Creative52, Week 4 is all about negative space. The negative space in the photo should complement the image or be the dominant element in the frame. This could be the contrasting color of the background bringing out the shape and color of the subject, a wide open sky to show the vastness of the horizon, a silhouette framing a person.
When I was with Cirque Dreams, we played in many theaters that typically housed Broadway-style shows: a large stage for a full play with many actors and a huge set of curtains to block out the entire stage view. Cirque Dreams was a Euro-style cirque show with a modest-sized cast of circus performers that did their acts in front of a live rock band (which was what I was part of).
What was cool was that we were all on stage and the audience was all out there and ready to go but we were divided by a curtain. The audience didn't know what was happening on our side of the curtain, and we didn't know what their general vibe was on their side of the curtain. They wanted a kickass show and we were ready to put on a kickass show. Many performers put down Yoga mats to stretch. Many of us would just walk around and chat. I, on the other hand, and the rest of the musicians would warm up a bit. I would stretch my hands for a long time and do a series of fretboard warm-ups.
This image here is me kind of bringing the backstage routine into the front of the curtain. It's ten minutes before the show and we're all waiting around just like the audience. We're just divided by a long, long couple of big pieces of fabric. But when those curtains separate you better believe that we're all ready to go. I feel that the expanse and length of the curtain that hangs between the stage and audience wraps up the size and scope of the theater show as well.
My hands are extremely important to me. My hands translate what's in my head into the physical world. In this image they're clasped together, waiting, in-between curtains. The fingers are waiting to separate just like the curtains are waiting to separate. The hands have the potential to deliver a huge show just like the curtains have the potential to reveal a huge show. Finally, I wanted to make a very exaggerated frame, a very odd aspect ratio to accentuate the length of the curtains. The original, non-Instagram final image is 13996x5543 pixels.
#negativespace #negativespacephotography #creative52 #negativespaceart #negativespacechallenge
Let's take a little look at how some of the Wizards in the Harry Potter universe are absolute jerks. Of course, this is all in good fun, but I want to take a look at the behavior and piggishness that Wizards have in this Potterverse. I mean, if they existed along with us here, they'd have a lot of explaining to do.
Creative 52, Week 29: Shoot a Very High-Key Image
High-key photography, damn near blowing out your image with copious amounts of light. Make your subject look like a pretty angel coming through heaven’s gate or something.
For this image I wanted to do a slight combination of high-key with low-key elements. By that, I mean, I wanted to put some form of viking face paint on the upper part of my face so I could later overlay an image of stars, the galaxy, or something of that nature. I wasn’t quite sure what yet. My girlfriend helped me with the makeup and even did an initial splatter spray of white on my forehead for texture and added pizzazz.
I wanted to wear a suit for this because you usually don’t see vikings in suits and I wanted to be a Work Viking…Assistant to the Regional Viking.
To make the blown out effect I hung up a white sheet in a doorway. Behind that sheet I put two softboxes with two 100 watt bulbs each to the side. I put two large LED worklights down a bit lower. ...
Creative 52, Week 28: Shoot a Very Low-Key Image
10/14/2021
Low-key in photography doesn’t mean relaxed, chilled out, and soft spoken. Low-key simply means that the emphasis is on the shadows, on the darks. Whereas high-key is all bright and damn near blown out, low-key has crushed blacks and is all mysterious. Perfect for getting close to Halloween, right?
Well, Gina was shooting a video for an upcoming belly dance gathering and was dressed like a witchy crone named Cailleach, a divine hag and Queen of Winter. She had a cool twiggy head band and some matching make-up; plus, we just finished watching this movie, Censor, which had this cool lighting theme all throughout. So, we decided to shoot this low-key image and video using only colored video lights…no strobes. The lighting was inspired by Censor and another movie called Mandy. Both movies are worth checking out.
This whole thing was a challenge because I really wanted to utilize the sharpness and look that I get with my ...
Collective Isolation
I have a strip of 75mm film I use for a bookmark and recently I was admiring just how damn cool it was. And then I was walking past these windows that look out upon the Mississippi River levee. In a way, this section of windows, framed by the support poles, reminded me of that 75mm film strip.
People, for the most part, tend to mind their own business. It's why we can go out to a restaurant with a loved one and pretend that we're not in a big room with dozens of other couples also pretending that no one else is around. When I set up my camera to take these pictures I decided to capture little frames of people minding their own business. So, no, I didn't want to "Shoot a Frame Within a Frame" using shadows or doorways; I wanted to use the entire wall of windows as a frame to separate interactions, use the lower section of windows to frame individuals going about their business while ignoring others, the upper part of the windows to frame birds flying together in ...
