The other day I had another one of those “just for fun” photoshoots. This time I experimented with flare for the first time in a studio. To achieve this effect I had positioned a bare bulb to camera left of subject pointed directly at the camera. I also had another small softbox with a speed light attached on the same axis, in front and pointed at my friend. Finally I went into photoshop and increased the exposure, applied softening, and added a color filter to arrive at a more ethereal look. Gota say I was more than satisfied with the results.
Being my first time working with studio flare, I have to say that it was a bit chaotic to work with. Yet, I found that once I was able to somewhat predict what I would end up with, I ended up with lighting which I thought absolutely beautiful. But enough with my rants, try it out for yourself and see how you like it.
If you want to improve as a photographer, one of the first steps of doing so is to take time to look at and become inspired by other people’s work. Recently I came across this photographer’s website and there was one image I was completely blown away by. It’s the 4th picture from the left in the “portrait” section. Later on I was told by a fellow photographer that the particular effect used on that photo is known as “dragan”, named after the photographer Andrzej Dragan In a nutshell, it’s a photographic technique usually for portraits that brings and accentuates all the details of an image. Now normally, depending on what you shoot, you would want to avoid emphasizing the wrinkles, folds, and spots on a person’s face, but when used correctly, it’s quite an amazing effect as these two photographers have proved.
So I thought I’d have some fun and try the technique out for myself, courtesy of a photoshop action known as “draganizer” I found online. The person in the picture below is none other than my dad. I’ve posted an unaltered pictured on the right for comparison.
Click on the photos to see the larger versions.
For this particular photo, the dragan effect doesn’t seem to work well. If I had made a simply change to the background instead and had a dark one instead, it would have been more appropriate. But then again, my dad probably wasn’t the best subject for this photo experiment either. Oh well, I’ll end up with something better next time.
I’ve always wondered how to take pictures of models and make it look as if they’re underwater. The answer is projected lighting, a technique where you point a light through an object to reticulate and refract the light. Exactly the same principle as when you hold a magnifying glass against sunlight. Anyway, here is what I did for my assignment. I combined this with the painting with light technique using a flash light so I could aim at the object in four different directions. After uploading the images, I then stitched another image onto it so I could end up the purple vase, but in hindsight I’m not sure if I like it… oh well
