Inman Park Soft Light

Square

Like I was saying… since yesterday’s actor/model canceled on me due to illness (she was really sick) – Leah agreed to be photographed for the low, low price of breakfast at Highland Bakery! (Everyone’s a winner when you get breakfast there – it’s also where we ordered our Red Velvet wedding cake.) We were going to go around L5P but then we realized that it was just the two of us instead of the planned Four and after having lived down the street + reading the weekly crime reports released by the police + our own lingering paranoia, we weren’t going to be out there in near dark with expensive looking equipment (when we lived down there we actually bought several alarms and other deterrents like you know, nun-chukas, ninja stars and we both learned the Five Pointed Palm Exploding Heart technique.)

It’s funny because we drove about a mile down Euclid Ave. and ended up near the Krog Bar and Jake’s Ice Cream and we weren’t worried at all.

This is me doing my 1st real attempt at soft light with OneLight. Watched the DVDs several times and I was really just trying to get some shots resembling the quality of light that I was aiming for. Like Strobist – the OneLight Workshop deals with off camera flash and controlling ambient light. Chances are good that I’ll never really afford the actual workshop (that’d be kind of neat since I’ve only had my D40 since March) – but I was able to borrow the DVDs from a friend and they’re exponentially better and more interesting than the Strobist set of training DVDs. Plus – it’s just nice to see the locations around Atlanta where Zack Arias is based out of and where the DVDs were filmed.

Oh yeah. Since I just have an $80 lightstand set from Ebay – the shoot through umbrella wasn’t diffusing the light the way I wanted, but fortunately I made that Rubbermaid drink bottle diffuser and that + the umbrella made the light change the way I wanted (although, it may have been the same if I would’ve just lowered the power on the flash – but come on, it’s funnier that I put a cut up drink bottle on it.) Since I’ve spent all my money on lenses from 1969, flashes, and triggers – all of my light modifiers are gonna have to be of the DIY variety. Next up will probably be a DIY softbox at least as big as my umbrellas. It would be nice to have less light spill. I think I’ll try a wider lens next time too – since these were all taken with my 50mm prime.

Leah starts her internship at C.A.R.E. today and I’m trying to line up some photoshoots with business owners/residents on Buford Highway – I think one of my first shoots might actually be with the director of CPACS (if they agree) – oh yeah, I’m going to a class tonight provided by APE – because I’m showing some photos at their next exhibit and I don’t even know anything about printing or mounting my work. I suppose that’s enough name dropping of the acronyms. So yeah. Let’s go.