Classmate Portrait

Photo © Jason lenhart

Our next assignment was to create a studio portrait of a classmate. We drew names out of a stylish hat to see who would photograph who. This is Trevor Buehler. He hails from the suburban life of Akron, Ohio. The point of this assignment was to familiarize ourselves with studio lighting. It's a bit tricky to figure out at first but after that the technicalities of it are rather simple. During two of our labs we spent time first learning about the power boxes and how to safely and correctly assemble those and second, learned some studio set-ups. The assignment was to produce two photos, one with a single light source, and another with as many lights as we choose. The studio has several strobe heads, reflectors, soft boxes, etc. etc. so we had LOTS to choose from. The photo above is made with two soft boxes to the immediate right and left of Trevor. There is a silver reflector on the floor angled up at him. One strobe is obviously set higher than the other giving the lighter, and respectively darker, sides of his face. The photo below is a single light source coming from his left at a roughly 45 degree angle and raised up a tiny bit. It produces a "Rembrandt" lighting scenario, giving him that triangle on his face like many of Rembrandt's paintings. 

Photo © Jason Lenhart

The entire assignment went over really well. The PhotoJ studio only has one problem - It's gremlins. If any part of your body is touching the floor like you're knee or a toe, the strobes won't fire. It must have something to do with some faulty wiring in the room. Makes for some interesting troubleshooting. You'll double and triple check all your wiring and stuff when the strobes won't fire only to figure out there is a hole in the bottom of your sandals and your foot is touching the floor. 

Copy Test

So this assignment was to literally photograph a photograph. Apparently having the ability to successfully copy items can get you a $35,000 freelance job - or so i've been told. Basically using a system of lights you cancel out any glare and produce a nice copy of the photograph. It's often used to copy pieces of artwork for publication purposes. User beware; make sure you credit the photographer. It's a valuable skill but a dangerous one. Don't steal. Anyway, our assignment was to find two photos to copy. One was to be a photo in which the lighting really adds to the mood or overall feeling of the photograph. I chose a photograph by Ashley Gilbertson. Photographer and author of a great photographic chronicle of the Iraq war called "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot". You'll have to read it to figure out what that means. 

Photo © Ashley Gilbertson from Whiskey Tango Foxtrot It's an amazing book with even more amazing photographs like this one. I wanted a different photograph but it was flush with the binding of the book so there was a glare (couldn't flatten the book well enough without ruining it). This is my second choice. The lighting, probably sunrise or sunset, gives it sort of a peacefulness among rugged, war hardened situations. Any other lighting situation would not have made this photo as great.
This second photograph is for the "Stump-the-Chump" assignment. The great Rita Reed is supposed to be able to tell us exactly how these photos were created. I pulled one from my "100 Photographs That Changed the World" by LIFE. It's a photograph taken by Harold Edgerton in 1931 titled "Milkdrop Coronet".  It's visually stunning and was probably shot with multiple light sources. I'll let you try and decide.



Photo by Harold Edgerton ©Harold & Esther Edgerton Foundation 

First Entry

This is my first entry into the world of blogging. The first few months of this blog will be devoted to maintaining a photo diary for my Advanced Techniques class at the University of Missouri's Journalism School. Photos will be uploaded; all of which are my copyrighted work unless otherwise noted. Any attempt to steal them is wrong, so don't do it. Alongside the photos will be commentary, critiques, etc. etc. as required for my class. As the semester progressing my own website will be under construction due to yet another awesome Journalism class called Electronic Photojournalism. Hopefully there will be links posted to and from my website.