High Key - trial Photoblog

Visthra had posted a facebook linkpointing to another site with some tips for high key photography.

This weekend started off very differently with both in-laws being out of the house and just the four of us starting off a lazy weekend. The nose was acting up and that meant no outdoor stuff. Perfect day to find the right bright window and play with the kids, right?

Wrong.. as it turns out, the models should help by not moving or this thing does not give you good results.

Finally what worked?

Crank ISO all the way to 1600, go 1/60 to 1/200(for the moving models we raise in this house), and go as open as the aperture would allow me with the 18-200mm at 150-200mm. No flash (but used two foam sheets to reflect light back on to the kids..

The other option was to use the 50mm and go f1.8 with the ISO still at 1600 and 1/250 seconds.

Expose for the subject, don't worry about the background. Let it flood the shot. That pretty much summarizes the "high key" concept. Can totally see why a bounce flash would be useful in this case.

Here are the first trial results. They will be perfected over time..

Thanks to Visithra and Louis Pang for making an otherwise ordinary Saturday morning, exciting!

ps. on a side note.. ain't manual mode great? If you took a picture of the kids in automatic mode in the same location with the same setup, this is what you will get! There is more to photography than having a good or great camera. It is all the little tricks and the experience you build with constant experimentation, learning from failures and improving on successful shots that makes a difference.

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Portraits....

Love taking shots with the sigma lens at 18mm, with ISO set all the way to 1600 (all the way the 400D will go) and setting the white balance to cloudy. Gives a candle light feel to the shots taken indoors with diffuse lighting.

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4 Things to cheer you up on a cold rainy gloomy day

In other news, the sun finally came out at 5:00 PM this evening after three soggy days...

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Co-optex, Solidaire, Samuelson's Economics books

These days when you go to a portrait studio, the assistant tells you

1. you get so many poses
2. you are allowed this many dress changes
3. you get this many props
4. you are allowed this many backgrounds

Then the adults in the family enter into roundtable discussions on who is wearing what color, how to optimize the contrast of everyones dress colors, the props and the background and either

a. launch into a philosophical discussion on color and background
(typically done by the grandparents) where statements like

"andha kaalathula naanga ellam jamakkalam dhan background-aa use pannuvom. Appove photo nalla dhan varum!"

"In those days we used floor spreads as the background and the photos would still come out nice!" followed by

"En ponnukku enna? .. saaku thuniya kattinaa kuda azhagaa dhan iruppa!"

"What does my daughter lack? .. even if you make her wear a flour sack she will look beautiful!" which invariably sends a not so young man into a dream scene where the woman is wearing only a "saaku thuni" and without realizing it blurts out "saaku thuni ondi pottunda endha ponnu dhan nalla irukka maataa?"*** (Won't any girl wearing just a flour sack be beautiful?")***

b. try to infuse logic into the situation (typically done by the young parents)

If the kids stand in front of me and complement my blue sari, then it doesn't matter where you stand or what color you wear.. they are going to look at the girls in the picture anyways! or

The Stephan Boltzmann law clearly states that for a black body like mine the radiation of color is dependent on the constant Sigma which is equal to .. enge en log tablesa konjam edu paapom! (can you go get me my logarithmic tables book please!)

or

c. run around in like crazy chicken around the studio, oblivious to any color discussions going on.. (typically done by the kids)

One thing is true though. In those days there were no simple backdrops. You went to Sathyam studio and they had this artwork painted on the wall with a archway and laurel wreaths and every family would take a photo under that same background.

The once in two year home portrait sessions where a relative or hired cameraman took photos of the entire family (we are talking an assembly of ~40 folks here) would usually be with creative "Co-optex" handloom blanket backgrounds.

Laughing at this photo now, but for 25 year ago Chennai technology, it is pretty cool!

While today the props include nicely painted ponies, giant alphabet blocks, fake rocks and dinosaurs, the early eighties saw large scale solid state devices like Philips Radios and Solidaire TV's as props. Why not? You have just started enjoying good times and this whole photo session is to get a sampler of the "times they are a changing".

The only prop that we actually remember being there perpetually for no reason were those heavy Economics books by some dude called Samuelson. For years the family starred at this series of books neatly sandwiched between two elephants on top of the radio. Had dad ever read those books? Did he buy them to show off? What kind of a sick dude would show off with such dull books which seemed a cardboard read even for 5th graders?

The last India trip did have a search for the elephants and the Samuelson books for pure sentimental value, but were not be found.

At least the two photos are digitized now and will be around for Jr. and the little one to see 25 years later.

What would props and background look like in the early 30's?

2030's that is!

***Do not try this type of comment at home. Comment made by professional son-in-law under controlled conditions.

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Pink Playdoh

This morning daddy celebrated Valentines day (considering he does not really give a rodent's behind as to the saintly part of Feb 14th) by making animals with some pink Playdoh (In India it is called China Clay) and we took some photographs of the animals that were picture worthy!

Here is to love!

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