I am a big fan of Clay Enos' portrait photography (especially, his Watchmen gallery) and aspire to rise to his skill level someday. I’m objective enough about myself to realize that I'm definitely not there yet and that I need lots of practice to get better.
Finding models to get in front of my camera is difficult. I can't pay anyone and I'm too nervous and self-conscious to ask people around me to stand patiently in front of my entry-level Nikon D3400 while I experiment with my settings and lighting. Thankfully, I have two friends, Daniel and Christi Robinson, who are talented cosplayers. They call themselves Mirrorbright Cosplay and I see them every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia for Dragon Con. When I expressed interest in shooting more photography and videography this year, Christi volunteered to model for me. On Friday of Dragon Con, Christi was wearing her version of Luke Skywalker from Return of the Jedi and for me, that seemed like a good time to capitalize on her offer for portrait photography practice. I could utilize the light coming off of the lightsaber!
When I met up with Christi, she was at a Star Wars group photo shoot outside of Hilton Atlanta and it was nighttime. The challenge of taking pictures in the dark would require me to mess around with my speedlite (another skillset that I need to improve). I played around with different angles with my light and got my camera settings as dark as I could. It took me a couple of tries to get close to what I was aiming for. I'm sure most photographers have to take multiple test shots before they find the right settings, but for me, I'm very slow and in all honesty, don't know exactly what I'm doing just yet. I know some of the basics of what I should be doing, but it's a lot of trial and error.
Photography isn't just about what is captured through the camera (though, that's the largest part). I've found that what is done through editing in post can enhance the image. I've made great use of Lightroom, but I need to become more comfortable with Photoshop. Shooting pictures of lightsabers reinforces this idea. I'd like to be able to fill in the lightsabers so that the color pops more. Right now, I don't have the ability to do that, but I'll be doing some research on how that can be done.
I think I spent maybe fifteen (?) minutes focusing on portrait work and taking close-ups shots of Christi's face with the lightsaber. I ended up with a few shots that I am pretty proud of. Some of them had soft focus (I have a hard time focusing with my 50mm lens) and some of them needed to be retaken for composition purposes, but I learned a lot about what was possible and what I needed to take classes on. I'm fairly good with video because it was what I went to school for, took classes in, and made regular practice of through work and church. The same needs to apply with photography. I need to be taught. YouTube tutorials are helpful, but don't provide the best avenues for questions and answers. I'm a hands-on learner and need to be around an instructor to guide me. I found the Birmingham School of Photography and am going to start attending classes with them. They offer group classes, but I think they also offer private lessons and if so, I'm going to look into that. I'd love to take them my list of "I'd like to learn this so I can achieve this" goals. My first classes are this weekend and I'm pretty excited about them. Hopefully, I don't embarrass myself too much.