2013-10-11 - People Competition
"I Surrender... To Meditation"
Category: Studio
Contest Score: xx/27 - First Place (Became Photo of the Year in 2014)
Print medium: Semi Gloss
Print Size: 11x17
Location: Studio 11 in Tremont (Yoga studio) https://www.facebook.com/studio11tremont
Story behind the photo: My good friend Kelly is a yoga instructor who was happy to help me get some yoga shots!
Camera gear:
- Canon Digital Rebel XTi
- Promaster 11-18mm Ultra wide angle
- 2 Constant Studio lights on stands & one fill light on the background.
- Handheld
Photo Specs:
Raw Image > saved as Tif > Jpeg
Focal Length: 12mm
Exposure: -0.33
Aperture: f/5.0
Shutter Speeds: 1/15
ISO: 400
Software used:
- Photoshop
- NIK Silver Efex Pro 2
- NIK Color Efex Pro 4
Lessons learned:
- Friends make great models when trying to learn.
- Lighting can be difficult... move the lights around until the shadows look right for your shots.
Utthita Hasta Padangustasana
"Utthita Hasta Padangustasana"
Category: Studio
Contest Score: xx/27 - Didn't place
Print medium: Matte Paper
Print Size: 11x14
Location: Studio 11 (Yoga studio) https://www.facebook.com/studio11tremont
Story behind the photo: Same shoot as above... Kelly was a trooper, as it lasted several hours, and she was doing complex poses for most of them!
Fun Fact: as an instigator, I used the legitimate name for this yoga pose. I knew that someone would need to try and pronounce the title during the contest, so I made sure it was long, and difficult to read... The best part was that the announcer asked how to pronounce it, and I stated that I didn't even know... good times!
Camera gear:
- Canon Digital Rebel XTi
- Promaster 11-18mm Ultra wide angle
- 2 Constant Studio lights on stands & one fill light on the background
- Handheld
Photo Specs:
Raw Image > saved as Tif > Jpeg
Focal Length: 18mm
Exposure: -0.33
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speeds: 1/50
ISO: 800
Software used:
- Photoshop
- NIK Silver Efex Pro 2
- NIK Color Efex Pro 4
Lessons learned:
- I took hundreds of shots during the eve... Good things pixels are cheep!
- After the shoot, I was told by another artist that some cultures are offended by the bottoms of women's feet... Although it is nice to be considerate of other people's cultures, I would still take and show this shot a million times over. Although it didn't do well in the contest, I really like it anyhow!
Final Thoughts:
Learn your camera by taking tons of shots... you'll only get better by knowing your gear! One thing to aid in that is to search Youtube or Linda.com for tutorials specific to your camera gear. The difference between an mediocre shot, and an award winner could be just a matter of using some simple after market filters in Photoshop! (I personally love the NIK filters (currently owned by google). If you decide to buy this filter pack, look for coupons online, as you can get something like 20% off!
