Jewelry - process post 2

So. our second assignment for chuck was to shoot jewelry. on 4x5 chrome, which I hadn't done since the beginning of last semester. it was definitely a nice refresher - I miss 4x5 sometimes. I'm definitely a film girl at heart.

I'm going to go ahead and say - my film looks a lot better than my scan. and I did a 3f scan! so I don't know. things could always be better. I haven't been very happy with what my end product is when I've been shooting lately.

I'm decently happy with this but like I said, It could always be better.

^ this is the 3f scan shot, raw. no photoshop. SEE! the 'base+fog"!

^ this is the final edit.
its the same scan, photoshopped(for flaws, color,etc). I wanted to try and layer together some different exposures but I had moved my necklace and my "circles of confusion" are different in every shot just about. so it didn't really work out. I had to adjust a lot(while shooting, the necklace kept moving so yea). I don't really like this crop b/c we had to crop it to 8.5" x 9.5"in photoshop and it makes it look fat. and too wide. but.
ALSO. something happened where the right side of the necklace was hanging forward too much towards the lens and happened to get out of focus - I had schiemflugged a bit. but nothing drastic. and my bellows seemed to have been "bellowing" a little bit(haha, no pun intended!) so. not too sure what happened. but

Here are my process posts, my set up.
I had to use 2 bellows!(w00t) and 2 extension tubes.
I shot with a 210mm lens
and fuji provia 100 chrome 4x5 film. on a sinar f1.
exposure: 1/4th of a second @ f/5.6
broncolor lights.
Soft box on the left and a hard light with a blue gel on the background.
fill card on the right side of the necklace and fill card below the necklace.

for the background - I also added (after I shot these process photos) Christmas lights to the background hanging on a Matthews stand to get the lovely 'circles of confusion' in the background.
Chuck said to make it up close and dazzling and that is what i did. I took me a while to set it up and I was bored with just the blue background and so I rummaged thru the prop room and found some Xmas lights and put them in the background to add some pop and glitz to the shot.

I am decently happy with it. It took me 5 hours to set up and shoot. so I hope its at least decent. ha ha

Let me know what you think! <3>

Blueberries.

these shots were from my photographer inspiration assignment for James a few weeks back.

The first one of these is the one I turned in for my assignment but I didn't post because it wasn't due yet - I wanted to show it in class first. Anyhow.

I think these are pretty decent portfolio pieces that might even go together... I really liked that shoot and I thought I got a decent amount of good photos from it.
here are my two favorites:


These were both shot with a D100, 24-85mm lens and broncolor lights on a light table in the studio.. one or two softboxes.

exposures: the first one posted was shot at f/13 @ 1/100s.
The second was shot at f/22 @ 1/100s.

Not much post AT all went into these photos - which is what makes me feel GREAT! I maybe did a levels adjustment and some color balencing.

I haven't shot that MUCH great portfolio items this semester but I def. have quite a bit more to add to my portfolio - that will be continue to form over the next year or so.

anyhow. so there is my last REQUIRED post for John Rash..
but you haven't seen the last of me!
I'll continue to post over internship and what not! keep up with me!

Let me know what you think! <3>

photographer inspiration

I shot these last night in the studio. what i shot was an assignment for james about being inspired by a photographer.."this assignment is to really explore what it is about this photographer that inspires you, and create an image of your own in honor of their style."(from his class blog) - I chose Lisa Adams. She is a photographer in charlotte. Here is her website.

I really wanted to do an internship with her but she doesn't really take interns.. so. anyhow.

She is well rounded, bold and sharp. She has some period work and then clean, modern, colorful work. She is great all around. there is something, or everything that i just like about her work. its weird.. when I was shooing I felt like I was just shooting for myself, for fun- not for an assignment, so I say she inspired me to do well and enjoy it. It was nice.

I honored her style by using a colortheme thru out the photo, I've noticed that she tends to do that - have a lot of same colors/tones in a photo. I liked doing that and I don't know why I haven't before because I almost always corrdinate my clothing. I'm excited.
I like what came out of that shoot alot.. and that feels good because it seems like that hasn't been happening to me lately. what makes me feel really good is that I won't have to do a ton of post work on these because they are how I want them straight out of the camera for the most part - which ROCKS! (that hasn't really happened in a while.)

anyhow! here are two photos. (these ARE NOT two of my FAVORITES.. I want to save my favorite blueberries shot for my actually assignment, its better than the one below.)




These two photos were shot on a light table in the studio, with 2 broncolor softboxes.
Camera: D100
Lens: 24-85mm macro lens.
Exposures: - for blueberries= f/18 @ 1/80s(white balence was at fluorescent to get that slight blue tint!), For oranges=f/20 @ 1/80s
ISO: 250.

these haven't been real edited in PS, slight spotting and some color balence. that is all. =]

I miss film sometimes.

let me know what you think <3>

Colored water continued..

Hola.
These are the last three words from the colored water assignment from spring 2006. This one above is "PLAIN". They are all shot on 35mm transparency film in the studio. These last 3 from the series of 4, are shot on light tables in the studio.
this word was "COLD/cool". They are colored ice cubes from an ice cube tray.

this word was "BOLD".

(thatisallfromcoloredwater!)

I am now in my Fall 2006 semester at RCC, a second year commerical student. There will be much more to come, all continually improved work. Summer semester 2006 taught us all a lot, it was the hardest semester of my life - but i did great and worked hard. I can't wait to see how much I have and will continue to improve through out this next semester from these photos from Spring(second) semester at RCC.

I will post more current work from summer semester soon and will be posting a lot of work from this fall semester 2006.

<3