Blending and Color Correcting Assignment

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Chris Willow works her sewing needles around the cap she is making in the Columbia Public Library in Columbia, Mo. on March 18, 2015. Willow is part of a group that she calls "Yeow" which means yarn every other week. The group meets every other Wednesday to work on sewing projects. "It slows down this time of year, but it picks up again when the weather gets cold," Willow said.

This was my very first experience with blending the color temperatures of light outside of the studio. I have worked with gels before to create a color cast in studio lighting situations, but I have never done it in a less controllable environment. I struggled with getting the lighting correct because each of the places I went had multiple light color temperatures.

            For my first take, I went to El Rancho on Broadway. The lighting above the eating area was tungsten bulbs and the lights above the place that the orders are taken and the food is assembled were florescent tubes. The lights above the grill were also tungsten bulbs. I was able to avoid having the tungsten light in my scene so I was able to balance to just the florescent bulbs.

            In my second take, I wanted to shoot in the greenhouses on campus. They have a very distinct color to their grow lights and they are all the same. I went to talk to the people about photographing the greenhouses and found out they are all restricted and off-limits to anyone outside of the program. They are doing research for Monsanto and they are keeping a tight lid on access. I ended up at the Columbia Public Library. This also proved to be difficult because they too have multiple types of lighting. I was able find a place that was mostly one form of lighting and balanced to that.

            This was the most difficult assignment thus far. It was extremely difficult to get my exposure right. In some I had the flash too strong so I would stop it down. Then the photo was too dark. Then I would lower the shutter speed to increase the exposure and to also allow more of the room light to hit the sensor. It was a very troublesome chain of events. I understand the concept completely. It is just the application that I had trouble with. If I had to do it again, I would look for a place that only had one type of lighting in it. It was also difficult to find people that would let me photograph them in the library. But I managed to find two ladies that let me.

Single Flash Assignment

Residents of the Den Apartment Complex check their bingo cards in Columbia, Mo. on March 11, 2015. The Den hosted its first "Grocery Bingo" night for the residents and have more planned for the future. The prizes were bags of groceries from Wal-Mart.

Anthony Hudson (center) laughs at a joke told by Amber Lucas (not pictured) during the "Grocery Bingo night at the Den Apartment complex in Columbia, Mo. on March 11, 2015. The Den hosted a bingo night for residents with prizes being bags of groceries from Wal-Mart.

 

The single flash assignment was definitely as step into a territory that I am not that familiar with. I have used flash before on portraits and that is about it. It is a completely different game using a flash on someone who is standing still, and aware of what is taking place. With this assignment, at least on the second take, my presence was extremely noticed by the people around the subjects that I was photographing.

            In the first take I followed two people that pick up trash in some of the parking garages around campus. I found them in the Hitt Street parking garage and asked if I could follow them and take some photographs. They seemed hesitant at first but allowed me to do so. But they had just finished that garage and only had the Turner garage left. This garage was much smaller but I followed them from the first floor to the top. They were in a truck and I was on foot so it was a chase from most of the time. The bounce flash worked better than the direct flash because the height of the ceiling made it very difficult to avoid the shadows cast by the direct flash because I was hand holding and couldn’t get the flash high enough.

            In the second take I found a bingo night close to where I live and photographed at one of the tables of participants. As I started photographing them, people at other tables started to move away from where we were. The bounce once again worked better for this shoot. I shot directly overhead and it created a nice, soft light falling down onto the table. Both selects came from this.

            I am not a fan of using flash in this manor. I understand that this is partly because of my inexperience with using it. But while photographer is invasive already, using a flash seems much worse. Using flash influences the scene to a degree that makes it difficult to use in a public setting. This is especially the case when not on an assignment. I don’t have credentials hanging around my neck, so I am viewed as nuisance. It is basically a “Look at me!” moment.

Blue on Black - Metal Assignment

The headstock of the PRS (Paul Reed Smith) Tremonti Signature reveals its iconic shape in Columbia, Mo. on February 24, 2015. Mark Tremonti was only the second guitarist to have a signature model created by the PRS company.

For the metal aspect of the assignment I chose to photograph my guitar’s headstock. The tuning pegs and strings are metal and the wood has a black lacquer finish. I positioned the softbox directly overhead and back of the guitar. Only the very edge of the softbox was putting light on the guitar. I did this because the body of the guitar was reflecting light into the camera. I placed a piece of paper on each side of the neck of the guitar to bounce light up towards the underside of the headstock. The background light was added midway into the shoot and I placed a blue gel on it (blue because of a Kenny Wayne Shepard song).

The main issue I had was the tuning pegs reflecting the ones above them. The two ways this could have been fixed was to either lay the guitar down and shoot up the neck or turn the tuning pegs flat so the short edge was all that would show. The problem with laying the guitar down is that the headstock wouldn’t be visible. The problem with turning the tuning pegs is that it would look awkward because they would appear very small and unnatural.

The idea for the metal in the background came while I was shooting. I caught just a little edge of one of the light stands and it showed the blue from the light. I really liked the way it looked. I had to switch some of the light stands to the black ones so I could have all the silver ones for the background.

The only thing I would do differently is I would try to clean the guitar better. I am very leery of putting anything liquid on my guitar and I didn’t have any professional cleaning substances. I did my best to scrub it with some cotton swabs.

I think the shoot went well. Katie was a great help and made everything go smoothly. We were able to setup, shoot, and tear down in a little over an hour. And that included adding two elements that weren’t originally part of our plan (background light and props). I would happily work with her again.