Tag: Photoshoot

by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

The Queen of Fire – My Autumn Photo Shoot Project

A Story About the Worshipper of Fire

I did this photo shoot at the same time I worked on my Halloween photography project, at the same location, with the same model. The only difference is the theme of the photo shoot. In this project, I wanted to create a story of a woman who gains her strength from fire to perform various magic and ritual. I also used some properties such as a dagger and candle to enhance the mysterious atmosphere.

This project was created for my photography class assignment. It was a monthly individual project and has to be submitted to get the certificate. As I had only four days before the date line of submission, the preparation of this photo shoot was very rushed. Fortunately, I managed to get some good pictures.

I wanted to share some of my work in this article, and I am waiting for your comments and critiques about them. Hopefully you like the pics.

The Concept and Preparation

The Lady in Red
I was inspired by Melisandre, the “Red Woman” from Game of Thrones TV series. I am a big fan of this program, and Melisandre is one of my favorite characters. Beautiful, mysterious, hot, wicky, and ambitious; those are the characteristic of the “Red Woman” that I wanted to show in this project.

In order to achieve the scary, mystical, and horror atmosphere; I arranged every elements of the photos in very contrasting composition. The bright, flaming red dress of the model successfully formed a beautiful harmony with the dark lighting, low exposure that can be found in the most of the background of the photos. To enhance the grim, funerel, and horror atmosphere I added some particular properties in the photos such as candle light, knife, and witty mysterious looking doll. This effect is later strengthened by applying blood on the face of the models. The story within the photos can be freely interpreted by the viewers. It can be a story of blood lusting woman, about a girl who performs dark sacrament and turn herself into undead, or maybe a story of ancient ritualof particular clan.

The final result of the combination between the horror, the fashion, and the model is indeed surprising. The photos show a figure of scary, mysterious woman. The models radiate strong horror atmosphere, brings out the feeling of fear to the viewers, reflects her lust for blood; but at the same time she looks very beautiful, attractive, and implies the luxurious gratification of sensuous desires.

Behind the Scene

The process I did for this project

The first time I did for this project was rewatching all the episodes of Game of Thrones where Melisandre strongly influence the plot. I wanted to capture her mysterious beauty and her loyalty to worship the fire. Then I contacted my friend, Dechen, a Bhutanese girl which I found suitable for this role. As I told you that we have very limited amount of preparation, I planned everything almost on the spot.

The location of the photo shoot is only a small room, as I don’t need too spectacular background. I wanted to focus more on the model so I didn’t want the background to distract the viewer’s attention from her. I used two type of lenses for this work, the standard kit lens, and a fixed lens. The whole photoshoot took about three hours, including the make-up and properties preparation. The most interesting thing was an encounter with an old uncle who worked as a professional photographer for National Geographic. He told me that he used to take a lot of photos with his Leica camera, and he gave me a lot of advice about this art.

The post-processing stage was only about an hour. I used Adobe Lightroom, which is very handy for this kind of work. I create an editing template, save it as a preset, then applied to all photos. The next step is just working on the small detail on each photos, which took only about half an hour. In conclusion, I am very satisfied with this project.

My personal photography tips

Some tips to make you enjoy this art more and take better photographs

Be creative
It sounds easy, but kind of hard to do. Being creative is not only about creating something new. It is also about changing the perspective of a people toward something. In terms of photography, creativity connects with innovation. You need to see your subject from different perspective, frame them into an unexpected composition, and attempt to surprise people who view your photos.

Be passionate
Passion is very important in any kind of arts. In photography, you need to have passion if you want to succeed. Try to enjoy every moment of practice and every moment of learning. Think that every time you press your shutter camera button, you are a step closer toward your dream. The more images you click, the happier you are. Thus, if you have passion, it’s only a matter of time to be successful.

It’s not about the camera, but the person behind it
Don’t ever think not to take picture because you don’t have a good camera. Indeed, good camera is important to help you take good pictures, however it is not a compulsory thing. An okay (or even poor) camera can take a lot of beautiful pictures if it is used by a good photographer. In the contrary, a good camera would never create even a single beautiful photo if the person behind it has no passion, knowledge, and creativity.

Always try to have fun in photography
Be happy whenever you take photos, and those photos would make you happy. As simple as that. Have fun, then you could create amazing photography works within no time.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

The Mystique of Love – My Photography Class Project

My Experience Doing Outdoor Photoshoot at Night

I joined a photography class for beginner in June 2012 to learn the basic knowledge of this art. At the end of two months course, they gave an assignment to make a photography album consists of at least ten photos. There should be a meaningful story in the album, and the theme of the story is about Indian culture. There is no restriction for the subject of the photos and we should be able to finish this project within one week.

Thus, I decided to do this work, titled “The Mystique of Love”. I worked with two models (actually, they are my friends) to create a story about Indian culture. In this article, I wanted to share some of the photographs for this assignment. I am looking forward to your comments, feedback, and opinions.

The Preparation and Concept

It’s should be about “India”

Creating a photo shoot with a specific theme is not an easy work. You need to allocate a lot of time to do proper research, planning the costumes, locations, and poses. Moreover, I only had one week before the date line of this project. So, I contacted Nooreen and Varsha, two of my friends from Mauritius whom I worked with in a previous photo shoot titled “The Night Song”. I requested their help to participate in this project as models, and luckily both of them had completed their exams, so they could help me.

The story of these photos was created based on a traditional Indian folklore, about a painter who brings her subject to life with a magic power. For this project, I wanted to combine the modern as well as the traditional aspects of Indian culture. Thus, one of the model would wear a modern shirt, symbolizing a modern, liberal woman in the society; and one of the model would wear a traditional “saree”. I also wanted to capture both of the models in a frame, but they should not be aware of other’s existence. There should be no direct contact between the model, just as they live in different dimensions.

The Execution of the Concept

It’s more challenging than my other photo shoots.

To be honest, the pressure to do this work was much higher compared to my other works. It was because a requirement to get at least “B” for this assignment, otherwise I won’t be qualified to get the certificate. I was forced to think some very different concept that I have never done before, and this one should be better than my previous works.

I decided to do something different by doing an outdoor photo shoot at night. We went to Landscape Garden in Osmania University to get the “forest look” for these photos. Unfortunately, we had only less than an hour to complete the work because the garden were closed on 7 PM. I worked in a rush to complete my plan, before moving to another location.

The next location was just outside the garden, near a small tree. I wanted to create some “mythical” and “dream-like” environment without having to work with Adobe Photoshop. So, a tree under the orange bright light of street lamp would be suitable for this concept. Everything seemed well until a group of man who live in that area came and approached me. They watched from faraway, whistled to the models, said something in their local language, and laughed. Thankfully, me and the models did not understand their language, so we could carry on. Nonetheless, it wasn’t the most comfortable condition to work, for both the photographer and the models. Thus, I had to finish the photo shoot as soon as possible to avoid worse situation. Fortunately, we could finish our work in forty five minutes.

I submitted my photos the next morning, and I was very happy to know that they met the requirements of the course. I got a good mark, and happily received my certificate,

Tips to do an outdoor photo shoot at night

If you are a beginner photographer, try to avoid it
Technically, doing an outdoor photo shoot at night is a very difficult thing, especially for newbie. You will need a very good digital camera that enables you to shoot in high ISO without too much noise in the photo. Sometimes you will also need a very good lighting, as the default camera flash is not good enough for any serious photography work. So, if you can find another theme, just avoid to take photo in this condition.

Tripod is a must
You need to make the camera to be stable because small shakes can make your images to be blurry and out of focus. Even with a tripod, this happens a lot. So, tripod is a compulsory thing for any low-light photography.

Think about the environment
Be sure that the place you are going to do the photoshoot is a safe place. Try to do it in a family garden, tourist spot, or university park. Never try to do this kind of work in an unknown place, where you don’t know exactly who is its owner. Always have an assistant, and it would be better if the assistant is the local resident where you do the photo shoot.

Always set your camera to the best image quality
It is recommended taking the pictures in RAW format, so that later you have more freedom to work with the exposure. Post-processing is a vital work whenever you take photos in the dark. You might want to crop, desaturate, or highlight them. Thus, you should always select the highest resolution and highest image detail.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

The Girl in the Red Skirt

My Photography Project – A Cute Girl in Beautiful Red Skirt

As a photography student, I have a lot of assignments, projects, and exhibitions to be done. One of my latest assignment was given by my lecturer last winter for our mid-semester examinations. As I really enjoyed working on this project, I decided to share some of the photos that I submitted for this purpose through this article.

The title of this project is “The Girl in the Red Skirt.” My lecturer told me to take photographs of that reflects warmth as well as mysterious feelings. Somehow, I was very puzzled by the theme. There is no further explanation about the type of the subjects, the technical requirements, as well as the limitation of the theme interpretation. Confused, I tried to take a look at a lot of references online. Finally, I found great concept then immediately contacted one of my friends to be a model for this project.

Please let me know your opinion about the photos in this article. Just for your information, I can’t upload the best pictures because they were selected for exhibitions. Although the pics in the photos are not the best, but somehow I still love them very much.

Constructing the basic concept

The idea of this photography work is to take a photo of innocent-looking girl with simple outfit. I wanted to emphasize her innocence, therefore I thought too glamourous dresses would ruin it. As for reference, I looked at the story of Alice in Wonderland. The story worked like a charm for me in finding the idea related to the given theme for this project. The world where Alice lives is very beautiful, filled with cute-looking creatures, but it also has hidden mysterious, even fearful atmosphere within it.

The mystery hidden behind the cuteness and beauty of the subject is the main thing that I’d like to show in my photographs. In order to find the technical concept such as the pose of the model, the composition, and the secondary objects; I consult to my photographer friends. Most of them told me that I should play with the color to convey my intention to the viewers. I have to select two different contrasting colors in order to enhance the two different aspects / atmospheres within the photos. By considering their opinion and also reading various references, I decided to pick “The Girl in the Red Skirt” as the title of my project.

Working with the model

The model of this photoshoot is my college friend, Lina. She is from China, and we worked in several different photography projects before this event. As a model, she is very passionate about photography and modeling. Working with her is always a fun thing to do, especially when we didn’t have constrained deadline to complete the work. The moment when I contacted my friend, she just completed her exam so that she would be available at the D-day of the photoshoot. Lina gave me a lot of ideas for this project, including the use of various properties such as balloon and necklace.

For this project, I found a lot of challenges, especially in finding the most appropriate model for the theme. She should have cute, innocent looks; but at the same time also need to have a feeling of mysterious and enigmatic. At first, I doubted that I could find these qualities within Lina. However, after I told her about the concepts and about my doubt, she said that she would work her best to be able to appropriately show the concepts within the photos. Indeed, she did that very well.

The photoshoot

The overall process of the photoshoot was very good. We arrived early morning at the location and immediately started the work. It took about two hours to complete the first session of the project. As it was early morning, we somehow managed to work more productively and efficiently. There were some moments when I had her to stay still for long time, and I think they were the only difficult things to do during the photoshoot.

After two hours of work, we took a lunch break. During the break, I found a lot of more great ideas for the next photoshoot. I told my idea to the model, and she said that it was very good. Without no preparation, we executed my completely new concepts in the second half of the photoshoot. The results are amazingly good, but it is somehow unfortunate that I can’t show it in this article.

I completed the photoshoot session for a total of eight hours work. I immediately went home and edited some of the photos for another two hours, then submitted to my college website just ten hours before the deadline. I was very happy when they announced that I got good results, and some of the photos were even selected for exhibitions in a famous art gallery in my city.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

Sweetheart, My Photography About Long Distance Relationship

My photography project

“Sweetheart” is one of my favorite photography project that I did about a year ago. The concept is simple but the result is very satisfying (at least, for me as the photographer). The process of the photo shoot itself is also very fun. It took about six to seven hours to complete the shoot, but I enjoyed every single second of the work. Not only a set of photos, I managed to create four photos with four different concepts.

In this article, I’d like to show some of my work in a photo set titled “Sweetheart”. This is a set of pictures about a girl who visits her long-distance boyfriend for a short time. I deliberately didn’t put the boyfriend figure in the photo, as I want the viewer to feel that he is the boyfriend. Please let me know your opinion about these pics.

Behind the scenes

Actually, I didn’t plan to create this set of photos. My real intention for this photo shoot is to work on my course assignment, which is about “a girl and an apple” (I also published a lens about it. Feel free to check). At that moment, the model just arrived in the location of the shoot. I tried to established a rapport with her, having small conversation, re-explaining the concept, when suddenly I realized that she wore perfect outfit with the interior in the room. Thus, I decided to take some photos of her when she just arrived at the location. I gave her no instruction, just asked her to continue what she was doing. Surprisingly, the photos turned to be very good.

As I explained in the intro, this set of photo is about a visit from a girlfriend. Thus, I tried to emphasize the romantic feelings by making the color tone to be softer and warmer. I took only about fifteen photos, and surprisingly all of them are very satisfying. From those fifteen, I decided to publish five of them in this Squidoo article.

Let me tell you a brief story about the model. She is one of my old friends in college and we have worked several times for a photoshoot. One day, she called me, asked for my help to do some shoot for her portofolio. Amazing timing. The moment she called me, I was just given an assignment from my course to submit a photo shoot work. Hence, we arranged a place and decided to do one full day work.

The atmosphere of meeting with an old friend and good weather really elevated our mood. We managed to create more than two hundreds photos on that day. I post processed about hundred of them, divided the pictures into four or five categories, and submitted the best for my course exhibition. Although these photos are probably not my best, they are definitely the most satisfying that I have ever created so far.

The photoshoot went very smoothly. I used my favorite Rebel T3i, a tripod, and two different lenses. I also experimented with newly bought lens filter which I used to create the warm, soft color tone. We went straight for three hours work, took an hour lunch break, then continued for the next for hours.

Some tips from me

They might be useful if you want to do a photo shoot

Play music
Good music could help you and the model to be more immersed to the photoshoot. It is also very useful to help you find the mood that you wanted for the photos. It works best, especially for amateur models who don’t know how to pose. Just play the right music, and it will help them a lot in posing in front of the camera.

Take your time
No need to be in a hurry. Make sure that you establish a good rapport with the model before proceeding to the real work. If you can talk to the model and make her to be more comfortable working with you, then it is better. However, if you feel that you are not a good talker, just greet her. You need to interact with her not only during the shoot, but also before it.

Be sure to enjoy your work too. Don’t hesitate to take a break whenever you or the model feel tired. No need to be in a hurry, as I believe that it is better to take ten good photos in a good mood rather than hundreds of photos under extreme pressure.

Take a photo in RAW format
Be sure to set your image quality in your camera in RAW format. It will help you a lot in post-processing stage. I had a very good photo shoot at my early period learning photography, where I was able to take more than fifty great photos. However, I forgot to set my camera in RAW format, which I regret it very much.

So, before starting a photography project, make sure that the image quality in your camera is in RAW. Be sure to bring more than one memory card, as this format will take a lot space in the memory storage.

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by David Burgess on April 26, 2018 0

My Photography Assignment, Close-Up Portrait

My Photography Assignment Project

In this lens, I want to share some of my earlier project as a photography student. I joined a short course in this field about a year ago. My first assignment was to create a set of photos mainly focus on the close-up face of the subject. I found that it was quite interesting and fun assignment. I spent only about two hours for the photoshoot and another two hours for the editing part.

For this project, I submitted around twenty photos and I decided to share some of them in this article. I remember that my teacher gave me compliment for some of my works. Some of them were even also exhibited in the annual college exhibition. Please let me know your comments and opinions related to my work, as I believe it would help me to take much better pictures in future.

The concept and ideas

As this is one of my earliest assignment in photography class, I was instructed to focus on the technical aspect. My teacher wanted me to learn the basic concept of portrait photography. Thus, he asked all of the student to really pay attention to the focus. The focus must be on the eyes. The composition should be interesting, and we could use any post-processing software that we love.

I decided to create something more surrealist. I decided that for this assignment, there will be only three dominant color: black, white, and red. I was greatly inspired by Natalia Varzina’s works during working on this assignment and somehow she influenced me in a lot of aspects of this photographs.

My teacher told me that there should be at least two different expressions captured in this project. I decided that two of them are confusion and anger. I also experimented with different angles and perspective before finally being able to find the best angle that I wanted to capture. The process of the photoshoot was quite fun. It was considerably quick compared to my other shoot, as it took only about two hours, including the tea break time.

At that time, I was very inexperienced in working with model. I just instructed her to do the basic expressions such as smiling and frowning. During the two hours of work, I managed to capture around one hundred images. Among those, I selected the best twenty and edited in Adobe Lightroom.

The editing process was also quite fun. I was pretty relieved that I got the focus well. I decided to use manual focus, and since it was my first work where I fully used manual focus, I was kinda afraid that the result would be disappointing. As I mentioned before, I only included three major color in the final result of the images. All images should be in black and white, with little addition of red to make it more surrealist.

I submitted the work right after I finished the editing process. Although this assignment was not my best work, I feel pretty happy about them. I managed to get “pass” mark, and my teacher even complimented some of my photos. Somehow, working on this assignment gave me great spirit boost to create better photography works in future.

Some tips

I have several tips that might be useful for you, based on my experience:

Enjoy every moment of your work
This is the first principle that is applicable for any kind of work. In photography, you need to have passion and sincerity towards your concept. You should be able to enjoy every moment you work with your subject. By enjoying your time, you would be able to create some photos that is not only technically good, but also has strong emotional value in it.

Learn from the expert
My teacher told his students that we should spend at least a good one hour per day to take a look at the best works of professional photographers. By doing that, we would be able to learn the technical aspects as well as improving our eyes sensitivity. One most important thing, you should enjoy the learning process so that it has maximum effects in improving your skills.

Manual focus
From this photoshoot, I learned that manual focus works best for portrait photography. It may be difficult to adjust the focus at the first time, but once you are getting used to it, everything would be easier. Manual focus is always better than auto focus, as I believe that human eyes is much better than the artificial focus points in the most expensive camera in the world.

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