Pixel Darkroom Photography

This image is almost the same as I saw it up in the sky a couple of hours ago. It wasn’t going to be the image for today, but just like many others in the past, I ended up liking it the most. I was planning to go outside and shoot something with available light, something, anything. I drove around for a few minutes and stopped on the side of the road. I hadn’t even seen the sky. As I turned though, I saw the color of the sun through the smoky clouds. It’s been cloudy and rainy the entire day. There was no hope of even remembering that there is a star called Sun behind all the clouds. Yet for a brief moment, the sun shone through a thinning of the clouds and I shot this image. I went on with my walk and drive and ended up with nothing that I liked.

I decided to head home. It was already dark and I didn’t know what I had “in the can”. I thought I’d look around and see if I find something to edit to my liking and planned on going out again if I needed to. I liked the first image quite a bit and I’m bringing it to you here.

When I was a child, I liked imagining what the clouds were looking like. What do they look like to you?

Come on, be a child again…

I had good light so I took it. This is all natural light portrait with little modification in post production. The fill light coming from below is a big strong patch of sun bouncing off the ground. You have to have your eyes open for this natural kind of fill light. It usually happens in places with somewhat glossy floors (hardwood, tiles, etc.) but it can happen anywhere if it’s indoor and the sun hits the ground directly. Just keep your subject in the shade and have them be able to “see” the patch of sun. Then you have all natural fill light from below which gives a different look to their face.

Here is my little angel again. I know she looks very mature in this one, because I caught her a bit upset. She wanted to play with the puzzle and I said we’ll do that in a moment, but first I want to take her picture. Today she made the Alphabet puzzle all by herself. We’re still working on the “l n n o p” part. She is only 3.

The pumpkin season is back. It reminds me of my other pumpkin from the beginning of the project. This one will not rot though because it’s made out of wires and beads. I put a full CTO (color temperature orange) gel on the flash to bring the color of the light (the temperature) to the same one as the candles. The rest was just balancing the two sources of light using aperture and shutter speed.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, those of you who have already celebrated it this year. The rest of you, early Happy Thanksgiving.