Painting with Light

Missouri trails light up as the warm weather rolls in at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park on Tuesday, April 25, 2017. Columbia is home to multiple trails and nature areas, including the Gans Creek Wild Area. The rugged trail system welcomes hikers and horseback riders year round.



Painting with light was difficult. While I had some previous experience going into this project, trying to come up with a solid concept that wasn't visually overbearing was a challenge. Getting on the same page with everyone was another challenge. Strange things would happen in some of our images when we would see unintentional ghosting and other unexplainable light sources.

Blending & Color Correction

GELS and Journalism

The select:

Cindy Gwinner turns up the music as the cake walk gets started during the Earth Day Fair at South Elementary School in Eldon, Missouri on Saturday, April 22, 2017. "It's a wonderful event! The kids have fun and there's good prizes!" All cakes were baked by the faculty and all proceeds at the Earth Day Fair go towards funding for both South Elementary and Eldon Upper Elementary.

Outtakes of Cindy w/ different gels (orange for a warmer tone)

Blending was a challenge. In order to "match the ugly", one first has to find it and then also be able to capture a relevant moment.

Lighting Diagram at the cake walk:

Final Project Lighting Test

My final project will be a portrait series of passionate high school athletes. Each athlete is involved in a unique sport. Unlike your traditional high school football, basketball, or baseball star--I am looking for the passionate horse rider, golfer, track star, or any other wild athlete I can find in mid-Missouri.

This is a lighting test with my classmate, I shall see what adjustments I will need to make in order to express the subjects passion and personality accurately.

Multiple Flash

Levi Firkins grinds his skateboard across a rail at Cosmo Park in Columbia, Missouri on Wednesday, April 12, 2017.

Levi Firkins attempts to control his board while doing a trick in mid-air at Cosmo Park in Columbia, Missouri on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Firkins has lived in Columbia all of his life and has been skating at Cosmo Park for 11 years. "I just come out here to get the stress off," Firkins says, "you just kinda feel free."

Video Interview: Marta

Link to video:
https://vimeo.com/209808586

I put a lot of thought into the lighting setup. I know Marta, at least well from my time in the journalism school. She’s kind, spiritual, caring. I wanted to include a gradient for the background that would add some visual variety including a single light from the right to illuminate Marta with the fill light being off to the left. I wanted there to be balance in the shot and I feel that I achieved that. In terms of making sure that the video and audio was in sync also was a process. I wanted to make sure that I had different angels with different focal lengths so I chose to do my close-up at 135mm and my wide shot at about 80mm. I felt that the video was balanced and the pacing was good.

In terms of questions I started off by asking her if there was one piece of advice that she wishes she would have had when she first started college. She told me how she had a big shocker at the beginning of college and that she wasn’t as good at some things as she originally thought. I had the same experience so we just got to talking and it was easy to make it a conversation at that point.

Looking back on the video itself, I wish that I would have been able to keep a better eye on both cameras because one of my shots was a little out of focus, I think this occurred after I set a focus point and then Marta moved.

The audio was tedious but manageable overall. Audio is just a weakness of mine that I have steadily been improving on over the last couple of semesters.

I wish that I had somebody else to help me out because I was not able to keep track of the secondary frame and that really hindered my video, the framing and the focus was off. Not sure how I could have fixed that by myself while talking to the interviewee. Having another hand would help next time doing this just so that somebody can keep track of the focus that things of that nature. Thinking ahead next time I can fix this problem. It just requires that much attention to detail.

Fill & Balance

Ben Rosenfelder, 31, hammers a softball while practicing for an upcoming slow pitch softball tournament at Cosmo Park on Thursday, March 16, 2017. Rosenfelder played baseball all of his life and picked up the game of softball at age 18. In addition to taking trips from Iowa all the way down to Texas, Rosenfelder says, "the competitiveness of the game," is what keeps him playing.

Lighting diagram:

Ben was a fantastic subject, he was very conversational and open about his passion for baseball and softball. This project tested me. I had to go out and find a subject that was in the sunlight so that I could fill any dark shadows with flash. For the most part, I successfully implemented the technique. 

The only small problem is the placement of the flash and the mark that it left on the photo. You can see the shadow of the ball stand on Ben's leg. Really a quick fix if I had a stand that I could place the flash on, that way the light would come from a better direction that doesn't result in an awkwardly placed shadow.

I am still getting used to looking for certain marks such as these harsh shadows in photos. It makes you pay attention to the entire frame and make the photographer think about the best placement for the flash. 

Glass Heart

According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Missouri is considered one of the worst cardiovascular health states in the nation. Every year, heart disease accounts for around 15,000 deaths in Missouri, the leading factors being high blood pressure, obesity and smoking.

Lighting glass is difficult.

After receiving feed back from my peers, I have quite a few ideas that I would incorporate back into this project to improve it. First off, the shape of the heart is misleading, it doesn't suggest heart disease---but most associate it with cupid and the symbol of love. This is an accurate reading, I mean what else does it really look like?

While the lighting of the glass is decent, some of the features of the item are lost because of the bright background. This can be fixed by using a black background in the future. Not only will that help the features of the glass come out more, but the fire will be more defined as well, helping the effect of the fire. One complication that my partner and I had while taking this photo was the placement of the rubber cement that was used to line the edges of the glass heart that would later be ignited. We found that the placement would need to be more precise and it will just take time to figure out that sweet spot--if there even is one. ALSO, the blue glass fixtures on the inside of the heart are not consistent at all with the ideas of a heart, red and white fixtures (to represent red and white blood cells??) would be better. 

I can envision how the changes would make the photo stronger, all I need to do is play with some different pieces and I can improve this project.