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 

[Samtian]

@sister13 Ooh this is such a good job! And that lipstick packaging oh my ❤️

[sister13]

Thank you! Yes, this one was/is so appealing and Sophia Loren was amazing ! @Samtian 

[itsfi]

Going to try to sneak in one more set of photos for the DOF challenge.

Original shot - iphone X - artificial lighting

with blur

Other than the blur, the only other editing involved rotating the original photo and cropping it a smidge

on one side. 

The DOF challenge was a nice one @Samtian. It was fun to learn a new technique. 📷

[tsavorite]

@itsfi ,

Speaking of DOF, did you notice how the black mirror stand seems to rise out of the black stopper top of the pink liquid's bottle? 

Once I noticed it, I couldn't look away. Sorry to be a smart aleck!  I'll go away now....

[Samtian]

@itsfi Great job! I also really love how it's also your project pans! Funny you mention artificial lighting...that's this months challenge! 

[itsfi]

@Samtian, thank you! I have been taking all the tips, tricks and techniques I've picked up from this thread and putting them to use as I take photos, so I thought it was fitting to try this with a BIC post and this one for my project pan seemed like a good one. Changing the DOF changed the feel of the project pan photo. 👍 It was fun to try the blur technique on this pic and cool to see the difference it made. Oooh, artificial light? Looking forward to hearing about this month's challenge. 

[sister13]

I somehow missed this thread update for years 2, but will try to get something in for the challenge before April is over! I like that you have escalated the challenge and looking forward to the year ahead and to learn and practice some new techniques! Thanks @Samtian !

[Samtian]

@sister13 Thank you!! Can't wait to have you join us!

[Samtian]

Here are my entries for the DOF Challenge. I had wanted to do these in my light set up but I couldn't find any white backing for the life of me. Dang school kids, jk. So I went with outside. The first five are various versions of shallow dof. The last two are a deeper dof. I decided to pull out some of my SEPHORA COLLECTION Astrology Lip Stories Lipstick 98 Capricorn  I can't seem to tag just the stories only astrology version. But these are all lip stories. 

ShallowShallowShallowShallowShallowDeepDeep

Technical Info- ISO should be capitalized but I copied and pasted from the first one I did and am too lazy to fix it. 

Spoiler

1- Fstop- 9
Iso-800
Shutter speed- 1/200

2- Fstop- 4.5
Iso- 800
Shutter speed- 1/800

3- Fstop- 1.8
Iso- 100
Shutter speed- 1/500

4- Fstop- 1.8
Iso- 100
Shutter speed- 1/500

5- Fstop- 1.8
Iso- 100
Shutter speed- 1/500

6- Fstop- 10
Iso- 250
Shutter speed- 1/100

7- Fstop- 10
Iso- 400
Shutter speed- 1/100

Editing- Mostly cropping, heavy cropping, neutralizing a blue sheet in the backgrounds color. And exposure adjustments. 

Thoughts- I really do wish I had the white background. I'm wondering how much better for the deeper ones if I had them lined different and lighting was different to get them all in focus like I visioned. It was getting windy so I stopped at what I had. I do like how the shallow turned out. Would have lined them differently as well. And I wouldn't have used that really pale white pink looking lipstick either. 

[Buootiful]

What a great way to showcase your collection! I love the different ways you used the DOF. Enjoying your pics and hearing songs of Lady Gaga in my head  while doing it. 🙂 @Samtian 

[Samtian]

@Buootiful Thank you!!

[Sunnysmom]

This is so fun @Samtian ! Love your pics (and everyones!) . I love messing around with portrait mode. I’m reading and learning so much already, thank you! 💞 

[Samtian]

@Sunnysmom Thank you!! This makes me so happy to hear!

[Kim888]

Oooh this is such a fun picture @Samtian !!! So many fun pinky shades ! 

[Samtian]

@Kim888 Thaank you! Some of them I hadn't even opened yet.

[JoSometimes]

A white background would have been nice for these photos, but I actually like the juxtaposition of the bright man-made colours with the natural neutrals and greys of the rocks and the background. This is such a great photo set @Samtian!

[Samtian]

@JoSometimes Thank you so much!!

[Titian06]

@Samtian - I love these pictures! 🥰  You did an outstanding job capturing the two different perspectives.  I like the background you used.  In the middle pics where the background is lighter, it detracts from the blurring of the lipsticks by blending in.  Maybe that's what you were going for, but my eyes/brain spend more time trying to distinguish between the background and the lipstick than enjoying the overall pic.  BTW, I'm envious of your collection. 💋💄  As a former bowling enthusiast, I love the bowling pin aspect. 😄🎳

[Samtian]

@Titian06 Thank you! No unfortunately that's just how the lighting was at the time of day, and the settings I used so that the subject would not be so dark. They always say the thing you notice first in photos is the brightest spots 😂. There are a few things I could have done to prevent it, even a lot more editing, but it was getting really windy so I needed to just hurry and wrap it up. 

[itsfi]

Oh my gosh, your photos are awesome @Samtian. The contrast between the blurred and nonblurred shots is amazing! 😍 

I'm going to read up on neutralizing blue sheets in the background and then I'll look over these photos more, both to pick up on different things and to admire your fab collection of #lipstories! 💄

[Samtian]

@itsfi Thank you!! Neutralizing it was basically taking the color out or lessening the saturation turning it more gray.