two show my love of high contrast black and white photos. Both photos were shot with the camera touching the stage, the first with my Sigma lens and the second with the Canon lens. When I took the photos, I thought they looked pretty good, but I knew I could do more with them to make the subjects really stand out against all the cables and mike stands. So I brought them into Lightroom and started to adjust the contrast, exposure, brightness, and black levels until I was satisfied with the end result. Out of the five pictures I posted, the last one is my favorite. I like how the white of his shoes offsets the black of the rest of the photo and how one’s eyes are drawn to them. Now I open it up to the readers, what do you think of my photos? Be honest, but be constructive at the same time, tell me what I did wrong and what I can do to improve, both in composition and processing. Anyone is free to comment and even share some samples of their own work!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

It will be a place for me to upload some of my photos and share them with the readers! Feel free to browse around and comment and criticize.

I hope you enjoy your stay!