Dynamic Lighting - Moody Flowers

Short - Sweet - To the Point! :)

Dynamic Lighting is lighting where there is ONE definitive, bold, light source that creates an uneven lighting contrast of bright brights and dark shadows...

this isn't the harshest of lighting conditions, but it still emphasizes detail in the flower as well as in the cloth

a little harsher?

window as dynamic light source

 the main light source for the first picture was the window, the rest of the room was dark for the most part even though there were other light sources (windows). The flower is a little lower than the window. (light source)

The light source for the second picture was the same window, though the position was much farther away from the window. The flower is level with the window...

of course the lighting doesn't always have to be 90 degree angles... The light source (sun) is almost directly facing the camera, revealing detail on the window and wood, that would not otherwise be visible had there been other light sources present (say on the other side of the window...) ...or had there been a bottle of windex nearby... 

Below is a great tutorial on how to do FAKE Dynamic lighting with some editing...

http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/add-dynamic-lighting-to-a-flat-photograph/

Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Graduated Neutral Density Filters are pieces of plastic, one end it perfectly clear, the other end is darker to prevent some light from entering...

 When the camera is pointed at an unevenly exposed area (horizon) The Filter can be used to properly expose BOTH the sky and the land.

This is without the filter, (not that there's anything wrong with this picture) It just might not be the look you're going for....

same picture, WITH the filter... (the down side is objects in the foreground get darker)

The advantage to using the filter is its really easy to get that HDR look without taking multiple pictures. (it also works great for videos) 

...and of course... There's always Set Extension to get a FAKE background instead... 

The images below has nothing to do with satanic cult worshiping...  

This is a sample form an upcoming film I'm working on... and DON'T WORRY, it doesn't have anything to do with "evil" stuff... 

DSLR Sensor Cleaning (Lazy Guide) "Hot Pixel"

in the spirit of lazy this blog post will be very lazily done*


To clean your DSLR sensor WITHOUT touching, risking or damaging your sensor:
*don't take off your camera lens*

1: Set your camera to Manual Mode

2: Go to the options (middle yellow wrench thingy on Canon DSLR's)

3: Select "Sensor Cleaning" (your camera will open it's sensor where you could if you wanted to, put a sensor cleaning device inside and clean it, however if you screw up, you may potentially render the camera completely useless... )

4: after about a minute to 2 minutes turn your camera off

5: Take a blank picture and check it for hot pixels and other dirt... if the picture looks cleaner then your sensor is clean and there is no need to take it to a camera specialist.

this is a picture taken with the lens cap on... LOOKS perfectly black right?

this is the EXACT same picture as the one above, only slightly zoomed in to reveal that even though the picture looks black, there's still plenty of dirt and dust and all sorts of imperfections on the sensor... (just proves how incredibly sharp and sophisticated camera's these days are)

and that one bright white dot in the center is called a "hot pixel" usually hot pixels aren't a problem and are virtually invisible unless you shoot in low light... where they can often become distracting and frustrating... They can always be colored over but if you shoot video, its a little harder to cover it up...

This picture below is the exact same zoomed in selection as the above picture, only taken AFTER I did the above procedure to clean my sensor... notice the hot pixel has vanished :)

there is still a little bit of dots and noise... but that can't be helped, and after a little touching up all that stuff can be fixed up! (only a truly picky photographer would gripe about something so small as a little bit of noise)

Incredible above pictures taken by Andrew Taraba, please no stealing?