WEEK 3 – Using Lightroom and outdoor/indoor portraits

Choice of Photographer

My chosen photographer to emulate for next week will be Steve McCurry (as per presentation) as I want to see how much I need to manipulate my images to achieve similar results in post editing. I’ve always been amazed at the richness of colours of McCurry’s work and the way he frames his subjects to tell a story. I’ll probably try to use F22 for greater DOF, shutter speed at 17/80, ISO 100.

Light Room

Using lightroom was again something I really hadn’t any experience with. What I learnt from this experience is that I could bring a stronger sense to the subject by cropping as I’ve done here with my daughter. I tried to tone down the light in the background but it just didn’t look particularly good, even though I used the ‘tool’ to try and dampen it down. Also, I wanted to try and connect something with my daughter in the foreground and the man in the background who is looking on. He’s actually a friend and keeping him in the shot helps tell a story that there is some connection (which there is as his daughter plays with mine!).

The other images, such as the chair and the Sadhu, I simply wanted to experiment with the more kooky effects in the Lightroom toolkit, so I distorted the chairs which I think makes it more interesting. The Sadhu, with its now bleached out look, reminded me of the T-Shirts I’d seen while I was travelling in India. Actually, the original portrait shot came runners up in the Intrepid Photo Competition back in 2002.

Outdoor Prac

The outdoor prac was a good way to familiarise myself with the DSLR camera as I’ve never used one before (I spent a lot of my time pressing the wrong buttons). With the subject standing with the sun shining behind them created some interesting effects with the light streaming through the shot.

Subject backlit with sun

1/25, F-32

I had to play around with the exposure as I kept either over exposing the image or under exposing it. I also noticed that I had to either up the aperture levels or reduce them. I spent quite a bit of time trying to even this counter-intuitive elements.

With Flash

1/25, F-9

Using ‘flare’ to fill the portraits face.

With Flare

1/25/ F-9

No flare.

1/25, F-9

Indoor Prac

I enjoyed this more as the lighting helped attain more drama in the shot. With the cross light, the subject ,Taylor, looks stronger and more defined – a true Rembrant! Also, with the second subject (I forget her name!) I liked the way the coloured light is coming from behind, giving the image an eerie quality.

It also added a mystery to the shot. The light was softer and highlighted elements of the subject, drawing the viewer in.