To Flash or Not to Flash

"To Flash or Not to Flash - My Journey with Assignment 2" - or at least that's what I'd like to have called this entry.

This past week has been a rough week - computer problems that I thought would never end. It all started with loading Picasa. See I have a Mac - well I use a Mac as my primary computer. So I got the brilliant idea to partition the Mac so I could use Windows Vista and ultimately Picasa. That's when my problems started. But I digress... I'm now blogging this entry on a handy Windows XP machine, that allowed me to install Picasa with no problem, build my collage of photos taken from my little digital camera that could and save it all to my reliable thumbdrive. Ahhhh the hills and valleys of technology....

To the left, you see some of the photos I took. These 1o are out of 164 photos in all I believe.

STARBUCKS
I started out with a popular culture theme of Starbucks . My thinking was that these photos could be used in a story about the class-definition of made-to-order coffee in the United States in the 1990s and 00's - or something like that. I actually took these after playing around outside of a Starbucks in the morning light and then in my office building using various angles and light sources (flash vs. no flash). I may post those a little later.

The first row of 4 and the second row of three (coffee cups) were taken on my desk at work, using a book to steady my camera. I actually had to buy the coffee cups, but used the various sizes and colors for effect. I then played with them in various formations, with the black back drop and without the black backdrop. I noticed that without the flash, the effect was more natural - the flash created a lot of shadowing that I thought was distracting. Additionally, I tried to play with the depth of field. I thought it was interesting to keep the Starbucks logo in the frame, but focus on the "We are honored to serve this coffee". I also tried to do the same with the check boxes on the side because this is part of the identifying mark of Starbucks - coffee made to order - "I'll take a tall, moca-latte, skim milk, half Sweet & Low, blah, blah, blah."

FASHION
The next two shots - of the dress form - one was taken on an elevated level with flash and one straight on with no flash. Again I like the effect of the second one - keeping in mind that I tried to fill the frame while creating a curve that would adhere to the thirds rule. I'm not sure if I accomplished it but I tried. I thought these photos would be useful in a story about fashion in any story.

MUSIC
The record was a hard shot. The plastic caused a lot of glare with flash but without flash I wasn't able to steady the camera enough to complete the shot (the records were hanging on a wall). I thought this would be a good candidate for Photoshop or some other manipulation technique.

Finally - this was a great exercise. I really enjoyed playing with the different techniques and seeing the results. The wonderful thing about digital media (ok - this is going to be very obvious) is that mistakes are show stoppers - you just keep on shooting. The ability to see an image and tweak it on the spot provides not only flexibility but also a little motivation to be creative in the shot.