Abstract body parts

After being too uncomfortable or shy to ask people to model for me I decided to take picture of myself even if I hate doing so when I do not have a shirt on.

Here are my best results (with their artsy titles) and my favorite being the first one :

Shame

Pride

Hate

I know it's not that abstract but I managed to have a super dramatic lighting to compensate. I forgot to take pictures of the setup but it's really simple, a single strobe up (about 9 feet high) at my right without diffuser or umbrella or softbox, all this in my bedroom. Taken at 1/200 of a second, f/8.0, ISO 100.

Scanography

Unfortunately I wasn't inspired and didn't have interesting items to scan so I went on with a leaf.
I put both of them in black and white since it brings up a lot more textures in the picture and I like the first one because of its simplicity and details. Some people may get really intense into their scanographies and I think it looks great but Hopkins reminded me that sometimes there is beauty in very simple things that doesn't look good at first, like a leaf. The second one is more experimental and lost some details because of the blur done because I was moving the leaf. Nothing too exceptional, being a fan of sharpness and detailed pictures, I prefer my first one.

I think scanographies from the internet all look similar in a way but I liked this one since it seemed to be a little step up compared to the other pictures I've seen. It seems a bit more technical and worked out.

Tabletop photography

Here are my 3 shots:

Table top with a large depth of field (f/22).


Table top with a small depth of field (f/1.8).


''Window'' lighting with a small depth of field (f/1.8) + freelensing (poor man's way to do tilt-shift)

Portrait assignment

Butterfly lighting

Split lighting

Short lighting with fill (small catchlights but at least they're there, it wasn't easy to get them with her)

Short lighting

My attempt at a classical portrait.

and these are my creative portraits:

and finally the messy setup (One flash to my right without diffuser to do light up the left part of my face, one flash to my left without diffuser to light up the background and do a little rim light to the right part of my face and finally a front flash up in front in a reflective 48'' umbrella) I used:

Environmental portrait

Here is the environmental portrait of my best friend. The picture has been taken in his bedroom and I thought it was total mess while he was cleaning his room, all his collection of DVD's was on his bed. So I thought this would be perfect to shoot him sitting on his bed with all his DVD's since I know he loves cinema and that would represent him well. I tried to do somekind of triangular composition with the DVD's leading to him and his arms leading to his face also.

This was my second choice and I posted it because I wanted to know which one people would prefer. I think the first one is a better portrait but the composition in the second one is more interesting.



This is my self-portrait. I was thinking of a place somewhere in my house but pretty much everywhere everything looked too satured with objects and furniture so I thought my dad's workshop would be an interesting place to take a picture since I know there are tools everywhere and interesting textures on the wall. I love this picture because I think the ceiling, the table in front me and the table behind me seem to lead toward me. I tried to have an interesting lighting with the available lighting in the room and I think it came out pretty well. I am really proud of this one, this is not my usual kind of picture but I love trying new things, especially when it works out.

Like a couple of you might know I am a big fan of portraits, environmental or not and I think it would be interesting for you to check out my portfolio of portraits and I'd love to hear your feedback: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thierrylord/sets/72157616601603565/show/with/3604326060/

Portrait I like

Photo by Kevin Russ (www.kevinruss.com)

I love this picture for a lot of reasons. First of all, being a fan of portrait, I find this one really impressive because of her facial expression, which makes you wonder what is she thinking. Technically I think this picture is awesome as the colors of the picture fit very well together, the catchlight is also very beautiful as well as her eyes. I think the fact that the model here is a very good looking girl helps a lot too. Her eyes are placed in two thirds and the lighting is very soft and fits the mood. Her pose might me not usual as she is straight in front of the camera but I think it fits very well the picture. Overall I think this is a very powerful portrait with a lot of emotions in it.

Moment shots

Here are my 3 moment shots:

This shot was taken with a wide angle at an exposure of around half a second in the Alexis-Nihon place right next to Dawson. I wanted to take a picture of Enzo while he was watching me and wanted to give the picture a certain mood, since we were in a mall and everything is moving in there.

This picture was taken with a 50mm at a high ISO during a studio class. I found interesting how Adrienne and Harrison seemed concentrated while taking pictures and people around them were just moving around doing their usual business.

This picture was taken during a ceremony of a wedding I did not so long ago. I really liked the way they looked at each other right after they gave their rings. The bride seems so excited while the man just looks so happy while staying calm.

Available light pictures

Here are my available light pictures:

This picture has a shutter speed of 3,2 seconds so that is why it is a little blurry since Matt wasn't perfectly standing still. But I wanted to give this creepy effect of white eyes like in the old pictures at the beginning of the century.

This shot was hand held and came out sharper than on tripod because the shutter speed was 1/100 of a second with a 50mm lens at 1600 ISO. It is at f/1.8 which helps a lot too.

Magnum Photos

I am personally not a big fan of this type of photography but I found in Elliott Erwitt some very eye-catching pictures. They are the kind of pictures that you really have to analyze for a long time, not only technically but you have also to find the message in it, what it represents, which is not something easy sometimes. Here are two pictures I liked and that represent the style of Elliott:



It seems that most of his pictures are very awkward and special. This is what catches my eye most of the time, awkwardness. When you look at these pictures you really ask yourself some questions and then you analyze them. It keeps you intrigued the whole time.

Vantage point picture and urban landscape

This is my vantage picture. It is a lamp post with a camera in the middle of it. I found this picture very interesting because of the blurred background (picture taken at f/1.8) and the fact that not a lot of people come next to a lamp post and look up.

The next picture is a picture on flickr and I found it very nice because it has a very calm ambiance. I don't know if the red around the building on the horizon is real but it really fits in there. I like the foreground because it is different from the usual urban picture you see usually, the benches brings a calming element and the trees too. It feels like the foreground is some kind of separation between the suburbs and the city.

Here is my landscape picture I took 5 minutes from my home. It has a flare on the upper left but I think it adds an effet of warmth. It was really easy for me to get a natural landscape since there are a lot of forests and swamps in my suburbs. I tried to get the picture when the sun was going down to have a more interesting lighting.

The first assignment

The first picture I chose is a picture of mine that I think represents very well the rule of third. The torso and head are in the first vertical third and the eyes are in the first horizontal third. I've been introduced to this rule about 2 years ago and then I've always tried to respect it, of course there are exceptions because some pictures are good looking even if the rule is not applied.


The second picture is another of my photos that I appreciate a lot because of the framing. I think that the wood ramps next to her are framing her very well as they seem almost to imprison her. Furthermore, I could say that the distorted trees in the background also help very well to frame her as they look like they want to form a circle around her.



The third picture is an image of one of my flickr contact named Jeff Sullivan. I find this landscape very special because of the lighting mixed with the fog. This setting is also very unique since it was during a sunrise and 30 seconds later it would have been a different picture. That is what I like the most with landscapes, when there's something unique or rare in it.