Over Exposure experiment

[JayMorr 0]

I have been playing around a lot with color and over-exposure. I like the effect of pulling out the color on a focused subject and over exposing the rest without over doing it. Let me know what you guys think. I also included some of my recent stuff.

 

It would be cool to see you guys maybe try and play with this and see what you could come up with on Trout. Maybe pull out colors or scales ??? Just something different to play with and have some fun.

 

I picked up a Speedlite and a new 50mm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Wulff 0]

Nice expressions Jay, you might try the first as a B+W.

 

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Typically over exposure in a portrait is usually not considered attractive. There are photographers that blow out the highlights in the background to make backgrounds go completely white. That's fairly common. Most portraits are done using the opposite technique that you are using with part of the face properly exposed and the rest in shadow or slightly underexposed. The great master painters also used this technique for painting portraits and were very good with shadows and highlights. People who know art, photography and understand light know that this is what seperates the beginners from advanced artists. My opinion about blown out highlights is that they are usually hard on the eyes. I've used as many as 5 lights doing studio portraits. Highlights can be created and controlled using what's called rim lighting or kicker lights. The photo of the bride was done with 5 lights. Main, Fill, Background, a kicker light was used from the right and there was a light set up to highlight the veil. In the other photo I used 4 lights. Main, Fill, Background and a kicker light for the hair. I would use highlights sparingly for best results. If you want to see more of my portrait work, Go to http://robvalineimages.com/-/robvalineimag...ry.asp?cat=9863

or you can check out my web site at www.RobValineimages.com

 

 

[Al Beatty 0]

Hi Jay,

 

I'm aware not everyone liked the results but I thought it was kind of fun. Please don't think I didn't like the pics of the children or the lady but I thought the dog looked kind of nice. Anyway, keep posting. I sure enjoy them. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

[FlyTyingPhotographer 0]

Jay I just wanted to add a bit to my earlier post. First of all, I think the dog and the lady look great. The child is a little extreme. In my earlier post, I gave you my honest opinion and what I mentioned is generally what is taught in photography schools. You're probably the first person I've ever seen to deliberately blow out highlights as a means of seperating the subject. Experimenting is fun and it is very creative and sometimes rules are made to be broken. Trends come and go and in photography talking to 10 photographers will usually get you 10 different opinions. I'm sure there are people who may like the results. But, I don't think blowing out highlights in portraits is the best of ideas. Portraits are usually fairly traditional. There's not much that can be done with portraits that hasn't already been done. However I think it might be possible to use blown out highlights in other things and it may actually be kind of cool. You mentioned seperating scales on fish. It might be cool to deliberately blow out highlights in something used for commercial purposes like an advertisement and use the blown out area for text. By all means keep experimenting and keep us posted on the results.

[JayMorr 0]

Oh no offense taken guys. I was just experimenting and playing around with exposure settings. I thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with. I appreciate all your comments! I learn a lot from you guys.

 

I can see where over exposure on portraits is not the ideal thing to do. It was more or less just an experiment I was playing around with to see if I could come up with something.

 

Anyways, thanks for your comments guys. I am glad you responded!

 

 

 

[JayMorr 0]

Jay I just wanted to add a bit to my earlier post. First of all, I think the dog and the lady look great. The child is a little extreme. In my earlier post, I gave you my honest opinion and what I mentioned is generally what is taught in photography schools. You're probably the first person I've ever seen to deliberately blow out highlights as a means of seperating the subject. Experimenting is fun and it is very creative and sometimes rules are made to be broken. Trends come and go and in photography talking to 10 photographers will usually get you 10 different opinions. I'm sure there are people who may like the results. But, I don't think blowing out highlights in portraits is the best of ideas. Portraits are usually fairly traditional. There's not much that can be done with portraits that hasn't already been done. However I think it might be possible to use blown out highlights in other things and it may actually be kind of cool. You mentioned seperating scales on fish. It might be cool to deliberately blow out highlights in something used for commercial purposes like an advertisement and use the blown out area for text. By all means keep experimenting and keep us posted on the results.

 

 

Yes, my experiment was the result of reading and learning more from a book put out by Bryan Peterson ("Understanding Exposure"). He talks about Overexposing his photographs for effects (page138) "Deliberate Exposure" or multiple exposure shooting more than 3 or 4 stops over exposed. The results are not always going to be compelling as he mentions in his book, however vivid colors that would normally be seen are transformed into delicate pastel tones. It also gives the effect of grain.

 

My experiment was accomplished by doing the above and my questions were to see if anyone else has used such methods. I was curious and it is an invite to anyone wanting to experiment with the technique. I threw the challenge out there on another board and here are some results:

http://www.utahonthefly.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18515

 

Again, feel free to experiment....

 

Thanks for your input. I love portrait photography. You can visit my gallery on www.jaymorrphotography.com