Photography: Weekly Warm Up for December 1,2014

Career Monday

No Work

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Tips and Tricks Tuesday

Use a Reflector

A quick and affordable way to brighten up your portraits and to give them a professional look is to use a reflector.  Use them indoors (near windows) or outdoors to bounce light back onto your subjects to fill in unwanted shadows.  Many reflectors come double-sided or with detachable covers, 
so you get a choice of white, silver and gold reflective surfaces.

Portrait Photography Tips: use a reflector     Portrait Photography Tips: use a reflector

Original shot without a reflector                     With a reflector            

Portrait Photography Tips: use a reflector     Portrait Photography Tips: use a reflector

   Gold  warms up your portrait           Silver brightens your image

You don’t have to purchase a reflector in order to get these results.  You can make a reflector by simply using a large sheet of white poster board, which you can also cover with tin foil for a silver effect.

Content from Digital Camera World
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Photoshop Wednesday

Eye Pop

Want to make the eyes pop in one of your portraits… try this tutorial!  Eye Pop Tutorial

Eye Pop Tutorial Crop

 

Eye Pop Tutorial Finished

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What’s Trending? Thursday

Garbage Portraits

Read this article and fill out your Warm Up Sheet.

Mesmerizing Photos of People Lying in a Week’s Worth of Their Trash

Things to consider:

  • What would your garbage say about you?
  • Would you “edit” your trash?
  • What do you think about combining artificially constructed natural environments with waste?  Is there deeper meaning?
  • Is this a type voyeurism (taking a peek into someone else’s life)  like what we get from reality TV or social media?
  • How do you think people (the subjects and viewers) might be changed from this experience?
  • Do you think it was important that the artist participated?
  • On trash day, look at what your household produces.  How much less garbage could you produce?  How?

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Photographer Friday

Lee Jeffries

I have copied and pasted bios from various sites that are blocked to students.  There is one more link that is open that you can check out in order to find the required information.  Hint:  You may have to do some math in order to figure out when Jeffries was born!

Bio #1:  From “Yellow Korner”

Lee Jeffries lives in Manchester in the United Kingdom. Close to the professional football circle, this artist starts to photograph sporting events. A chance meeting with a young homeless girl in the streets of London changes his artistic approach forever. Lee Jeffries recalls that, initially, he had stolen a photo from this young homeless girl huddled in a sleeping bag. The photographer knew that the young girl had noticed him but his first reaction was to leave. He says that something made him stay and go and discuss with the homeless girl. His perception about the homeless completely changes. They become the subject of his art. The models in his photographs are homeless people that he has met in Europe and in the United States: «Situations arose, and I made an effort to learn to get to know each of the subjects before asking their permission to do their portrait.» From then onwards, his photographs portray his convictions and his compassion to the world.

Bio #2:  From “Huffington Post”

Lee Jeffries is a self-taught artist who has surprised the insular photography world with his striking series of black-and-white portraits of homeless men and women. His subjects come from London, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Las Vegas, New York City and other urban areas.

Jeffries takes close up head shots of his various volunteers, capturing the emotional expressions of those who are often invisible to a majority of the population. He also conducts interviews with his subjects, connecting to them by the simple act of listening to their stories.

Instead of profiting from a vulnerable population, he’s confronting an issue many of us ignore. He runs the London marathon every year in honor of the UK charity, Centrepoint, donating prints and cameras he’s won in several competitions to the organization, as well as to other homeless charities globally.

I can’t change these people’s lives,” Jeffries explained to Time Magazine. “I can’t wave a magic wand but it doesn’t mean I can’t take a photograph of them and try to raise awareness and bring attention to their plight.”

Despite Jeffries’ recent recognition — he has taken the gold, silver and bronze titles in the annual Amateur Photographer magazine competition over the last three years — his work continues to be self-funded. Scroll through the portraits below (presented without captions per the photographer’s request) and let us know your thoughts on the photographer’s work in the comments.

Bio #3

Photos with Back Stories

High Def Tutorial

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