Memories..

BIL sent me an old picture while cleaning up his stuff from 2008.. 

It was a keeper! While the background distracts you, the smile on our faces is priceless!

Spent a few minutes in CS5 to get this one.. 

Wish to bundle her up like that now! 

See what I mean by they are growing up sooo fast?!

Thanks to my BIL for saving old pictures. Have purchased a negative scanner as my Christmas gift, thanks to Costcos 24 deals of Christmas in 24 days.. Have literally 1000's of negatives from 1989 to 2002 in India and in my closet. Can scan a lot of those before the film starts to decay! That should be a fun Christmas project to try and set up.

Experiments with backlight

Cowboy Studio kit -> Lighting experiment -> no one willing to help with the learning -> No problem!

Spent most of the day reading a book that will help with work. Finally finished it off. Wanted to do one last test before going to bed. The wife and kids are not going to help with this, so it became a self portrait experiment.

Key light -> Check (direct light or bounce main flash off wall)

Fill light -> bounce flash off floor

Back light -> Yes vs. No using secondary slave flash

and yes.. the "cowboy" triggered the idea of using a hat and black San Francisco jacket..

Looks like Daddy Narayanan is no cowboy. Also realizing my weight loss for the first time in a close up picture. Now I know why my mother was so unhappy with the yoga making me skinny to a point where I look malnourished! 

It is good for the tummy to be toally gone but my cheeks have disappeared as well and that needs to be looked into..

This one almost works.. except the slave flash, which is a 280 speedlite seems to flash full power. If there is a way to reduce it or put a diffuser there, that would help. Took 10 shots with different light combinations and two came out okay. Have a lot of learning ahead to figure out this whole lighting scheme..

The portaits take a backseat for now and we will do landscapes over the break!

Experiments with Black Muslin

This mornings first attempt with black muslin background..

and the end result which requires a lot more photoshop than the white background, possibly because I did not use the backlight to get her hair outline lit up in the shot. 

Also, any dirt or blemish on the black just picks up light like that... so the trick seems to be to place the model farther away from the background when it is black.

Have to stop the experimenting for now and get back to work, errands etc.