Free Shoot: Pain and Light | Free shoot: What I am passionate about | How to be a Professional Photographer forum: lessons, tips and tricks

This is my entry for the weekly assignment: Free Shot

I will add details and BTS information after I get some sleep but if you have a question before then ask here or on google+

Hello Robert,

I don't know if you were in the hangout about 10 hours ago, I was supposed to be but it turned out I was more tired than I thought, I ended up oversleeping and missed the whole thing along with posting the BTS info.

Anyway, Thank you for you insights. If I may I would like to ask you a question. You mentioned a little more dark, is there a specific area that you feel would benefit from being darker ?
About the focus, I tried 2 different lens set ups and about 100 different angles but because I had no access to photo editing software this week I had to make this assignment with just 1 shot, I had no way to piece together several shots so everything i wanted in focus would be in focus. But I would have loved to been able to do that.

About the blood line at the front of the shoot, I struggled with cutting it or not cutting it, but now I kind of feel like I should have left all of it.

Well again, thank you for your thoughts and ideas.

Sincerly,

Jeremy

Here is my behind the scenes look at my photo shoot for the weekly assignment in which we were asked to compose and shoot something that is personal to us or that we are passionate about . For me I decided to take both ideas and blend them together into one piece. Now I was not able to edit my first post that I created under the topic of "Pain and Lights" as a random series of events leading up to and ending with the final shot for this assignment found mesleeping for nearly a day and a half, causing me to not upload the BTS information or the thinking behind my shot until this very moment. And thank you to Robert and Kenny for commenting on my shot with nothing to go on but the picture itself. Now I would like to give you all the thinking behind the end result.

When I fist heard the new weekly assignment I knew right away what it was I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it right away. I wanted to express my feelings and thoughts about health care, both personal and professional. The personal health care is something that I am very passionate about, and the professional health care is something personal to me.

So my task became how to express these things in the studio ?

First I started with what type of surface would best allow me to express the brighter side of the shot. It had to be something transparent but I already knew I did not want to use glass. As I mentioned early many random events leading up to and finishing with my final shot, one of those events being a trip to the hospital to refill a monthly medication for pain I still have from my spinal surgery, I saw a beautiful piece of garbage in the ally behind my house. It was a thick, dirty, and very scratched up piece of plexiglass that i knew right away, after some cleaning would be a perfect surface. And I was right. The way all the scratches and cracks grabbed the light was just what I was looking for.

Then the lights.

I wanted to use as many LED's as I possible could on the bottom and as few as possible on the top. So I have 2 LED strips under the plexiglass, each strip has 12 high output flat LED's. I have a red strip underneath and in the back. A blue strip underneath and in the middle. A white strip above and on the panel in the back.

Other LED's used in this shot were a 9 standard white led bulb flashlight, a 20 + 3 spot high output white led box, 5 Lego action figure led flashlights with 2 lights each one in each foot for a total of 10 lights from those, a single led bulb key chain flashlight, and a 20 led bulb flashing string of blue and white. That is all the LED's that I had available and tried during this shoot however the FINAL SHOT used only the 3 led strips, one red, one blue, and one white, as well as the five Lego key chain led lights and the 3 spot LED's from the box that also has the 20 LED light option.

The lighting setup I used was to give the viewer a sense of fear but countered powerfully by a great sense of joy and comfort. The fear was to be shown by the lack of light from above and the joy and hope from the intense light from underneath that was fighting to come up from the bottom. It was kind of a heaven and hell reversed or good and evil reversed kind of idea. The thought that happiness comes from above where as fear and pain come from below. I wanted to reverse this idea with the lighting. This idea comes from my own and the stories of others when it comes to health care both personal and professional. The evil has become more powerful than the light when it comes to the views of how professional healthcare should be. But there are plenty of us who fight and believe there is still good to be found and done and it starts with personal health care. That is what the light fighting to come up represents in the photograph.

The Pills. The pills are in the middle blocking and allowing light to either stay where it is or to let some of it shine through. That is why there are so many dark areas, but even in the darkest areas I tried very hard to show that the light was still fighting to get through. The setup of the pills. The capsules are empty and available for purchase at any local pharmacy. Now the tablets or pills are all real medicine, they are all mine, some are very old and some of them I still use. This is also why this topic I have chosen is also something I am passionate about. There are many things not just here where I live but all around the world that need to be changed about healthcare both personal and professional. The progress being made on the professional side is slow if not in reverse in many places. This is why I put such a strong influence on the personal healthcare because that is where we as individuals can make the most difference. By learning more about yourself and your bodies limits you are better preparing yourself for the time when you do need to face the evil that has become today's professional healthcare system. The pills being in the middle is so important because they are neutral, a pill does not know if its doing good or bad, it is up to us to decide that, and it's the healthcare industry that is responsible for making that available to those who need it.

The camera. I used 2 different lens setups but in the end I went with my trusty 2.8/30 macro lens. I only have one studio camera which is a Sony A580. I did use my HTC Sensation computer phone to take some of the BTS pictures. My primary computer is not available for use so I have no real photo editing software, I was lucky to find a program for android that allows you to resize your pictures. Oh… a… back story. In Taiwan last year the at the time Android market which is now Google Play stopped allowing the purchase of items for residents of Taiwan. Some dispute between the government run consumer protection agency here in Taiwan and with Google about refunds for purchases made. Neither Google or Taiwan could make an agreement so Google just pulled all apps that are pay to use from the Taiwan market. End result is we can only get Free versions of stuff for android devices, that's why I say I was lucky to find a program that would let me resize and add text to a photo. But nothing with real editing ability so I had to try and get everything I wanted in one single shot. So my camera settings were the most important aspect of getting the shot that I did get. I used the HDR feature along with my sensor set to vivid and a low ISO setting and a wide angle focus to try and get as much detail in focus as possible.

Anything I have forgotten to add ?

Please let me know if I added too much as well.

Thank you for your time and comments.

The Photographer,

Jeremy Guinaugh

P.S.

There are 2 titles to this shot, I'm stuck on deciding on one or the other, any help on this would be appreciated.
1st title " To be in pain or not to be in pain ?"
2nd title " Pain and Light "