Painting with Light

A barn lays abandoned, slowly becoming consumed by the wilderness that surrounds it. Many small family run farms have been run into the ground by large corporate run farms, leaving barns like this one to rot in its place. According to The Washington…

A barn lays abandoned, slowly becoming consumed by the wilderness that surrounds it. Many small family run farms have been run into the ground by large corporate run farms, leaving barns like this one to rot in its place. According to The Washington Post, the number of American farms has dropped significantly, "from more than 6 million in 1935 to roughly 2 million in 2012".

My team and I photographed a secluded barn in Ashland, Mo. The difficulties we faced were mainly due to effectively using a black card to block the lens. When we placed the black card over the lens it bumped the zoom and in turn messed up the photo. We had success in lighting the barn, but the tree was more difficult for us. It was complicated to balance flashes that had different maximum powers. While testing all of the lights, it wasted a lot of battery, so having a lot of spares was very helpful. 

Blending & Color Correction

Tianru Shi, a 25 year old student at the University of Missouri, practices his jumpshot at The Lyfe apartment complex. While studying to be a statistics major he enjoys keeping track of his stats on the court. (Non Color corrected image)

Tianru Shi, a 25 year old student at the University of Missouri, practices his jumpshot at The Lyfe apartment complex. While studying to be a statistics major he enjoys keeping track of his stats on the court. (Non Color corrected image)

Tianru Shi, a 25 year old student at the University of Missouri, practices his jumpshot at The Lyfe apartment complex. While studying to be a statistics major he enjoys keeping track of his stats on the court. (color corrected image)

Tianru Shi, a 25 year old student at the University of Missouri, practices his jumpshot at The Lyfe apartment complex. While studying to be a statistics major he enjoys keeping track of his stats on the court. (color corrected image)

I struggled with this assignment more than most of the others. Between trying to fin time to shoot the photo and balancing the gels, lighting ratio, and exposure something always seemed to be off. In my select there was actually two different types of streetlights shining on the court which made it particularly hard to blend my flash. I had the idea and concept down but when it came down to executing it, I had some troubles. My gel is a little to harsh of an orange, the subject is a tad to blurred, and the exposure is too dark. I prefer my pictures dark, but for photos for the class I should have exposed it just a touch more.

Multiple Flash & Final Project Lighting Test

Kyle Zynda, a Columbia native gets some big air at Cosmo skatepark on April 12th, 2017.

Kyle Zynda, a Columbia native gets some big air at Cosmo skatepark on April 12th, 2017.

I originally wanted to backlight the photo but after many failed attempts, gave up on that Idea. I ended up going with the cross lighting which you can see in the lighting diagram above. The cross-light set up worked very well and was not all that difficult. My issue with the backlight setup was attempting to stop the skater at peak action with the flash directly behind him. I learned that having extra hands while using multiple flashes is almost essential. If I did not have multiple people assisting with the flashes, moving light stands would have been a real pain in the ass.

Final Project Lighting Test

Final Project Lighting Test

Video Interview

This was my first experience producing a two camera interview. It was not the most difficult assignment yet, but it did serve its own challenges. One of which was lighting the background so that it was perfect in both frames. Placing the subject closer to the background allowed for the background light to cover more surface area within the frame. An issue that Is still present in my interview was the focus on my tight shot. It seemed as if it was focused when we began and got less and less so as the video went on. I feel that it would be easier to control the focus if I was not the interviewer and the camera man.

(above) Produced By: Ellie Cherryhomes

Fill and Balance

Alex Sommerfeldt, a second year student at the University of Missouri, explores a popular hiking spot known as, "devils icebox". This underground stream is a small part of a large cave system that runs throughout Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

Alex Sommerfeldt, a second year student at the University of Missouri, explores a popular hiking spot known as, "devils icebox". This underground stream is a small part of a large cave system that runs throughout Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.

This was definitely another challenging project for me! I had a really hard time figuring out how to make the flash effective without blowing out the subject. Adding fill flash was just one more moving part to an already newly running machine. I did find balancing to be easier and personally a whole lot more fun. I used a cave opening to perform balancing, instead of a window. 

Studio Metal

According to BeTobaccoFree.gov, "More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964". Take care of your body and quit today, before it's too late.

According to BeTobaccoFree.gov, "More than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964". Take care of your body and quit today, before it's too late.

This project had a lot of learning curves involved. I lit the revolver from each side with 2 large soft boxes. Lighting the metal it self was not the biggest issue I came across. The issues I dealt with were, horizons, shiny black velvet, smoke position, etc. Most of these issues were solved by either moving a light a few inches, stopping down a tad, or simply waiting for the vapor to fall into the correct spot. 

Single Flash

Will Hoffmann, a pinball fanatic, practices at Lazer Lanes on February 22nd, 2017. Will is a member of the Columbia Pinball league, where he holds records on three different pinball machines.

Will Hoffmann, a pinball fanatic, practices at Lazer Lanes on February 22nd, 2017. Will is a member of the Columbia Pinball league, where he holds records on three different pinball machines.

Will Hoffman, an avid pinball player has been playing competitively for the past three years. He holds a Columbia, Misssouri record of 1,380,721,580 points on the Game of Thrones pinball machine.

Will Hoffman, an avid pinball player has been playing competitively for the past three years. He holds a Columbia, Misssouri record of 1,380,721,580 points on the Game of Thrones pinball machine.

Copy work

Monarch butterflies, photographed at a sanctuary in Mexico's Sierra Chincua mountain range. Photographed by Joel Sartore in Pdn's conservation issue.

Monarch butterflies, photographed at a sanctuary in Mexico's Sierra Chincua mountain range. Photographed by Joel Sartore in Pdn's conservation issue.

Cindy Hernandez, a former gang member that was recently incarcerated looks to change her future in a bright way. Photographed by Adam Amengual for his series titled, "Homies".

Cindy Hernandez, a former gang member that was recently incarcerated looks to change her future in a bright way. Photographed by Adam Amengual for his series titled, "Homies".

I made the lighting decisions I used based off insight provided during lab and a little bit of trial and error. I was challenged slightly with reflections when I had first started shooting. I moved the lights around to make them more even with each other, which helped tremendously. I still noticed a slight reflection of my hand as well as my camera trap. To fix the hand Issue I used a 2 second self timer, which allowed me to moved my hand out of the frames reflection. Similarly for the camera strap, I simply tucked it behind the camera stand.