podq live » Photography

New Photo Adventure: Eyes

Joshua — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:32:21 +0000

For the longest time, I have wanted to explore a facet of photography that I’ve always found fascinating: eyes. Of course, there is always the trite but true:

Eyes are the window to the soul.

Yet there is so much more that can be explored here. Eyes, for the most part, portray emotions better than any other part of the body. Mouths can obviously portray emotions very well, but at the same time can often lie. Hands can speak of emotions, but require a physical action to be used. However, eyes require no action, and never lie. If the emotions are equated to the soul, then perhaps it really is true that they are the window thereof.

An example of kind of what I am looking to do is similar to this photo:

Technical Challenges

Eyes are a wee bit on the, um, smallish side, and I really want to focus on the eyes, and not on the rest of the face. Therefore, my shots will need to be very close, because I want to crop the picture to a panoramic of the eyes, but maintain as much size and detail as possible.

I believe the biggest challenge will be lighting. In many photos that are taken (sans perhaps glamour shots) the eyes are often transformed into darkish spots. I want to ensure that each person’s eye color is correctly portrayed, and that we aren’t looking at something shadowed.

As I’ve already said, I want to focus on just the eyes. This means that I will either crop the photos to a pano, or need to use something creatively to block out the rest of the face. My framing may get a little creative!

I’ve never done potraiture in any depth before, so I’m trying to learn all about lighting – evenness, brightness, natural tones, etc. For example, I’ve learned that to get the glints in eyes (when I want them) I’m going to need something called a “catch light” that is just a bright light that is reflected directly in the person’s eyes. I am also not sure yet what kind of lights I can use, I just know that typical incandescent lights are giving me a nasty yellow-orange glow. This part may require a little bit of investment.

Overall, I’m really excited about the many different directions I could take this. I already have some subjects in mind that I want to ask to volunteer. Some have simply amazing eyes that don’t even need to do anything to evoke (or portray) emotion, and others I think will be perfect for showing emotions. I am excited about the different mediums and effects I could use as well: intense color, black and white, duotone, blasted out, etc. I don’t want to have to do too much Photoshop work, but I also believe that in photography, you are working to achieve and formulate the shot that you want, and tools that help you achieve said goal are just that – tools. Not cheating techniques. Now if you completely change it, or use PS to enhance your basically crappy images hoping to get a great one, that doesn’t work. But otherwise, it’s good.

Unfortunately, I have only a limited amount of time to pull this off as well. I really would like to get it done by the time finals roll around, so that I could set up a mini-gallery to reward all those who have helped me. So that means I’ve got to learn how to do it, shoot everyone, print, matte, post, and provide a small text for every photo. But I am very excited about it, so hopefully with a bit of diligence and a lot of luck, I’ll pull it off.

Keep ya’all updated, and if any of you have any suggestions or tips, especially relating to portraiture and lighting, I would LOVE to hear them! Thanks!

Paige Ellsworth’s Work

Joshua — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 07:19:28 +0000

I was impressed by one of my friends, Paige Ellsworth from Texas, this evening as she showed me her portfolio. She has never taken a photo class, but has done a great job with her point-and-shootish Canon Powershot. Just check out this dock picture, and you’ll see what I mean!

Like I said, never taken a class, but has done some great work already. Keep it up Paige!

Foray into Medium Format Photography

Joshua — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 05:48:53 +0000

Whilst digging around my photo teacher’s box of old photographic equipment, I happened across a funny looking camera. It had two lenses, odd knobs all over the place, and a large winder on one side. After exploring the camera for a little bit, I pulled at the top and voila – a large lasered screen 2″ x 2″ stood before my eyes. I had found a medium format camera!

After further inspection and inquiring my teacher (Mr. McGill, one of the coolest guys ever, fourth time I’ve taken his class ) I found out that I had a Yashicamat 124, a medium-format camera produced in Japan in the 60′s. It shoots 120 and 240 film, includes a light meter powered by a battery that is no longer produced, and is fully manual. Exciting!

Mr. McGill was kind enough to let me take it home, and as soon as I can get to Wolf or Mikes, I will be picking myself up a roll of 120 to shoot away. Stay posted for the results.

Photography Portfolio Section Completed

Joshua — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 05:08:50 +0000

I have finally found, restructured, hacked, and completed the portfolio section for my photography. It is based on the growing Photostack script, and takes the place of the old WP-Photos hack by Alex King. For this reason, you will not see pictures if you go to individual posts like you used to. There will be a new link in each of the posts to go to a new gallery, or you can click on the big pictures on the front page, or you can always click on the featured picture at the top, or you can click on the link below. Have at it guys!

Enter the podq live Photography Gallery

EFY Photo Gallery Up

Joshua — Thu, 03 Jun 2004 16:52:18 +0000

Hey Everyone, the photo gallery for EFY is (mostly) up! Itâ€™s got a bunch of quality photos in it, but some of them turned out kind of bad cuz I have a crappy scanner. Other than that, take a look!
EFY 2004 Photo Gallery
P.S. I still have 36 more pictures to develop

Cameraphone Pictures

Joshua — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 16:48:31 +0000

Of course I couldnâ€™t resist! Sure, the quality isnâ€™t exactly that of my 6.3 megapixel Canon Rebel, but hey, they are lots of fun!

View the Cameraphone Pics Gallery

picking film

Joshua — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 08:31:04 +0000

Quick Summary:
Youâ€™ve seen it time and time again. “Perfect for Outdoors!” “Great for lowlight!” “Buy me because Iâ€™m expensive!” All these are familiar selling points you see on film boxes. Guess what, donâ€™t believe them! Quickly learn what types and what speeds of film to purchase for you next photo adventure, or trip to the park. Also covers what digital film/storage is.

Law of Thirds

Joshua — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 08:07:16 +0000

Quick Summary:
Ever wondered if there was just one sure fire way of making your photos better? Well guess what, there is! Itâ€™s called the law of thirds, and it is fully explained here.

people

Joshua — Sun, 16 Nov 2003 07:53:49 +0000

i needed a category for just people, besides miscellaneous, so here it is!

View the People Gallery

flaura

Joshua — Fri, 31 Oct 2003 05:10:30 +0000

all nature pics. i love nature pics, specially macro flowers! probably my favorite subject! btw, is that how you spell flaura?

View the Flaura Gallery

b&w

Joshua — Fri, 31 Oct 2003 05:09:27 +0000

These pics are all black and white, the pure essence of light, absence and presence.

View the Black and White Gallery

artistic

Joshua — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 07:48:36 +0000

in some way, demonstrate an aspect of art, like lines or texture or something. often from assignment photos.

View the Artistic Gallery

macro

Joshua — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 07:47:39 +0000

ah yes! macro is the bomb! most pics here were shot with a close-up filter kit, tho some are just regular.

View the Macro Gallery

miscellaneous

Joshua — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 07:47:20 +0000

all odd photos that donâ€™t really warrant a category of their own, but are still sweet.