This week’s prompt was about taking a shot in harsh or low light. Chelsea says,
Using your shutter speed as your first adjusted setting, photograph a scene with either harsh (re: bright) light or low light. Can’t control your settings? No problem! Look for strong and interesting compositions in either harsh or low light.
I was excited about this prompt, I love taking shots that have a strong interplay between light and shadow. I was initially going to go find something out in the city to shoot in the bright sun, but I ended up not having time for that, and I wanted to experiment with something a little different anyways. So I ended up with this self-portrait:
It’s interesting to me how this challenge so far has turned into “learn a lot about using light”, which I’ve mentioned before is a weakness of mine. For this shot I had to learn how to do “The Invisible Black Backdrop“, which I’ve always known was a thing but never knew how to do. But I finally figured it out! I’m pretty happy with how this shot turned out.
BTW, a random gear oddity: the invisible black backdrop really only works with an off-camera flash, but I don’t have a radio trigger and the IR trigger on my flash requires an on-camera flash to send the signal. But my “new” body (5D MkIV) doesn’t have a pop-up flash so I had to go back to my old body (original 7D) to take this shot. I don’t use the 7D too much any more, but it still takes great photos and I am really glad I haven’t gotten rid of it for occasions like this! If I start doing more of this type of photography I may invest in a radio trigger, though.
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