For our second photo assignment, I chose to capture still life photos. Choosing still life, I never imagined the planning and set up that would go into achieving a great picture. I originally had a black skirt covering my calendar and then black paper on my desk to create an entirely black background for the photograph. And although the black provided great contrast to the items I was capturing, there was still something missing...light. Taking the pictures in ordinary light from my room was boring and just kind of "normal looking." I wanted some light that would make the objects pop and really produce more quality pictures. I ended up using a desk lap that I could easily move around and create shadows and interesting effects with. In the end, I was extremely pleased.
Through this photo assignment, I learned to modify the lighting and and set up a background that works with a picture. I've never had to plan to take pictures as much as I had to for these. I moved around, turned lights on, turned lights off, etc. and eventually achieved the looks I really wanted. One challenge I had to work with was digital noise in my pictures, especially in the black backgrounds. To deal with this grain in my pictures, I edited all my pictures in Gimp, a tool I am becoming increasingly familiar with. Doing a levels adjustment in each of my pictures, and using the clone tool in the background every so often, really enhanced the quality of my photographs.
My best photo was shot was of my gladiator shoe. I shot this picture multiple times, but I just couldn't get the effect I was going for. I love these shoes, the sparkle and gold in them, and I wanted to capture a quality image of them. I finally moved my desk lap to create a little bit of shadow in the picture which I really liked. I did a little bit of a levels adjustment to create a bigger contrast between the shoe and the black background and loved what I ended up with.
My Best Photo:
Technical Info:
-ISO 200
-Aperture: f/6.3
-Shutter Speed: 1/10
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