Lucy And The Lens

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  • Photo Challenge Friday: Week 18: Blur The Boundaries

    Happy Friday readers.

    Week 18’s challenge is Blur The Boundaries. This challenge is about getting super close to your subject such as flowers so they partially obscurre the lens and create blurry blobs. Play with your focus and see what happens in a familiar location.

    Here are the images I took for this Challenge:

    For week 19 i have chosen another challenge from Be A Super Awesome Photographer by Henry Carroll. Week 19’s challenge is to Get Closer. This challenge is about taking close up pictures of ordinary things and seeing if you can make them look stange and unfamiliar. Using objects and subjects you can find in your own house and garden and experimenting with Black and White.

    If you enjoyed this weeks challenge join in with next weeks Get Closer challenge and tweet or Instagram to @lucyandthelens and don’t forget to #getcloser.

  • Competition Prep

    Every season at Preston Photographic Society we have themed competitions. So, in the summer I take my special Lucy and the Lens notebook with the seven competitions written down so I can think about what I want to take and whether I can take a couple on holiday.

    Sometimes this is easy because the themes fit perfectly with my holiday however other times, I can only manage one during my trip.

    Sometimes I’ve been working so much I find it hard to find time to take images for a competition at that moment. So, to prepare I look through photos I’ve collected over several years and see if anything fits if I know I won’t have time to take new ones or as a backup plan in case I don’t have chance to get out.

    I will do the same for any external competitions. I also have to prepare for print competitions which I send off to be printed so I have to give myself enough time to send them and get them back in time to enter.

    But whatever the theme I make sure I take the photos for me and not just for the competition. What I mean by that is that I make sure my personality is reflected in the photos as well as the theme as I won’t take a photo if it doesn’t stay true to me as a photographer.

    When you are looking for a theme or any competition entry you need to evaluate your portfolio or back catalogue and choose your best image. Try to pick original images and there you have it your first entry.

    Don’t expect your first entry to win the competition right off the bat it will take many attempts to achieve that. Also remember that photography is subjective one judge could love your image and the next could hate it. I wouldn’t worry as long as you are happy with it that’s what matters.

    Once you have decided on your image if you haven’t previously edited it go into lightroom and photoshop and make adjustments until you are happy that its competition ready. I’m predominantly a portrait photographer and I like to adjust highlights, exposure, contrast and shadows slightly. But in editing remember to always make the image reflect your own style.

    Finally, always make sure your images are resized to the correct competition standards and that you have read the competition rules beforehand. There’s nothing worse than entering it to be bounced back having not been judged.

    Here are three images that have done well for me in competitions:

    This Image Scored 20/20 in the Novice Competition at Preston Photographic Society in 2016
    This Image Scored 20/20 In The Mono Print Catergory at Preston Photographic Society Earlier This Year
    This Image Scored 19/20 in a Movement Themed Competition in 2018

    And three that have done badly:

    This One Scored 12/20
    Another 12/20
    A 12/20

    There should be a distinct difference between my top scoring sets of images and the low scoring set of images and hopefully this will help give you some ideas what to expect.

    I hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for more.

  • Photo Challenge Friday: Week 17: Play Detective

    It’s challenge time of the week again.

    This weeks challenge from Be a Super Awesome Photographer was Play Detective. This one is about taking portraits of the things people leave behind after they have left a room. You can do this by observing things that people have left on the street or by observing the things people in your household leave lying around when they leave a room. Or even getting people to guess who you are based on the objects you leave around yourself.

    The challenge for week 18 will also be from Be A Super Awesome Photographer by Henry Carroll. Week 18’s challenge is Blur The Boundaries. This challenge is about getting super close to your subject such as flowers so they partially obscurre the lens and create blurry blobs. Play with your focus and see what happens in a familiar location.

    If you enjoyed this weeks challenge join in with next weeks Blur The Boundaries challenge and tweet or Instagram to @lucyandthelens and don’t forget to #blurtheboundaries.

  • Goal Setting

    Most people will have set goals at the beginning of the year of what they plan to do through the year. A lot of these goals might now be unattainable due to Covid19.

    But your year doesn’t have to stop with Covid19 you can refocus your goals changing them up for the current climate. As Dani Barker Media (Social Media Strategist) says “we can then treat post covid as a 2020 take two setting yourself brand new goals when the time comes”.

    But first think about what you can do during this pandemic to improve your business. You might be thinking you can’t do anything, but there’s always something you can do.

    I think that goal setting is important because:

    • It focuses your attention on something.
    • It raises your self-confidence when you achieve them.
    • It motivates you to do more.
    • It gives you a sense of purpose.
    • It gives you more control of your future.

    In terms of goal setting I like to set my goals on the last day of every month.

    Each month provides me with new goals. Some months I have a week or two set out for a course I’m taking part in. Other months I use a structure I created when I did probloggers 31 days to build a better blog course and sometimes I do both.

    If we weren’t currently in lockdown, the first thing I would do in a typical month would be to check what I have booked in and right that down in both my calendar and my bullet journal which I use to create the schedule.

    As currently lockdown is the only thing that is happening , I’ve been thinking about what I can do with my social media content and web content as a change of focus because I can’t do photoshoots right now.

    In the month of March there was a 7 day content sprint with problogger. But this month looks a little different.

    I have a main goal set for the month of may which is to finish the podcasting course I’m doing which is a course on the future learn website called the power of podcasting for audio storytelling. I am also hoping to launch the podcast later this month. So this is what the month looks like for podcasting:

    • Week 1: Complete the podcasting course.
    • Week 2: Podcast Wednesday: plan the next month of podcasting.
    • Week 3: Get podcast platform ready.
    • Week 4: Launch podcast

    The podcast isn’t my only plan for this month though. In March I did a design sprint day which helps you work towards your long term and short term goals. So on the 11th of every month I will be doing a design sprint task day implementing some of the techniques I learnt. I will also be doing an idea generation day on the 15th of every month to help me think of ideas in all aspects of business. I have also scheduled in my zoom meetings in order to work around them.

    In the month I usually have one or two rest days per week which I call a do something different day where I do something completely unrelated to photography.

    When I’m planning my website content for the next month I have days set to do certain types of post for example a lust or review post. I may also have days to get someone who hasn’t looked at my blog before to analyse it and days to ask readers questions.

    I also have goals for everyday some are due to lockdown and others I want to implement even after. These are:

    • Spending some time on social media to post, comment, share, like and engage.
    • To do daily walks and workouts most days.
    • Listen to podcasts most days.
    • Read for at least an hour.

    Finally on the last day of the month I do two things:

    • Goal setting by planning a schedule for the next month.
    • Checking google analytics to see how my website has performed for the month.

    If you enjoyed this post why not set goals of your own and share them in the comments.

  • Photo Challenge Friday: Week 16: Hard Light

    So it’s Friday again and do it’s challenge time.

    This week for week 16 I did another challenge from Be A Super Awesome Photographer by Henry Carroll which is Hard Light. This challenge is about photographing strong shadows that fall on subjects in hard light using only the windows in my house in strong sunlight as my light source.

    This week I decided to use my phone for the challenge and here are the results:

    For week 17 I have decided to do another challenge from Be A Super Awesome Photographer by Henry Carroll called Play Detective. This one a about taking portraits of the things people leave behind after they have left a room. You can do this by observing things that people have left on the street or my observing the things people in your household leave lying around when they leave a room. Or even getting people to guess who you are based on the objects you leave around yourself.

    If you enjoyed this weeks challenge join in with next weeks Play Detective challenge and tweet or Instagram to @lucyandthelens and don’t forget to #playdetective.

  • 8 Photography Techniques To Try While In Isolation

    Today I’m going to talk about some effects I have tried during isolation and rate them in terms of level 0 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest.

    The first effect I tried was the twirl effect. This is where you turn the landscape or portrait into a twirl pattern. It’s a quick and not too difficult technique. I would give This a 2/5 rating.

    Next I tried the dispersion effect which took me hours. It’s where you warp part of a photo and turn it into particles. I would suggest you might struggle to attempt this if you have never used Photoshop before as for me it was 4.5/5 in difficulty.

    Thirdly was a shoot with the model over FaceTime. I’d seen a few photographers on Instagram doing a full model shoot over FaceTime, so I decided to try it. This works best on an iPhone as there is a special FaceTime photo button which will take you out of the equation and only show the model when the images are taken. After the shoot I did a few quick edits in Photoshop express to enhance the image using highlights, contrast, clarity and sharpen mostly. I’d give this 1/5 because I feel a beginner photographer could do this type of shoot even without using the photoshop to edit.

    My fourth effect was creating tiny planets. For this all you need is a 99p phone app called tiny planets and you can create them yourself out of any photo. Some photos work better than others like I recommend using landscapes and Street shots for this kind of technique. As this is easily accessible and you aren’t required to be a photographer, I would say in terms of level this is as zero out of five stars.

    Number 5 is the orb and has to be the easiest one I’ve done on photoshop with only 4 steps you only need to spend 2 minutes on it. So, this one gets another 1/5 for me.

    The next technique is the optical art face portrait which actually turns a face and pixels. A series of little geometric squares all the way across the image. As this one is a many stepped tutorials and I did end up re organising some of the layers to fit the overall look, that I wanted for the end results. I also decided to move the layers for side to side in the second image to see what would happen. I’d suggest that this should be a 4.5/5 stars in difficulty.

    The optical art text effect is by far the most difficult. It has 22 steps and it doesn’t always work. For example, you have to make a word cloud on the website it wants you to use to generate this isn’t compatible on every single computer. So, I had to traipse around the Internet to try and find another website that will allow me to create word clouds to the same effect which took a lot of time. Also following the 22-step process itself takes many hours And I feel you need to be a relatively avid Photoshop user to give this one a go. This one is getting 5/5 on the difficulty level.

    Lastly, I tried the double exposure technique which is where you merge a portrait with a landscape or seascape. This one should receive another 5/5 as I think its not easy to get it perfect.

    If you enjoyed seeing these effects why not subscribe to my blog and try some of your own.

  • What Can A Photographer Learn From Spending An Hour On Instagram?

    I think that every day or at least every other day as a photographer you should try to spend one full hour On Instagram.

    In this hour you scroll on the news feed and make a note about which images grab your attention and then make a comment and maybe even share them in your story.

    If you don’t have time to spend a full hour you can always spend less time and save the images to go back and looked at later which I usually do when something catches my eye.

    This is a really useful process because it allows you to spend time seeing what other photographers are doing and asking yourself if any of their ideas fit in with your brand. Could you implement something someone else is doing that you haven’t yet tried?

    If you like something why not ask if the photographer is willing to share tips and tricks, especially when it comes to lighting because you can learn a lot from how someone else lights their subject.

    At the moment I think that looking at hash tag social isolation and hash tag COVID-19 may also help you spark ideas for new posts too. Also, the hash tag FaceTime photo shoot is another one as now a lot of people are looking for new ways to take photographs with models when no one can meet up in person.

    Something you need to always be doing outside of this hour is checking when someone follows you or leaves your comments. It is always good practice to reply to their comment and then engage with them on their own account. Any time someone followers you provided it its spam you should go and take a look at their profile, comment and then follow back.

    For me I tend to spend time trying to post something every day. On a typical week I’d normally post 2 images per day on weekends and one image per day for the whole rest of the week. I also share all my posts On Facebook and Twitter.

    As this post is all about Instagram why not follow me on there @lucyandthelens. If you liked this post stay tuned for more.

  • Photo Challenge Friday Week 15: Be Gross

    It’s Friday and It’s time for this week’s photo challenge. For this week in week 15 I did another challenge from Be A Super Awesome Photographer by Henry Carroll. Week 15’s challenge is Be Gross. This means photographing things that you would normally find in the rubbish or picking up rocks or rotted wood in the garden and photographing the things that lie beneath.

    I photographed things in bins mostly and a little bit of the under rocks in the garden. Here are the photos:

    For week 16 I am doing another challenge from Be A Super Awesome Photographer by Henry Carroll which is Hard Light. This challenge is about photographing strong shadows that fall on subjects in hard light using only the windows in my house in strong sunlight as my light source.

    If you enjoyed this weeks challenge join in with next weeks Hard Light challenge and tweet or Instagram to @lucyandthelens and don’t forget to #hardlight.

  • 8 Tips To Get You Out Of A Creative Rut

    Today I’m going to be dispelling the myth that if you’re in a creative rut you need to go to an exotic location.

    Here are eight things you can do to get out of a creative rut.

    Create an Assignment

    You may find that if you give yourself an assignment. for example, a photo a day for a month or a year it instils some newfound creativity within you. I personally set myself a new photo challenge every Friday which I have a full week to do and this helps me think out of the box.

    Here is a link to my latest Friday Challenge Post and some other related posts:

    Create A Theme for A Photo walk

    Another way to get out of this rut is to create a theme for a photo walk and then it becomes more like a treasure hunt and helps to provide you with ideas.

    Do Something Different

    Have a day where you go out and do something other than photography or whatever your profession is as sometimes you need to get away from it to end the rut. You can also try and learn something new that’s completely unrelated to your niche. (unique area of expertise)

    Humans of Your City

    How about creating your own humans of New York style project in your city looking for interesting characters wherever you go?

    Take Inspiration from The Everyday

    Another great way of getting out of a creative rut is to take inspiration from the everyday. How about picking up a book from your shelf and recreating the cover in one photo, a painting, drawing or anything else it inspires you to do. Find some other objects you have in your house and use them as your inspiration.

    See What Other People Are Doing in Your Niche

    How about browsing on your computer looking at what other people are doing in your niche.

    Create A Mood Board

    One of my favourite things to do when I’m stuck in a rut is to go on Pinterest. See what I can find and design my own mood board based on that.

    Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

    Try doing something you wouldn’t normally do, something as simple as changing the way you take your morning coffee.

    Just simply take your mind away from work.

    I hope you enjoyed this post if so, stay tuned for more.

  • Studio Lighting: Tips

    I have my own studio lights and also access to a studio at UCLAN (University of Central Lancashire) as I do my freelance work from there. So, I’ve been reading books, blogs and googling techniques on how to light a subject.

    Here are some tips I have acquired about studio lighting from the book lighting for portrait photography by Steve Bavister:

    1. Persuading you’re subject to face the window adds detail to the face and creates a strong profile. (Shoot this at a shutter speed of 1/250 and an aperture of f5.6).
    2. Placing your subject facing out of a doorway gives strong illumination.
    3. A reflector beneath a subject and a tilted camera angle adds impact to a simply lit but powerful portrait. (Shot at 1/125 shutter speed)
    4. The clam shell set-up: this is where a subject is seated, and you place the light above her and maybe a reflector below her.
    5. The typical studio set-up is when you place one light to one side of the subject and one light behind her.
    6. Using a light and a jumbo umbrella gives lots of lighting control (Shoot at a shutter speed of 1/400 and an aperture of f11.)
    7. The further you take a light to one side the more moody and dramatic it becomes.
    8. Photographing people wearing glasses requires a high lighting position.

    Below are a few more tips from DIY Photography:

    1. Beauty Dishes add a natural catch light to your images.
    2. For a two light set-up use an octobox and fill light with a colour gel: an orange or yellow gel will add a warmer tone to your portrait. Try this on f1.8.
    3. Old guys with beards photograph better with no soft boxes.

    Below is a video tutorial from DIY Photography: Lighting By Elaine Torres

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOYTtxzJWqo&feature=youtu.be

    I hope you’ve enjoyed this post let me know in the comments. Read more for more tips and tricks.