Nightmare

Day 141 and I wanted to do a set shot that I had in mind ever since my daughter got a set of multicoloured toy bugs.

Let me just say that I don't like spiders. This from the guy with a pet 5' python, but I really don't like spiders, and even garishly coloured plastic ones make me feel uneasy. I decided that I wanted to try and capture something that echoed that.

I borrowed my wife, set her up on the couch and tried to get a shot like I had in mind. I ended up having her right on her back, me hovering above with a flash/umbrella adaptor in my left hand since I couldn't angle it correctly on the light stand.

The shot needed some work, so this is was another chance to work on my post processing, trying out some actions and fiddling with colours.

Here is the result:



I think it captured the emotion, and what more can you ask for? The plastic spiders a bit hokey but it's what I had on hand. I like it, it looks like what I expected.

Overtime...

Both my wife and I have been working late, and often we are seeing each other illuminated solely by the glow of our laptops. It's not exactly candlelight, but so be it.

For day 64, I wanted to capture this.



This was a fairly simple shot, handheld but stabilized on the back of a chair with the new 50mm at f/1.4, ISO 400. I knew it would be hyper-narrow for DOF, a bit noisy at ISO 400, and probably a bit blurry from being handheld, so I decided to embrace it and play with it in post.

This picture has been through colour correction, and I added a semi-opaque, eroded, desaturated layer over it. I used something similar with a high-pass filter on the pictures taken of the models at the lighting seminar and I like the effect. Not hyper-desaturated but with a cool, smoothing effect that doesn't lose contrast.

I've got the next family shoot tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be working on the post processing then as well. Look for some samples tomorrow night.

My models at home.

After yesterdays shoot, today I was looking forward to something a little less stressful to shoot. The good news is my family was more than willing to fill in as my models today.

I wanted to do something a little more candid, so I just made sure that my camera was handy all day today, and waited for the right moment. My son has just learned to 'give kisses' which actually involves him gumming the hell out of your face, but it's cute. At a quiet moment with my wife, he decided it was a good time to give kisses.



I'm loving that 50mm. And my wife. And the kids are okay too, I guess.