A Year of Beauty- Photography Challenge- Year 2

[Samtian]

September/October is here so break time is over!

Time to start with some fundamentals. Photography has it's own set of "rules". Which of course are meant to be broken, but it's really helpful to know some basics. Starting with the rule of 3rds in composition. What you do is place your subject on one of the "imaginary" lines that cut a photo into thirds ( 9 sections). I do this rule often, but sometimes parents don't like it in their pictures and want the subjects centered. Included is images with the lines showing. Just basic set up so you can see it. One of the easiest ways to get something on one of the lines is to crop it down. When you crop an image you usually get the lines that show up, using those lines tells you where the "thirds" are, and just line your subject up with one of them. 

If you want to get really technical I encourage you to look up the Golden Ratio and learn about it. It has many names and it is way too mathematical for my brain to comprehend. To my knowledge I don't think I have ever taken a golden ratio image. I have golden triangle but not ratio. Check it out! photoworkout dot com/golden-ratio-photography/  

Hopefully you can see the lines...I should have thought it out and used a dark background. 

What a great first year we had!! Even if I dropped the ball sometimes! I decided to change things up this year with the themes. They will be a little more challenging this year.

2023-

April- DOF 2 images.

May- Flash/Artificial Light.

June- What you see vs. What I see

July- Break

August- Break

September/October- Rule of 3rds.

2022 challenges-

April- Lipstick

May- Eye Shadow

June- Primer/Foundation/Concealer/CC/BB

July- Highlighters

August- Brushes

September- Sheet Masks

October- Hair Care

November- Fragrance

December- Nail Polish

January- Blush/Bronzer

February- Candles/Wax Melts/ Diffusers

The challenge and "rules"-

1. Flat lays and staged photos only. I'll post examples below. But no faces or people allowed in your photos. (Though you can include photographs).

2. All photos you take must be your own. 

3. Post as many images as you want, you have a whole month to get creative with each theme. Post one, post everyday, doesn't matter.

4. Let's talk gear and products! Tell us about your image. List the products and colors, talk to us about your concept and how it came to be, taken with your phone or DSLR? 

Here are some helpful reads- digital-photography-school dot com/flat-lay-photography/  and digital-photography-school dot com/tips-for-getting-started-with-still-life-photography/

Here are some of my example images I've taken in the past-

Gucci Bloom Eau De Toilette 1 oz/ 30 mL 

Floral Street Sunflower Pop Eau De Parfum Travel Spray 0.34 oz/ 10 mL 

[fatimamummy]

Since I finally made my way to the BIC , Here is another entry for rule of third. Photo, Meta data and screenshot with grid on . 
Aspect ratio is 16:9 because photo was taken for Instagram story. 

 

 

 As you see in Metadata it says saved from Lightroom. I edited the photo in Lightroom to desaturate background into a B&W finish. Unedited photo is not in my phone so I can’t share it ATM . The only difference is original background was a warm white shade.

[Samtian]

@fatimamummy Beautiful! I love those colors and the shadows!

[itsfi]

This looks beautiful @fatimamummy! 😍 Love hearing about your photo taking and editing process. I learned about Lightroom here from @Samtian but haven’t tried it out … yet. A resolution for 2024, perhaps? 

[fatimamummy]

@itsfi It is super easy and you can completely transform your photos in just a few minutes. There are a ton of tutorials on YouTube to get you started. Start with free mobile version, I think it has all the feature a casual editor may need after that if you feel you want to go deep, you can subscribe to paid one.

[Samtian]

@itsfi It's a game changer!

[itsfi]

Here we go, The Rule of Thirds, Take 2 🎬 

Below are three images - the first is the original, unedited frame of Byredo Black Saffron fragrance. The second is a screenshot of the photo with the grid to show The Rule of Third in effect. The last image is a shot of the camera settings (iPhone X) for the original shot. 

Original shot, unedited

Original shot, unedited (with grid)

This "Take 2" falls under the maxims of “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” and “it takes a village…” Thank you @Samtian for your suggestion to keep it simple, using one object and to take the shot head on. That has made for a far more pleasing photo and it's made it much more easier for my brain to connect the concept of The Rule of Thirds to actually putting that principle into practice. 😊

[itsfi]

I ended up taking these additional photos after getting home from dinner, based on your suggestion below @Samtian to line up the product in the center of the first vertical line. Lighting is different than the original shots as the sun had set and it was dark outside at that time. I took a couple of photos at different depths and also took some black-and-white shots.

Rule of Thirds, Take 2.1 🎬: Modified Alignment

Modified alignment, taken further away

Modified Alignment, taken closer up

From a purely personal perspective, I prefer the second shot, the one taken closer to the product. I wanted to see what that frame would look like in black-and-white and... Me likey! 😍

Thanks so much for your feedback and suggestion samtian! 🤗 It was really helpful, both in seeing the difference that the adjustment (to move the product in the center of the vertical line) made to the overall look and feel of the frame, as well as engaging my brain 🧠 more with respect to the Rule of Thirds. I'm getting more familiar and comfortable with the concept (and I tried doing what @fatimamummy does and have kept the grid on my phone "on" - thank you for sharing that tip, fatimamummy!)

[fatimamummy]

These are beautiful photos @itsfi  looks like I am not getting tag alert emails from BIC all the time. I also have a great liking for black & White photos. To my eyes most everything looks beautiful in Black & White.

[itsfi]

I love black and white shots too @fatimamummy. I ♥️♥️♥️ your b&w photos. There’s an elegance to your photos that is just further elevated in your black & white shots. 🥰

[Titian06]

Lovely photo, @itsfi ! 😍

[itsfi]

Thank you @Titian06. The Byredo packaging is just so pretty in person and photos. 😍

[Samtian]

@itsfi great job! Try it one more time and center the perfume through that vertical line it's by and see what you think of that.

[Samtian]

Put the middle of the bottle on the line I circled. Sorry I'm on my phone and it's hard to use the app.

[itsfi]

 No worries @Samtian; I get what you’re saying. Will do. 😊 Thanks so much! 

[Samtian]

@itsfi 

 

[itsfi]

Thank you @Samtian! I’ll try to get a photo in during the work week; if not, then next weekend. 

[itsfi]

Ruh roh, which vertical line?

If the top row of the grid is, from left to right, 1, 2, and 3; the middle row being 4-6, and the last row is 7-9, which square should I try to fit the perfume through? Yes, Professor @Samtian, I’m that student. 😝 Sorry. 🤦🏻‍♀️

[itsfi]

Rule of Thirds, Take 1 🎬

Rule of Thirds: Eyeballin' It

Rule of Thirds: with grid & editing

There was always that class in school that would make my head spin; I feel like The Rule of Thirds may be that for me here. 😂 It's all good though (really, it is) because I love being able to learn more photography techniques @Samtian! And this space is very conducive to both learning on your own pace (and whatever else we have going on in our lives) and for support, encouragement and constructive feedback from folks who are simply amazing!

For whatever reason, this exercise was a hard one for me to grasp or be content with the results, which only makes me want to try harder to get it. So I am gonna keep trying my hand at this Rule of Thirds concept, because that's how we learn. These will serve as a nice baseline to have as I work more this month on being more comfortable with applying the Rule of Thirds to my photographs.

For what it's worth, here's how I woud have set up the shots if I wasn't working on grasping the Rule of Thirds technique. 📷 

Spoiler

Original shot (unedited)

Original shot (edited by zooming in and cropping original photo)

For the past 5, maybe 6 years, I've been using an iPhone X to take my photos and still do (and likely will) for most of my photos, even though support for the X has stopped. All these shots though were taken on an iPhone 13 mini. 

[Samtian]

@itsfi It's fun to rattle the brain and make it think! I really like the first one you did, it creates nice lines.  Maybe try it with a candle or something standing up so you are looking at it eye level instead of down? 

[itsfi]

I want to do one at eye level, but haven’t been able to think about what to do. A candle is a good idea. Thanks @Samtian!