Concept



This year I will be mostly... taking a photo every day, and posting it up here for you all to see and comment on if you feel inclined (please do). It's not an original idea, I stole it off a friend and many other people are doing the same as I speak, but I thought it seemed like a great idea to get used to my new toy, my Canon Eos 500D with Tamron 18-250mm Macro lens - my first digital SLR.

A lot of sites online talk about 'project 365' where people are encouraged to take a photo every day, but while their take on it is to create a personal history of the photographer, I wanted to make it a bit more abstract, more about the world around me. So this isn't meant to be a photo diary of my life, I am striving for each photo to be 'good' because of its artistic and technical merit, not because it's personal to me. Having said that personal subject matter will inevitably creep in as inspiration, but that's allowed, the book I'm reading claim that "every picture we take is merely a self-portrait of our inner psyche"!

I had a think of a couple of ideas for themes and settled on 'moods'. Then I was hit by indecision as to what to do if I take a photo I like and want to upload as my daily snap, but it doesn't fit the theme. So I have decided that the theme is just for inspiration rather than as a criteria, the photos can be of anything. That way I get the most flexibility of what to upload, and still have a muse.

While I'll be taking photos every day, I'll only upload them every few days, so keep checking back. I'm not anticipating the photos to be groundbreaking (at least not to start with!), the whole point is to improve so I won't be great initially. But I'll still try my best which will hopefully keep it interesting. Please feel free to add whatever comments you like (hopefully constructive!) as that will help me as much as the process of actually taking a photo a day, I will endeavour to reply to them all.

For my trip reports blog see http://fidgetsadventures.blogspot.com


Sunday 23 January 2011

Sunday 23rd January 2011

I have Gasman (my first follower!) to thank for this idea. He told me about 'multiple exposure', where you take two photos on one piece of film (or the digital equivalent). Unfortunately my camera doesn't let me do this, Canon dropped the feature on their DSLRs as it's easier to do it in post-processing. However post-processing, barring enhancements that make the photograph closer to how it was in reality, seems like cheating to me, so I decided to have a play with a trick I read about to achieve a similar effect. You need dim light and a long-ish exposure, and move part of the subject half way through. The moving subject here was myself.

The mood is my mood this time. I've been feeling a little odd this weekend, spent most of it on my own doing useful stuff around the house, but I really wanted to be with company, and anywhere else, so I felt a little detached from reality. Ghost-like.


21mm, 10s, f/11.0 (auto from shutter priority), ISO 200

12 comments:

  1. Luv the ghostly image, very creative :0)

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  2. nice shot, and well doen for finding a way to do it.

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  3. gasman - All thanks to you. And without it I might not have had a photo at all, since I didn't get out during the day as I'd planned. The first thing I tried was something I'd read, about choosing a 10 second exposure and moving half way through, even moving just your eyes. I tried that in front of the chair for contrast, then when reviewing the shots I realised I could the chair would work better as an integral part of the photo rather than as a background... by just sitting on it. Although it's not as relaxing as it looks as I had two seconds between firing the camera and the exposure starting in which to sit down and freeze, chest heaving, then after a count of 7 I had to fly off the seat again so the camera could record the chair :)

    John - Google came up with the goods (third suggestion on this post: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1031&message=6005666), but it was fun playing :)

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  4. you're doing fine matey... :) And a great idea... :)

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4868117&l=fe7cb18706&id=795075012

    A bit like this one but this is Post Processing..

    Get the camera on that tripod again and put it on manual...

    21mm, 10s, f/11.0, ISO 200 like it was in the Shutter priority settings... BUT...

    This time also put the White Balance on manual and put it down to the lowest figure... About 2500K usually..

    It should then get rid of the "orange glow"... Indoor lights are very warm in colour temp so balance it out by using the white balance..

    For cloudy/shade use 5000k + or - 200..

    Sunny... About 4000 +

    You can use white balance to create some great effects..

    Like the sun set shots in these... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=579162&id=795075012&l=e5d81b03de all done just by changing the white balance...

    How about trying something like this?

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5157657&l=301748c73e&id=795075012


    G
    x

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  5. I like this Sarah - makes me think of 'depersonalised/depersonalisation'. (Term used in psychiatry/psychology. Perfectly depicts you wanted to be alone, not socialising. Agreed this is abstract,allows the viewer to apply their own interpretation - thought provoking.

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  6. Love this Sarah - soulful expression and posh frock too

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  7. kymberlie - I'm glad you got what I meant.

    Mum - Thanks. The first couple I took were with the old clothes I'd been wearing to decorate, but I decided if I was going to put a photo of me on the intenet I wanted to lok nice. And the dress happened to go with the chair :) I took loads and I actually preferred one of the shots where I wasn't looking at the camera as it seemed more in keeping with my mood, but I looked through the photos with Andy and we decided this was a better picture and now it's grown on me and I prefer it.

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  8. Clever stuff, and a good result.

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  9. Really love this one - good technique too.
    The colour cast seems to compliment the unreality.

    I'd say it would be worth trying this type of shot again (not that I'm meaning that this shot is unsuccessful!) - two (general) points to look out for in future: make sure all of you is in the shot as the eye naturally follows limbs around a picture, so a truncated one tends to lead the viewer 'out' of the scene, and background detail (like your digeredoo) can do the same.

    :-)

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  10. Gah, I (deliberately) took some with feet fully in but they didn't work so well as I was leaning to the other side and wasn't standing out against the darker background. I'm trying to get better at reviewing the photos on the camera rather than looking them on the computer and thinking 'I wish I'd done x differently'. Trouble is I can't 'see' the shot properly until it's on the full screen.

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  11. You've cut your toes off! otherwise good photo, i like it.

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  12. See reply to James :-) I didn't have a tripod then so positioning was a little tricky.

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