chuckography

Pictures of some Hot Shots...

Today's temperature topped out at 98 degrees.

I think they are still adding up the numbers for the "heat index."

It goes a LOT higher.

I believe that would be like the "chill factor" we hear about during the Winter.

Almost a dozen members of my photography group met this morning at North Charleston's Riverfront Park for a photo shoot.

A delightful young model named Kirsten joined us so we could practice lighting and composition.

Most brought round "pop-up" reflectors to bounce light into a scene.

Some are silvery shiny, or dull white and, some are golden to cast a warmer light.

Today I saw one used that filtered sunlight to block and soften direct sunlight.

There were ten of us and the breeze off the river helped us cope with the heat.

We chose to work in the shade a lot!

When we moved to a new spot it happened to place us directly in front of the Pineda family.

They were cooling off and, seated at a picnic table, were preparing to have a quiet lunch.

We DO bring a lot of activity and they had a front row seat.

We experimented with various reflectors to move light around to suit a mood.

One avid photographer plopped down on his stomach to get a low angle.
With that many people aiming cameras at you, Kirsten, the model, would respond when one of us asked for a smile

Or  to make a hand movement or perhaps maybe a flick of her head to move her hair.

As requested, she was somber, sultry, smiling , laughing or pensive.

And that's just the requests I heard fired at her.

She gave me a nice smile. With laughing eyes. I like it.

My shot up at the top of her sitting on the grass would have been better if I had aimed down more to eliminate the harsh contrasting sunny grass behind her.

When in the shade, it's best to keep the entire image in that subdued lighting.

I did like her Mona Lisa-like smile though.

(Click on the photos for more details.)

I'll close with an example of excessive post-production effort on a back-lighted photo.

It's another example of balancing bright light vs shade.

My efforts to balance the two sources created a cartoon effect with exaggerated contrasts, color and textures.

When using Plug-Ins and Photoshop, it's best to err on the side of realistic.

When the attempts are too extreme and draw the viewers attention, it has gone "too far."

Well, it was a learning experience kind of day.

I sure liked her smile!

Labels: hazy heat index, Kirsten the Model, Mona Lisa smile, Riverfront Park, the Pineda Family, working in the shade

posted by chuckography @ 7:55 PM