116. Paint - August 30-September 4, 2015
Kevin-
I have had this shot in mind for a while, and was eager for my turn to come up in the WPOTM! There is a dry Indian paint powder called Holi paint. It is commonly applied to faces and such during festivals in India. I wanted to photograph a model with the Holi powder descending on her. I also wanted her to be jumping into the air at the time!
I had a tarp on the floor of the studio and two giant 8’x8’ folding foamcore panels on either side of the model. Three Nikon strobe units were used (two as backlights for the paint powder and one, with a dome on it, aimed at her face) they were set to their lowest power settings (1/128th power) as that allowed them to keep firing at the highest frame rate of 10 FPS rate on my D4s - for 5 or 6 frames before needing to recharge again. I also knew that the giant foamcore panels, just barely outside of the frame, would soften everything.
The young model, “Lady M” is Chinese and was booked through Model Mayhem As with many models on that site, she is trying to build her portfolio, so they deal was TFP (time for prints). In other words she didn't charge for her work, and I didn’t charge to photograph her.
This shot required an expert assistant to hurl the Holi paint powder toward the model at the right time for each sequence. Fortunately Byron Braton’s schedule was free! What better assistant expertise could I ask for?
Nikon D4s, handheld, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens. ISO 800, 1/250th of a second (flash sync) at f/5.6.
The shoot took about 45 minutes as I recall. Setup before and cleanup after took MUCH longer!
I have had this shot in mind for a while, and was eager for my turn to come up in the WPOTM! There is a dry Indian paint powder called Holi paint. It is commonly applied to faces and such during festivals in India. I wanted to photograph a model with the Holi powder descending on her. I also wanted her to be jumping into the air at the time!
I had a tarp on the floor of the studio and two giant 8’x8’ folding foamcore panels on either side of the model. Three Nikon strobe units were used (two as backlights for the paint powder and one, with a dome on it, aimed at her face) they were set to their lowest power settings (1/128th power) as that allowed them to keep firing at the highest frame rate of 10 FPS rate on my D4s - for 5 or 6 frames before needing to recharge again. I also knew that the giant foamcore panels, just barely outside of the frame, would soften everything.
The young model, “Lady M” is Chinese and was booked through Model Mayhem As with many models on that site, she is trying to build her portfolio, so they deal was TFP (time for prints). In other words she didn't charge for her work, and I didn’t charge to photograph her.
This shot required an expert assistant to hurl the Holi paint powder toward the model at the right time for each sequence. Fortunately Byron Braton’s schedule was free! What better assistant expertise could I ask for?
Nikon D4s, handheld, 85mm f/1.4 Nikkor lens. ISO 800, 1/250th of a second (flash sync) at f/5.6.
The shoot took about 45 minutes as I recall. Setup before and cleanup after took MUCH longer!
Paul-
Before you read any farther, let me make a preemptory disclaimer at the outset to put to rest any confusion you may have. To wit: The white, concave background you see in my picture is not—I repeat, not—the inverted lid to my wife’s favorite enamel pot. To pour black paint into such a thing without first getting permission with my spouse would be impolite and reckless in ways I hope you can’t imagine. So, no, it’s not anything she owns, treasures, or might be on a storage self near my little studio. It’s something I found in the used enamel pot top section at Target. Sure does look like my wife’s lid though…
Once or twice I have sketched out in advance what I wanted to try and capture for a weekly submission. Or I idly scribbled out a few ideas upon which I might be a serviceable foundation to a great shot. I did it for this week’s the theme because it had so much potential. The drawing process in projects like is fairly similar to the one Congress goes through with legislation: Don’t think overmuch, make the idea completely your own, and take credit only if what you put your mark to actually works. It turns out I didn’t use any of these cryptic and childishly scrawled images for the composition. But it was fun, and reminded me of how much fun I have roughing out stuff on paper.
I used tempera paint for most of the color, though acrylic and metallic craft paint was used here and there. As I had a crazy week ( crazy busy, not crazy demented) with only small windows of opportunity to devote to the picture, part of one late evening just involved mixing paint colors and getting the different brushes thoroughly saturated. I knew the pigments would be bone dry before I had a chance to get back to the project, but figured I could use a spray bottle of water or some kind of gel to provide an illusion of wet paint. I know this would be very easy to do since I was likely to forget to do it. It was. I did. To try and punch things up a bit, I used the lid of a pot—which I cannot emphasize enough my wife has almost never seen—and poured in a largish amount of black paint to provide a little bit of reflectivity, contrast, visual interest, and the illusion that this was exactly what I wanted to do long in advance.
Our story so far: Shot at 1.3 sec.; f/29; aperture priority; ISO1600; full metering mode; + 1 EV; 18-55mm lens set at 30mm; lit with room light only (one incandescent bulb); camera mounted on a copy stand. I ticked up the vibrancy and saturation slightly because the dried paint look a bit like…well, dried paint, but it came out looking a little too vivid as a result. Sort of a clicking Geiger counter kind of hot, but for color. Two steps back. I dropped the clarity of the picture (by about 70%), to see if that might provide an interesting effect. I kind of liked the result.
Now…where’s that lemon-scented Dawn?
Before you read any farther, let me make a preemptory disclaimer at the outset to put to rest any confusion you may have. To wit: The white, concave background you see in my picture is not—I repeat, not—the inverted lid to my wife’s favorite enamel pot. To pour black paint into such a thing without first getting permission with my spouse would be impolite and reckless in ways I hope you can’t imagine. So, no, it’s not anything she owns, treasures, or might be on a storage self near my little studio. It’s something I found in the used enamel pot top section at Target. Sure does look like my wife’s lid though…
Once or twice I have sketched out in advance what I wanted to try and capture for a weekly submission. Or I idly scribbled out a few ideas upon which I might be a serviceable foundation to a great shot. I did it for this week’s the theme because it had so much potential. The drawing process in projects like is fairly similar to the one Congress goes through with legislation: Don’t think overmuch, make the idea completely your own, and take credit only if what you put your mark to actually works. It turns out I didn’t use any of these cryptic and childishly scrawled images for the composition. But it was fun, and reminded me of how much fun I have roughing out stuff on paper.
I used tempera paint for most of the color, though acrylic and metallic craft paint was used here and there. As I had a crazy week ( crazy busy, not crazy demented) with only small windows of opportunity to devote to the picture, part of one late evening just involved mixing paint colors and getting the different brushes thoroughly saturated. I knew the pigments would be bone dry before I had a chance to get back to the project, but figured I could use a spray bottle of water or some kind of gel to provide an illusion of wet paint. I know this would be very easy to do since I was likely to forget to do it. It was. I did. To try and punch things up a bit, I used the lid of a pot—which I cannot emphasize enough my wife has almost never seen—and poured in a largish amount of black paint to provide a little bit of reflectivity, contrast, visual interest, and the illusion that this was exactly what I wanted to do long in advance.
Our story so far: Shot at 1.3 sec.; f/29; aperture priority; ISO1600; full metering mode; + 1 EV; 18-55mm lens set at 30mm; lit with room light only (one incandescent bulb); camera mounted on a copy stand. I ticked up the vibrancy and saturation slightly because the dried paint look a bit like…well, dried paint, but it came out looking a little too vivid as a result. Sort of a clicking Geiger counter kind of hot, but for color. Two steps back. I dropped the clarity of the picture (by about 70%), to see if that might provide an interesting effect. I kind of liked the result.
Now…where’s that lemon-scented Dawn?
Jerry-
My first attempt at paint was to photograph the side of the 4th Street Saloon in North Minneapolis. It was ok, the highlight was being hit on by two drunks in the space of 5 minutes. In hindsight I could have tried posing them with the saloon in the background - but I didn't want to trust my luck. Next I tried photos of white painted plumbing inside the Mayo building at the U of M, free of drunks - only highly educated medical people, okay but pretty boring. I settled for a photo of my daughter putting on nail polish - and that is my choice for this weeks theme.
D750, 105 Micro Nikkor, SB700 Flash in bounce mode, 1/200 @ f11, ISO 1000.
My first attempt at paint was to photograph the side of the 4th Street Saloon in North Minneapolis. It was ok, the highlight was being hit on by two drunks in the space of 5 minutes. In hindsight I could have tried posing them with the saloon in the background - but I didn't want to trust my luck. Next I tried photos of white painted plumbing inside the Mayo building at the U of M, free of drunks - only highly educated medical people, okay but pretty boring. I settled for a photo of my daughter putting on nail polish - and that is my choice for this weeks theme.
D750, 105 Micro Nikkor, SB700 Flash in bounce mode, 1/200 @ f11, ISO 1000.
Don-
I took this picture on Monday in my garage thinking I would do something better.
I thought how cool the paint chip display at Home Depot would look but taking a
picture inside the store is frowned upon without permission. Then to an art gallery
on Thursday but it was closed while the prepped for a new show. Being stupid I
walked right passed a painting class as I was leaving the building without stopping to
take a picture that they would have happily let me take. So the garage paint
cabinet wins this week. f/6.3, 1/60 of a sec, ISO 100, 60mm with a flash in Aperture Priority.
I took this picture on Monday in my garage thinking I would do something better.
I thought how cool the paint chip display at Home Depot would look but taking a
picture inside the store is frowned upon without permission. Then to an art gallery
on Thursday but it was closed while the prepped for a new show. Being stupid I
walked right passed a painting class as I was leaving the building without stopping to
take a picture that they would have happily let me take. So the garage paint
cabinet wins this week. f/6.3, 1/60 of a sec, ISO 100, 60mm with a flash in Aperture Priority.
Byron-
Because I received a photographic education from HTC at a young and impressionable age, when I hear the word "paint" I think of painting with light. This photo looks like a simple portrait with maybe a ghostly quality to it. It was a complex photo to take. The camera is pre-focused and composed. It is set to f5.6 at 30 seconds. I would then shut off the lights, trip the shutter and use a small 1 LED flashlight to paint light on the subject. This would last about 10 seconds. The next step was to pull my Byro-diffuser (a shower curtain mounted on a PVC frame) in front of the subject. I then held a pink filter in front of the flashlight while drawing an outline of the subject from behind the subject. All this in the dark, mind you.
Note- I just noticed the difference between viewing the original photo which has a vivid pink surround and the compressed version that you see here. The background almost disappears. oh well, that's technology!
ISO 100, 46mm, f5.6, 30sec.
Because I received a photographic education from HTC at a young and impressionable age, when I hear the word "paint" I think of painting with light. This photo looks like a simple portrait with maybe a ghostly quality to it. It was a complex photo to take. The camera is pre-focused and composed. It is set to f5.6 at 30 seconds. I would then shut off the lights, trip the shutter and use a small 1 LED flashlight to paint light on the subject. This would last about 10 seconds. The next step was to pull my Byro-diffuser (a shower curtain mounted on a PVC frame) in front of the subject. I then held a pink filter in front of the flashlight while drawing an outline of the subject from behind the subject. All this in the dark, mind you.
Note- I just noticed the difference between viewing the original photo which has a vivid pink surround and the compressed version that you see here. The background almost disappears. oh well, that's technology!
ISO 100, 46mm, f5.6, 30sec.
Deron-
THE PROTECTORS
Painted this year in 2015 by an artist, I believe, named Soto, this wall mural is on the side of Pixel's Cafe in downtown Riverside. There are a few pieces around the downtown area, but this is my favorite. I initially wanted an actual, real-life human being to be a part of my photo, but I couldn't get anyone to ride down with me on Wednesday night. Instead, my bicycle is standing in to show the scale of this artwork. I did try to illuminate my bike with my bike light, as you can tell by the shadow. Being by myself and without some kind of stand, all I could do was lay my light on the ground trying to at least light up my bar tape, which matches the green foliage. Not a real technical or imaginative shot, but I do kind of like it.
THE PROTECTORS
Painted this year in 2015 by an artist, I believe, named Soto, this wall mural is on the side of Pixel's Cafe in downtown Riverside. There are a few pieces around the downtown area, but this is my favorite. I initially wanted an actual, real-life human being to be a part of my photo, but I couldn't get anyone to ride down with me on Wednesday night. Instead, my bicycle is standing in to show the scale of this artwork. I did try to illuminate my bike with my bike light, as you can tell by the shadow. Being by myself and without some kind of stand, all I could do was lay my light on the ground trying to at least light up my bar tape, which matches the green foliage. Not a real technical or imaginative shot, but I do kind of like it.