I did it!!! I made it to the top 10 in the photography challenge I’m doing with Unleashed Education.
What the judges said: “The warm tones and lighting provide a cosy scene, accentuated by the curtains and soft textures of the teddy. A beautiful storytelling image that has been expertly crafted.”
The 4th challenge of Emerge course is all about photographing a pet indoors, at home, in studio, or just somewhere the is Under cover. It’s not always easy to shoot indoors, the light is lower and can cause unwanted color casts or shadows on the subject.
This was one of the most technically difficult challenges I’ve done so far. I’m so glad my grand puppy was patient with me while I figured out the lighting. He hung out in his blanket fort and ate treats while I played with lighting and camera settings.
It took me three separate photo shoots to get an image that I was happy with. I had this idea, and it was challenging to figure out the best way to photograph it, get the lighting I wanted, and still have the overall vibe that I was hoping for.
The challenges I faced was keeping the warm light of the lamp, so I had to lower my shutter speed, open up my aperture, and raise my iso to let more of the ambient light from the lamp into the photo. This however, created a few white balance issues due to other ambient light in the room.
So I turned off all other light, except for the lamp on my second attempt, and I was having problems with the shadows being way too dark due to small lamp. so on my third attempt, I added a strobe to try and add light into the shadows, and it was overpowering the lamps warmth light (reflector didn’t work either).
But I finally figured it out. I turned on the modeling lamp of the strobe only, which gave a soft light into the shadows, and the lamp was the main light source in the photo, which gave it that rich warm color.
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