Love PA .1 – Shoot

Shoot Plan

WHERE: The Garage

WHO: I am going to photography my dad prepping my motocross bike.

EQUIPMENT/ LIGHTING: I am going to use my Canon 70d + Sigma 35mm 1.4 lens because I will be fairly up close to my dad which means I need a wider lens but the 35 still gives a nice bokeh and lens compression. I am going to use two lights in this shoot. For thee key light I am going to use a godox sl60w continuous light with a round softbox and a honeycomb grid on it. The grid helps to eliminate light spread and just directs it onto the subject, this light also has a high cri rating and is 5600k which will give a natural high quality light onto the face. My other light is a practical light. I am going to use a tungsten desk lamp to work as an accent light to the key light. It will serve as a back or rim light and make the image look authentic with my dad using it as a light source when working.

COMPOSITION: There will be multiple different angles and different shots of my dad doing different tasks. The main idea is to create a moody shot using the key light to create dark shadows on parts of the face and using the practical light to add texture and depth to the image. I will use the 35mm for every shot and will take some tight shots and some wider shots. For the formal environmental portrait I want to get my dad on one side of the frame with the bike lit on the other side of the frame, with the desk lamp as on accent either on a shelf or on the workbench

Contact sheet

Best Edited Images

Favourite Images

I love this image because of the framing and the colours. The measuring jug is in the middle of the image, I like how the tungsten lamp in the background has illuminated the gearbox oil which helps to draw your eyes to it. The lamp has also created a rim light on my dads hand. This along with the wide aperture creates separation with the subject from the background.
I like this image because of the amount of background blur there is. Using an aperture of f1.4 and being right up close to the subject it creates a lot of separation from the background and a very shallow focus plane. I like how the dirt on the oil cap really contrasts with the rest of monochrome image. There is also a a bit or rim lighting on the exhaust cone and on my dads nucles.
I really like this image because of the dramatic cold lighting on my dads face along with the contrast from the warm glow on the wall and the tool box from the desk lamp. I like the composition with my dad on the left and the bike on the right. I used a wide aperture of f1.6 in this image to allow as much light in as it was quite dark but also to blur the background adding depth and separating my dad from the background. I think that this is a good environmental image as it shows my dad in his scruffy overalls in the garage which is like his getaway place. The bike adds context to the images as well with. my grandads tool chest in the background being illuminated by the lamp.

Lightroom

I used the pick (P) and reject (X) tools to separate my images from ones I want to use and ones I don’t, leaving me with 9 photos. I then sorted my usable images with ratings from 3 to 5 stars and either green yellow or red to narrow down my selection.

I place these three images side by side, as they were very similar, to help me with my selection. I picked my favorite and least favorite based mainly on the framing and focus of the images.

I then compared my two favorite images and used the magnification tool to make sure they were both in focus and clear.

I applied my editing to all the photos I had taken and ended up finding a new possible image I hadn’t thought about using before.