"Need Snow" Campaign

*Update!  Justin's photo (third one down) was featured at mcp :>) You're awesome, Justin!

This was much more successful and fun than I thought could be!  The challenge was to take a photo using only window lighting.  I normally take outdoor photos, but hey, gotta learn sometime!

I didn't have much room left on my memory card... enough for 14 RAW shots.  That's OK; it makes me think through the settings and composition before shooting away.

I didn't have much light directly coming into Justin's window; they really should let kids out of school earlier.

I didn't have much time set aside for this, either. Justin was OK with that!

My inspiration for the photos came from looking at Shannon Sewell's Photography blog.  Oh, my.  You really need to see her work sometime.  She specializes in kids' photography - a lot of commercial work with kids' clothing and accessories.  She has a backdrop similar to a painted chalkboard wall, and then she doodles or writes on it, posing the awesome-outfitted kids in front.

Justin has a blackboard wall in his room, so I thought we could do a "I Need Snow. Bad." campaign in front of it.  I meant to draw my sketches onto the wall before shooting, but, well, time didn't allow.  So I added text afterward.

Instead of my you-should-see-what's-in-my-head plans,  Justin and I did some preliminary photos just to see what camera settings would work.  I should have learned my ISO lesson from last time... I did not set its limit for most of the shoot, so once again, the auto setting went too high for my camera.  I caught it later on, though.

However, for next time - I am ready!  In the mean time, you can see our first efforts. Pretty good for just a few attempts... and only window light.  That's kinda crazy, but it works!   Justin had a white poster board laying in his room... I won't scold about the slobbiness because the poster board came in handy as a reflector.  The sun wasn't directly shining through the window - it came in on an angle, from the left in these photos. Just using the white poster board helped reflect some light onto the right side of his face. Amazing.

Also, I worked these over in Photoshop to help recapture some light and dull the noise.

I can't wait to re-try soon with different settings to nail it :>)  I'm getting close.  Love learning when the photos are improving.