Bacon Lettuce Photo

by Joe

This shot was from a session on model posing and lighting. I actually got to it late since the first session I went to turned on to not be as interesting as I’d hoped (I forget what the topic was). Exercising the “law of two feet” I soujourned out to find something else. The session was in the Chromatarium, which we’d just finished cleaning out the day prior. It was previously a fish store and we cleaned it out to bare studs. Thinking that wasn’t interesting to look at and not having time to fix them proper, we found a bunch of old 9ft seamless to cover the walls with. I was excited to see the room getting use, so I went in to check it out.

This photo in particular was during a demonstration on setting your key light and the shadows it will create. The shadows here are pretty harsh, and later the folks giving the session showed how using a simple piece of white foamcore to reflect some light back would “open them up” or make them less harsh. You still want them, but for a female model, soft shadows look better.

I’d like to say the composition of the frame had some philosophy behind it, but in all honesty, I had a 50mm prime on my camera, and due the to room being packed, I couldn’t zoom. I actually like the negative space and the seam of the two papers. Exposure-wise, it looks a little hot - I really need to go back and process photos with a more critical eye. I mainly wanted to get them out fast.

[Incidentally - the "law of two feet" is one that states if you are not getting or giving any value somewhere, you are obligated to exercise your two feet to get yourself somewhere where you will. No one is to take offense to this.]“

You can find Derek’s Flickr stream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddysart/ and his blog is at http://hirlpoo.com.  Just like Pete Prodoehl and many others, Derek participated on this past PhotoCampMilwaukee.

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Brought to you by iLovePhotos

by Damian

The shots were taken near the end of PhotoCampMilwaukee, while most people were out on an evening photo walk. I was in the Chromatarium at Bucketworks, where we had put up colorful backdrops, and decided that since I missed the strobist session earlier in the day, I would do my own. Of course, that meant having to be the photographer and the model. I set up my flash on a stand, and my camera on a tripod, and used a remote to take the shots. Since I got sick of running around behind the camera to see the screen after each shot, I actually took a mirror and leaned it against a chair to see the camera screen so I could position myself for the next shot. I took a lot of shots, but I think a few of them turned out pretty nice. (And the iLovePhotos shirt just adds an extra bit of coolness to it!) Sadly a few hours later my flash died, so I guess that puts my strobist career on hold until I can replace it. PhotoCampMilwaukee was a ton of fun though, and I learned a lot.

When I processed the photos I ended up really pumping up the color in the wall, so I had to bring the saturation down on the skin tones, which gave me the idea to do the selective coloring version.

PhotoCampMilwaukee was held on Saturday May 2, 2009 at Milwaukee, WI. He was the organizer behind this great event.  PhotoCampMilwaukee was a one-day event fully focused on photography, for people who love photography. They had professionals as well as hobbyists, and had a full schedule planned including photoshoots, photowalks, demos of software, discussions of techniques, digital workflows, cameras, accessories, and related equipment, and just plain old fun and useful things to do with photos, photography, cameras, etc. iLovePhotos had the pleasure of sponsoring this event.

You can check out more of Pete’s photos and uploaded photos from participants of PhotoCampMilwaukee.