"AVAILABLE" Light

Cove lighting down to the floor in one of the museum's corners to highlight the texture of this feature wall made for a nice background - and lighting, of course.  The pose was Leah's idea.

Common knowledge tells us that available light is synonymous to ambient light.  While ambient light is beautiful, it is not always perfect and for this reason I chose to redefine the meaning of "available" light.  To me it is whatever light is at your disposal - including speedlites in my hands.

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Substance Above Style

Note: This article is not directly related to photography but I consider computers as an integral part of anyone's photography associated products and accessories - especially in the digital age.  You need a lot of computing muscles to move those megapixels.

My Acer Aspire 5740. I must say, "much more than I expected."

I must be weird for being, perhaps the only person, who is not a fan of the MacBook. Sure they're pretty, they're well made and fun to use but . . . it's just not for me. What I don't like most about it is the price. They say it's much simpler to use but . . . what can be simpler than what I'm already used to? I've been using PC for as long as I've been using computers - since the DOS days, long before Windows. And it's just so simple to me now.

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Big Lights with Tiny Strobes

That MasterCard slogan has been permanently etched in my mind, you know, "There are things in life that money just can't buy. But for everything else, there's MasterCard." I find an analogy of it with lighting that would go like tnis --> "There are lighting situations when only big lights will do. But for everything else, small strobes will definitely do."

However, it's true. Sometimes a big light is what you really need to illuminate, say, a full body shot. 1 strobe and an umbrella is usually all I need to light a head shot - even a half body shot.  But a full body shot, especially that of a leggy model, will require to light up those lean long legs as well. Otherwise, what's the point of her showing off those legs if they're gonna be in the dark?

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Event Well-Covered . . . With A Point-And-Shoot

Well, it's actually more than a point-and-shoot.  It was my ageing Canon Powershot G7 that I chose to bring to our club's (Doha Pinoy Shooters Club) 2nd Anniversary Party.  Much have been written and said about that so I will not tell the story again.  Instead, I will concentrate on sharing the experience of photo-covering an event without my precious DSLR.

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What You Are Not Lighting

For someone who's just starting to learn about lighting, it is a common objective to pay much attention on how to light his photographic subject.  Much attention is given to where the light - or lights - should be positioned.  For this reason, a would-be strobist will typically have an umbrella or a softbox on top of his shopping list of lighting accessories - that's what I did.  Why?  Because we are so focused on achieving what on-camera flash cannot do - soft light.  It's simply amazing how much a person could be so beautifully photographed with soft light coming from an angle that is not the same as your camera's point of view.

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WINNING Two In A Row

After yesterday's announcement at flickristasindios of their 031010 Photo of the Day, I've got another surprise today.  My entry, "Al Bidda at Dawn" (shown above) to our company's Hot Shots 2010 Photo Contest won in the Buildings and Property Category.

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flickristasindios: 031010 Photo of the Day

This came as a surprise for me.  I'm not an active member of flickristasindios group and, therefore, not one of it's more popular members.  Yet the photo above was selected as March 10, 2010 Photo of the Day!  Yay!!  To the admin and screening committee - a gazillion THANKS!!  Believe me, I feel like I've just hit the jackpot - BIG TIME!!

Cheers,

alexdpx

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

There are photos that makes you look because they're "nice" and "pretty" and "astig".  And then, there are IMAGES that intrigues your mind because they tell a story - or stories - and begs that you ask questions.

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Fashion and Portrait Shoot . . . with Available Light

Indoor photoshoot session with nothing but a standard sized window with drapes as light-source.

"Catch The Light" was the title of this DPSC workshop and photoshoot with our own Bench D. Yrac as guest speaker and facilitator.  While the photoshoot involved the use of a model, the focus of both workshop and photoshoot was how to use available light effectively.  I don't mind shooting fashion or portraits with available light - in fact this is what I always look for in an environmental photoshoot mostly - but that would almost always be accompanied by at least one artificial light (strobe) that I can literally control.

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