Low Rise: Scouting…

A low rise building is a building with less than 10 stories. For my low rise, I scouted a few cathedrals in Atlanta that I unfortunately can not find the images for to post. I had my heart set on a church a few miles past Showcase, but once I got there, I realized there was no angle that I could get to that would shot the whole church without there being a bunch of trees in the way. So, while I was in Madison county shooting for a field trip image I found a really cute house with an interesting pathway leading up to it that I really liked so I decided to shoot that for a low rise option and it became my final image! You can see the scouting image below!

Ciao,

Shannon

The Results Are In… High Rise Architecture

 

When I shot my high rise the first time, I ran into a couple of hiccups and ended up re shooting a different building. The first High rise I shot, I was on the ground and my camera was tilted up at the building in order to get the whole thing in the shot. However, when you tilt your camera up like that, it causes a section of the building to go out of focus! When I went back I had a plan to fix all of my mistakes and get it right! I chose a vantage point that allowed me to shoot one third into the building which ensured sharpness throughout. I shot with a 4×5 Large Format camera with chrome film and my settings were ISO 100 F22 and the exposure that came out the best was using a Shutter Speed of about a second. In Photoshop I fixed a little distortion and took out all reflections and lights that were on the building so the shot would be clean and simple and focus on the nice gradient and pretty colors and lines. Check out the final product below!

 

Ciao,

Shannon

Inspiring ARCHITECTURE Photographer…

No matter what your field of expertise is, I think everyone needs a little inspiration… It was a bit difficult for me to find an architectural photographer whose work I enjoyed. Most seemed to do a lot of HDR work and work that was unimpressive. However, a photographer called Matt Silk really caught my eye with his architectural photography. He uses great colors and light to make the buildings really stand out. Check out his work to get inspired HERE!

STAY TUNED: My next post will include my first exterior architecture attempt!

Ciao,

Shannon

High Rise: Scouting…

This week I was on a mission to find a high rise building (more than 10 stories) and a low rise building (less than 10 stories) to shoot for my architecture assignment. Things to keep in mind when scouting buildings to shoot are the way the sun hits the building at golden hours, vantage point, and just how interesting the building looks… After driving around atlanta for a couple of days, I decided these buildings would be fun to shoot…

I really love the way light hits blue buildings and I really like the shapes of all of these buildings… One of my favorites is the last one because it is standing alone and will be a nice complimentary color to a blue sky.

As far as low rise, I have been scouting mansions on Paces Ferry Road for sale and I really like a couple in particular but I am waiting to hear back from the realtor to have the okay to shoot them. I also REALLY like a church on the corner of cheshire bridge road that I will revisit this weekend to snap a photo for reference.

This weekend I will be attempting to shoot my first high rise with the 4×5 and I will hopefully have the results by next friday so STAY TUNED!!

Ciao,

Shannon

The Results Are In… Food Photography

Below is my final image from my Food assignment… I decided to make it an editorial shot instead of an advertisement shot by making the brownies look exactly like they would if you made them yourself at home. I used window light from the right side to light the brownies and the window was big enough to wrap the light around the stack and spill onto the background. The things that I will be changing in this photo to make it a little better, is I will be changing the tablecloth to just a plain white table so that it is less busy. Below is the final image as well as how I lit it:

STAY TUNED: In the next post, we delve into ARCHITECTURE photography!

Ciao,

Shannon

Inspiring Food Photographer

Vegan Yum Yum is a blog by a woman named Lolo who is not a chef nor photographer, but she cooks all of the food featured on her blog and photographs it in a way that makes your mouth water! She started cooking when she became a vegan 4 years ago and her blog is extremely refreshing to me. It is refreshing in a way that she has no formal training on photography but seems to know how to light her food, and make certain important decisions to make the food look fantastic. If you visit her blog at Vegan Yum Yum, she explains her workflow from the cooking, to the food styling, to what dishes to select, down to what camera and lens she uses and why. I think this is an excellent site to push photographers out of the technical bubble that we sometimes get lost in and just step back and think about the simplicity of the shot and just think about what LOOKS good to us. Lolo has an impressive blog following and is successful by just cooking what she likes to eat and shooting the food in a way she likes to see it; it’s as simple as that!

STAY TUNED: My next post will be the results of my food photography shot!

Ciao,

Shannon

Food Photography…

This week we are shooting FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY! Below are my sketches:

DESCRIPTION:

1. ” A ballpark at the Ball Park” – An editorial type shot of a hotdog on the bleachers of a baseball field. LIGHT: natural

2. “Leaning Tower of Brownies” – (editorial) Brownies staggeredly stacked, big mug of milk, plate with a half eaten brownie on a kitchen table. LIGHT: window

3. “Breakfast In Bed” – (Editorial) Pancakes with fresh blueberries, cup of coffee out of focus and a vase with flowers out of focus on a Tray in a very comfy bed… LIGHT: soft, natural looking light

4. “Perfect Cupcake” – (advertisingish…) A single cupcake that looks beautiful and “perfect” with a huge mess of ingredients in the background. LIGHT: natural, even lighting… Spotlight on the cupcake.

STAY TUNED for Inspirational FOOD PHOTOGRAPHERS!

Ciao,

Shannon

How I Did It (Fashion)…

For my Fashion photo I rolled up a bunch of ties and placed them on different levels and and rolled some of them up into different shapes until I reached a design that I was happy with. I placed them on a black fabric that had interesting texture (almost like leather with cracks in it) and then played with a two light set up… The fill light was always too bright for my liking and kept creating an even light over the ties which I thought looked a bit boring… Even a reflector was a little too much light… So I stuck with a one light setup with a grid instead of a soft box to give that moody, speckled lighting that you see in the photo… Below is a visual on the set up: 

Ciao,

Shannon

The Results Are In (Fashion)…

Ok, I know that I just posted my Editorial piece, but I am also excited to share my Fashion photo! Mr. P. chose the sketch with the ties rolled up and I thought that was a great choice and I was excited to shoot it! I wanted to shoot ties because I think that a tie can say a lot about a person… I think that a white haired man with a tie filled with Daffy Ducks makes me think that he drank his coffee that morning from a “World’s Greatest Grandpa” mug, and a guy who is in the perfectly tailored navy blue suit with a fashionable light blue and grey tie to compliment is a guy who will wear a suit for the majority of his life and will never feel comfortable without one… When I see the girl at the coffee shop wearing her hair in a trendy “messy” braid paired with a form fitting blazer and a skinny black tie is one who is trying to appear unusual and aloof but has in fact chosen every piece of clothing item with care and consideration which in turn mirrors her “nonconformist conformist” image… I think ties have all different personalities and every tie has a home with someone. I picked this shot as my “best” shot because I think it shows the different personalities of each tie in color and shape, while staying in a symmetrical pattern to show that although very different, every one is still a tie…

Much like people, these ties are standing together sharing a single similarity but are proud of their differences…

 

STAY TUNED to see how I got this shot!!

Ciao,

Shannon

How I Did It (Gambling Addiction)…

Ok, so now you are wondering how I shot it, right? It was a very simple shot but it takes a little more of post production than most of my shots… I first set up the stacks of poker chips (the way I thought looked the best) on a black light table and lit them from the side with a soft box as close as I could get it to the chips without it being in the shot. This made the light very soft (the closer the soft box is to your subject, the softer the light), which is what I wanted… I wanted a dramatic side light to travel across the chips to give it a moody and interesting feel (I tend to like dramatic lighting on… well everything). Then I had my fabulous and talented partner, Tara (the same one who so graciously shoved my three wine glasses into the wall repeatedly to get the perfect splash) hold a 1 dice on its corner and let go on the count of 3 so I shot it for the split second that it stayed in its diamond shape. I then shot dice of all different numbers on the black table. In post production (Photoshop) I added a stock image of an IV bag (bought for $9.00 on Big Stock Photos) and burned and dodged it to match my lighting scenario, then added 3 of the dice into the bag. After adding the dice on its corner into the shot, I brightend the whole image a bit to give it a nice pop, and that was all!

Here is the lighting setup:

And it is as simple as that!

Ciao,

Shannon