Continuing my series of shots from this year, April was a quieter month photographically speaking due to my starting a new job with a different employer. The month's standout shoot was with Desne, a model I had shot before.
You can see March's compilation here: @fastchrisuk/my-photographic-year-in-12-days-march-2022
Desne strikes a pose
On this shoot Desne was quite accustomed to holding on to burning smoke pellets and was happy to waft away!
Flux Capacitor
Around about this month I became a bit obsessed with fractal filters. Also in April, the nights get shorter meaning I have to find dark locations to shoot in such as tunnels. This was a simple to make shot with a fractal filter, smoke and laser beams in a local abandoned railway personnel tunnel.
Looking for colours
During this month I bought a couple of large RGB LED panels with the specific aim of grabbing some alternative colours in my photography. I noticed my stuff seemed to revolve around primary colours, red, blue and yellow or variations thereof. With the RGB panel, I can dial in some unusual colours to see what works and what doesn't.
Mixing it up
I found that with the LED panel, it was best to combine them with the use of a flashgun. The flashgun was fired from the front to light up Desne here to freeze the action. LED lights make the whole process so much easier to the point that I'm finding it harder to justify a DSLR camera and all the lenses when it's just as easy to pull out an iPhone!
Continuing my tilt and pan obsession
Having had a Eureka! moment with this idea of panning the camera at the end of a long exposure, I've been looking for ways to vary this technique. Here I placed a small RGB LED panel inside a recess in the lime kiln wall and stopped the panning motion so as to make it appear in the recess. I'm not sure if this works or not but it's a good exercise to inform me for next time.
Overpowering the Sun
Here I used the large RGB LED panels to provide fill light on Desne. The light kicked out by these panels was surprisingly warm. I made a mental note to cool the white balance the next time.
Desne Blue
Like I said, April was dominated by this shoot with Desne!
Gelled flash is better than RGB LED
Here I used the two larger RGB LED panels to light up Desne's portrait. The colour rendition from an RGB light doesn't look as good as it does with a gelled flash. I already knew this when I shot this image, but it kind of confirms that I should stick with a gelled flash.
The RGB panels are now used mostly for lighting larger areas rather than for portrait work. The only trouble is the size of the damn things makes them less portable for some of the remote locations I go to meaning they get left at home gathering dust!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
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https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
