Thursday, February 10, 2011

Portrait Of A Portrait...

The 2nd Wednesday of the month means Photography Meetup.

The local photography group I founded is now 3 years old and the membership numbers more than 250.

THAT'S a lot of cameras.

And a wealth of photo information going from digital back to when people used film... and even further back.

For example, the 17th century and the technique of Rembrandt-Lighting.

Group member - and professional photographer - Jon Shumpert brought some of his studio lights and backdrop to demonstrate several elements of portrait work.

When the light is set so the shadow of the nose connects with the shadow on the side of the face to form a triangle, that's what Rembrandt did for a pleasing effect.

This can be seen in his self-portrait I shot that was hanging on display in Amsterdam.

On Wednesday night, Co-Organizer for the group, Kevin Harp, posed as the model.

Jon explained differences as he moved lights around to balance (usually a 3-1 ratio) the main light and the secondary "fill" light.)

"I have actually set as many as 7 or 8 lights to highlight certain aspects in a photo,"
Jon told the group.

Members were invited to use their cameras to shoot different angles under the lights so it was truly a "hands-on" demonstration.


(Click on images for more detail. My Canon s90 had no way to sync with the strobe lights when they flashed so my shots are lit by the "modeling" lights on each. It is very good in dim light!) Bring your camera and meet some very talented members. The link above has all the details. Thanks for stopping by.

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Paparazzi ...polite Charleston style (Click for link)

Wow. Technology just keeps changing!

There's something called Meetup.com which has in a short time attracted 26,967 "members" in 286 groups in 200 cities.

So, I joined and decided to create a gathering of Charleston-area people interested in meeting up to talk about "21st Century (digital and film) Photography." We'll share experiences, ideas and techniques.

Meetup is very organized and sent out a message to 65 local "photographers" and "PhotoShoppers" who had expressed interest. Their note stated we would meet the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7pm and the first meet was set for February 13th.

Because I started this here - and pay a monthly fee - I am the official organizer and all the responses to the invite come to me. I had 18 e-mails waiting for me this morning!

Once I see how many send a RSVP and I can figure the area where the majority live, I'll make some calls and set up a meeting place.

Food is always a good idea at that time of day and I would prefer NOT to gather in a place that allows smoking.

Let's see how this works out.

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