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 

[itsfi]

Thank you @Kim888! 😃 To me, EB Apres is a mix of alpine mountains and evergreens. Definitely worth smelling if you get the chance. 

[itsfi]

I took the October photography theme to work on zooming in and camera angles, particularly without cropping the photo. 

There's more going on in the photo than I wanted, but I've made a note to work on this at another time. 

Photo Details:

Spoiler

Product(s):	[Will add tonight; have to get ready for work.]
Camera:	iPhone X
Background:	Table / counter
Prop(s):	Flowers + basket + products
Other Material:	N/A
Lighting:	Natural, indirect light coming in from the right
Editing:	Rotated photo to the left so that it's right side up
Camera Position:	In front of products, tilted slightly downward, magnified 1.5x

[Saradestin]

Beautiful picture and great assortment @itsfi! 

[itsfi]

Thank you @Saradestin! I'm pleased to say that a couple of these beauties have been all used up with a couple more headed in that same direction! Yaaay!

[Saradestin]

That’s awesome @itsfi ! 😃

[sister13]

Beautiful photo and lovely products!! @itsfi 

[itsfi]

Thank you @sister13! The products do the heavy lifting in this one. 😆

[ather]

@itsfi  I love how busy this picture is. Really shows the amount of different products you have and use!

[itsfi]

Thank you @ather! It also shows how much stuff in my stash I have to work through! 😝 A very good reminder that I need to shop my stash more. Note to self … 📝 

[ather]

@itsfi  I have a love hate relationship with shopping my stash. 🤣

[itsfi]

Hahaha @ather! I can appreciate that a lot!

[Buootiful]

Lovely basket, adding the hair clips is a nice touch @itsfi . I always seem to get a good stomach workout when i try to take the pic without the need to crop it and keep the phone camera steady 😁.

[itsfi]

Thank you so much @Buootiful! I feel like I've discovered all these ways to stretch and bend and contort my body to try to get the angle I *think* I want. 🤣 I always consider it a plus when parts of my finger doesn't end up in the frame or what I was aiming at  comes through clearly and not blurry. Hahaha!

[Buootiful]

Omg, the finger problem, yes! 🤣 @itsfi 

[itsfi]

Hence why many of the editing comments for my photos include “cropping” @Buootiful! Hahahaha! 

[Samtian]

@itsfi Looks great! It's hard not to crop!

[itsfi]

I feel like rotating and cropping photos are my thing given how often I need to do both, @Samtian! 😂🤣😂 It used to be making sure my shadow couldn't be seen. Now that I have a better handle on that, I'll be working on getting the right angles, zooming in more, and less cropping. These challenges and seeing everyone's photos have been so helpful for working on the things I need and want to work on with my photos. Thank you samtian and thank you to all the fabulous BIC photographers here!

[Samtian]

@itsfi Haha I feel that! Especially in landscape images ugh so much straightening the horizon and cropping. 

[fatimamummy]

It is a beautiful photo @itsfi  All the products are going really well together and nothing feels out of place. It is a homey shot of an actual hair product basket in shower and has a candid feel instead of staged.

[itsfi]

Awww, thank you @fatimamummy! That means so much! 😘

[fatimamummy]

Hi Hi , Here I am again. I am going to post something for all the months I missed but let’s start with this month’s hair care. 

JVN and Inkey list photos are taken with iPhone 12 Pro Max and Odele photo is taken with Canon Camera. Individually all photo may look fine but putting them together we can see the difference between the quality of  phone and camera photos.

I am loving it as a last step after sting my hair for the glossy effect.Inkey list’s hair care collection , I haven’t gotten around to actually try them yetA beautiful affordable clean hair care brand but not available at Sephora