Light Dance

"A light-emitting diode (LED) (pronounced /ˌɛl iː ˈdiː/[1]) is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices, and are increasingly used for lighting. Introduced as a practical electronic component in 1962,[2] early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness."

I could almost feel her excitement when she sent me that email from Osaka, Japan.  Air couldn't wait to get back to Doha to tell me about a new photoshoot concept.  She said she won't be able to sleep.  I thought, Wow!! - this concept must be really something to loose sleep.  Along with the email was a link to a  YouTube video of a rave dance routine, but it was too dark to really appreciate how this would look good in pictures - except for the moving blue lights, you could not see anything at all.  But I did got the idea of what she wanted to do. 

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Hard Lighting

Here's another photoshoot where I have broken 2 rules:

1. Do not shoot under direct sunlight to avoid hard shadows.

2. Soft, diffused light looks better on female subject.

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Against the Light

"Lady of the Woods" by alexdpx.  One Speedlite 580EX II behind the model. 

A great majority of photographers starting out with lighting will use one light, will have it positioned 45deg to either left or right of the camera horizontally facing the subject mounted at a certain height and 45deg pointing down to the subject.  In simple terms, a 45/45 setup or what is usually known as "the Rembrandt".  There is nothing wrong with this setup, in fact I have used it a hundred times and they always gave pleasant results.

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Action Air

"Extreme Workout" by alexdpx

First off, there is no lighting technique to be shared in this article.  We did nothing special here, just 1 speedlight in balance with ambient - which is the blazing afternoon sun.  This is all about the experience of a photoshoot which is different for both myself and the model.

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Why Flash Sync Speed Matters

I don't usually bother with camera settings.  Knowing the principles behind each control in my camera and how they work together is often enough for me and I just try to make adjustments on a case by case basis.  Every lighting condition is different and therefore requires different lighting strategies and adjustments.  Getting stuck to a formula or set of numbers is a very rigid way of working - you'll find it hard to adapt to situations most particularly when shooting outdoors.

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A Long Day . . . A Fun and Productive Long Day.

Al Shamal, the Northern-most tip of Qatar

Al Shamal . . . is literally translated in English as "North".  I just got back from a long and tiring day of driving, photoshoot and . . . yeah, I got scratches on my knees and right hand - battle scars, as I prefer to call them.  Despite all that, I had a lot of fun and was able to satisfy my hunger for artistic expression. 

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Shutter Speed Controls Ambient

First, a short review on the purpose of shutter speed and aperture to better understand what I am trying to say in this article.  Aperture controls how much light your sensor will be exposed to.  On the other hand, shutter speed controls how long you want your sensor to be exposed to that amount of light.

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For Your Convenience in Browsing . . .

For a more convenient browsing of Little Adventures, I am now employing blogger's feature of showing only the first few lines of the article in the main page.  Hopefully, this will minimize the need to scroll down so much to look for an article because the main page will now display more items.

To view the full article, you may simply click the "Read More >>" link at the bottom of each article.  What it does is take you to the individual pages of each article.  This also eliminates the redundancy of having the entire write-up in the main page and then finding the same contents in each article page.

So what do you think?  Is this better?  Yes?  Please let me know :)  No . . . I'm not giving away chocolates, sorry.

Cheers,

alexdpx