Posts Tagged Cupcakes
Fashion Summit 2009
Three bloggers have decided to help out the Designers Bazaar of Tel Aviv’s Sexual Assault Center. Dar Mashiah from Fashion Pea, Shelly Peleg from Private Collection and Ofer Yeger from Cupcakes (who pushed me into creating this blog). This fund raiser for the Center is based on previous collections donated by many designers and many volunteers making it happen (even I’m in). It’s happening on the 25th and 26th this month in Tel Aviv’s Fair Center (a Hebrew invitation to the event is here). Since the goal is noble, we even had video coverage during our photo session by a reporter and camera man from Ynet’s La’isha.
We met at Shelly’s graphics studio. Our initial goal was to take the photos on the roof of the building. The very harsh sunlight was a minor set back compared to the strong wind. I’ll spare you the photos from up there. For my sake, as well as for the girls’. So we went back into the studio, a great open space with so much artistic stuff around every computer, wall or table. With great natural light, we started taking some photos:
Bloggers For Bazaar
Bloggers For Bazaar
Bloggers For Bazaar
This session was a great. Sure, trying to sync three models together isn’t an easy task. Apparently they don’t blink their eyes simultaneously. If they do, one would look the other way. If she doesn’t, someone laughs. But all these little “screw-ups”, when happening with the right people, are a great deal of fun. This has also been my first contact with the media, which was kinda exciting.
Bloggers For Bazaar - Behind the scenes
I really enjoyed this photography session. Increasing the awareness to the fundraising Designers Bazaar is an amazing added bonus. And here is the great team that made this happen: Dar, Shelly, Ofer and Efrat.
Bloggers For Bazaar
Cupcakes(.co.il)
About five months ago, Efrat calls me up and convinces me to leave work early, so I can photograph a friend of hers for some fashion blog. This was the first time I met Ofer. That “Hippo Days” post in her blog was the first of many.
Happy Hippos - Behind the scenes
BTW – why didn’t anybody tell me that this is how I look when I photograph?
After almost a month, I decided I wanted in on the action. Ofer has suggested it to me several times, but it was only on July 5th when my first blog post has seen the light of day. After all, it took me a while to setup Wordpress, select a theme, find the plug-ins I wanted, select a name for the blog, create a logo (easy – I can’t design – so there isn’t one) and figure out what I wanted to write about. My initial plan was try and learn all those things photographers are supposed to know, and try to share my findings with others in the process. So I’ve written several tutorials, but the last of them was “published” two months ago. Since then, I found myself adding photos I took which I want to share. I’m really happy with what I came up with so far.
And during all this time, I’m still taking photos of Ofer for Cupcakes.co.il, my favorites (some never shown in her site!) are shown here:
 Ofer - A Colourful Summer |
 Ofer - Onot Maavar |
 Ofer - Going Under |
 Ofer - Not all that glitters is gold |
If you made it this far, I’ll share another small thing with you: I’ve decided on trying to write Haiku poems. This is my first attempt:
Squill of autumn late
Blooms free
As far as my eyes can see
Thanks for listening 
Model Photography
I had another photo shoot with Ofer Yeger last night for her blog Cupcakes.co.il
I’m not used to taking photos of people posing. I’ve first reached Ofer by chance and I’m glad we’ve been cooperating for several of her posts in her cupcakes and fashion blog. I’ve been learning quite a lot in the process. The wonders of magic hour, the advantages and disadvantages of shooting in direct sunlight and the need to direct the scene. I’m not used to tell someone “Now move here” or “Try looking that way”. I’m still quite dependant on Ofer moving around and me waiting for the moment when I release the shutter.
But I am trying. And am quite pleased with the results so far.
What have I learned? Shoot before sunset. White balance set to “Shade” produces nice and warm pictures. Higher ISO as the sun sets to avoid blurs. If the model is in direct sunlight, watch for the shadows. Tele lens help with shallow DOF, giving emphasis on the model. And in the words of Baz Luhrmann: wear sunscreen.
 Ofer portrait 1 |
 Ofer portrait 2 |
Click the images to enlarge. You can also see Ofer’s full post with more pictures on http://cupcakes.co.il/?p=1707
Trust your white balance…
What is White Balance?
Funny you should ask. I’m trying to figure this out now. Apparently colour has temperature. Since I’m not sure that understanding this is vital to a successful photo, I won’t try to go there. Where I will go is here: different light sources affect the colour of everything around us. If you take a blank paper and photograph it under a fluorescent light, in the sunlight, or under shady sky, you’ll get a different “white” each time. Our eyes can easily compensate for that. You can adjust your camera’s white balance settings for a similar effect. So choose your white balance according to your surroundings. Most cameras offer custom white balance based on previous photos, where you “tell” your camera what’s true “white”. But the custom modes (sunny, shade, fluorescent etc.) are the simpler choice.
A quick example from my last photo shoot with Ofer for her blog: Cupcakes.co.il
 White balance set to Shade |
 Auto White balance |
A note about RAW
When you shoot a photo in RAW format rather than JPEG, you get a much larger file which will open only in specialized image editing applications. It’s because the photo will contain all the information captured by your image sensor. Basically, a RAW image is like the negative of film cameras. This allows you to perform image manipulation which can be done on the camera afterwards. Why is this good? This allows you to perform the white balance later, on your computer, and not be stuck with the settings you took the photo with. You can perform other manipulations on the photo as well, but more of that in a later post when I feel like exploring that direction further…