Classmate Portrait

Seth Putnam, 21, is a magazine writing student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He poses in the studio for a classmate-portrait assignment for Rita Reed's Advanced Techniques in Photojournalism class.

I chose the first photo because it's an example of Rembrandt lighting up close without the context of the other side of the face. Also, Seth seems to be a sincere, observant and pensive person (he's a magazine writing student, after all), and I feel this photo may capture some of that.

While Seth may be serious at times, he's also silly and adventurous. The second photo may suggest his willingness to let go of inhibitions.

How'd we do it?



Using the reflective meter in my camera (meter in studio was broken and equipment window was closed), I chose ISO 100, 1/125 near f16. Although I bracketed because I wasn't using an incident meter.

I placed a large soft box at a 45-degree angle from Seth to the right of the camera. The first shot is a one-light shot.



The second was made using a silver reflector to the left of the camera almost parallel to Seth's body, but just slightly turned toward him, in order to bring light to his face.

Playing with White Balance

This is building in my apartment complex. Using tungsten white balance, I chose ISO 3200 and opened up to f1.8. This allowed me to shoot at 1/350 of a second. Looking back, I could have lowered my ISO and dropped my shutter down to 1/125 or something close.


This is the laundry room in my apartment complex. The image was made through an open door of one of the washers, distorting the clarity. I tried this on both daylight and tungsten settings, and tungsten seemed more true to the original light. Having just made the above photograph, I chose to drop my ISO to 400 and expose at f1.8, 1/125.

Stump the Chumps

This image is part of a Dolce & Gabbana ad in the Sept. 2009 issue of Vogue. The photographer is unknown, but it is reproduced here for educational purposes.

I would like to know how this is lit and exposed. I assume there have been multiple strobes over a long exposure -- is this correct? Why does her face and the hair on her jacket seem blurry?

Feel like a chump.

Mood

Canadian-born photographer Steve Simon made this image while focusing on HIV/AIDS. This image of a funeral parlor in Lesotho was published in the Fall 2008 issue of Photo District New's EDU edition.

The light is almost a character in this photograph -- it could represent the souls of the people lying in the caskets, a heavenly being, hope, or a number of other ideas we associate with life and death.

I like the opposition of bright, white light with dark, black shadows. Again, this plays into the yin-yang of life and death.