Good action shots. The silhouette is excellent. On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 4:16 AM, Larry Colen <l...@red4est.com> wrote: > Yesterday, a friend of mine tested for second degree black belt in aikido. > As long as I was there, I took photos of the two belt tests. > > It was a very challenging venue to photograph, as sunlight from the two > skylights hit the wall, and some of the mat behind the action. There was one > spot, where I could shoot from the side, and avoid the patches of light, but > then I wasn't sitting with the other students, and I was worried the sensei > wouldn't call on me to participate in my friend's test. As it turns out, the > sensei was so focused on the test, he forgot that I was there and only called > members of the dojo. > > In any event, I did my best to work around shooting into the light, as well > as trying various exposures, whether it was way underexposing on the people > so as to reduce overexposure in the hot spots, or just exposing for the > people, bright background be damned. > > In retrospect, when I processed the photos, I practiced the principles of > aikido and rather than trying to fight the hot spots, I went with them, often > using the dodge tool to white out large expanses of the background to meld > with the blown out sections. In one case I went for extreme contrast, blowing > out everything light, or in the background, and bringing the people full > dark. Just out of a sense of perversity, I did my best to maintain the blue > of the mat, so that the only color in the photo, is something that's almost > irrelevant to the action. > > The result of my thrash to deal with the horrid lighting was the sensei > posting this comment to my facebook post of the link to the pictures: > > "Your work is amazing! I love your photos of the test, including the effects > that emerged when you shot into the sunlight on the wall. These are some of > my favorite aikido photos ever, and I'm really looking forward to posting > some of them on the website." > > So, it's funny how you can make the best of a bad situation, and if you don't > mention that it wasn't what you meant to do all along, rather than being > complimented for making the results not suck too bad, someone can be really > impressed and think that you're a creative genius. > > I wasn't going to post the set, because with all of the technical > difficulties I had, I wasn't really please with any of the shots, but since I > was so amused by Nick's reaction.... > > http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157626831857291/ > > -- > Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est > > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. >
-- Steve Desjardins -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
