KUKKA WORKSHOP

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT - CAN YOU USE IT WHEN PHOTOGRAPHING FLOWERS?

Familiar things. Comfort zone. For me going after artificial light with flowers was a big big question mark. For me flower photography has been all about natural light. But as I live in north - Finland - we really don't have much of the light during November, December or January either and I have to photograph then too. Yesterday we had the flower workshop at our workspace in the evening so I needed to try other options than natural light. I rented led light and here you can see the results.

Not bad. But not exactly the same at all. All these things are matter of the taste for sure. Many times there are not enough natural light or you really have to think where and when to photograph. With artificial light you are not depending at all from the giant big lamp above us. But still...

For us in kukka workshop it is important that people get a pic of their work before they leave the workshop. That is because of many reasons but the one is that the arrangement might not survive in it's beauty to student's home door.

It's also important to document the arrangement that you can get back to it and see how you develope your skills. By comparing pics of the flower arrangements together - it's easy to see. You don't need any high end camera. With this light you can shoot with smart phone too...ok, it's pro photography light and too expensive in home use and some troubles always with smart phones with right exposure but you can do it!

I just love to see student's work so it's very helpful to use certain hashtags and they are much easier to find like we use #kukkaworkshop

Beautiful textures, tones, lines, scents, colors, shapes, thickness, airiness, diagonals, contrasts and many more. When making a flower arrangement you are like an artist who just happen to paint with flowers. Sounds tempting? For me? Yeah!

Next flower workshops will be on 19-20th of November during the weekend and they are all about Christmas. We will be at Työhuone ovi 10 and we will use natural light as much it is possible.  So if you are planning to use camera take your tripod if you have one. I will make a biggest ever background for you with different shades of white. More information here in FB event.

Teachers: Florist Hanna Piippo @piippohanna Photographer and Artist Kreetta Järvenpää @kreettakreetta  Food: Health Coach Maia Söderlund @maiasgreenmedicine

Any questions?

See you there!

xoxo

Kreetta

DIY Dry Herbs with Photography Tip

 

You can dry your home garden herbs. It's easy. All you need is good ventilation, string and herbs. I tied my stems and lifted them hanging above our living room table. I took all the bad leaves away and washed all the herbs before that. It takes few days to dry. 

I also continued my Lupo LED light testing. You can read my previous test here. I bounced the light from the white wall and ceiling. It filled quite nicely the shadow. I didn't want to lose the whole shadow - just make it a little bit lighter. You can try what kind of light you want to do. You can also use reflectors to less shadows. That's another way to make the light lovely. But I think I like this light source. I can use this kind of light source also as a main light and fill the shadows with reflectors.

Thyme is one of my favorite herbs and I like things look like very natural. I like to shoot food and everything with natural light and if I use artificial light I always try to "hide" it if it is possible. Of course there are situations that you want to go crazy with flash lights. Anyway if you want to see more beautiful natural light food photography you have to go and see Aran Goyoaga's photography. I took her food photography workshop in June. It was totally fab.

We have less light this time of the year so I want to find nice ways to light my photos. It's all about light - photography. I'm always thinking how the light was made when I see the beautiful photo.

You need a string to hang your herbs. It's nice to pick up a nice looking one and use it - expecially if it's in your living room.

I have to admit that it is a little bit late to dry herbs - not the best time of the year but sometimes you are late, sometimes too early... Herbs had quite good aroma still so I thought it is just fine to dry them. It would be sad if the snow covered them away and I would have to live without having my herbs as dried during the winter. 

xo

Kreetta

Photography Tip - Hard light vs soft light

I got a chance to test Lupo light LED light panel. I made one test yesterday evening with our dinner. You can adjust your light temperature quite easily. I just wanted to test does this light work for me in my photography. 

left: straight and hard light                   right: diffused and soft

This test has done without ambient light. Just the light panel. We don't have so much light here so I wanted to find out how the food looks like with artifial light. I photographed two different light. Straight light from the light panel and diffused light with the help of Lastolite diffuser from the light panel. Can you see the difference? Take a look at the reflections of light. With diffused the reflections are softer. I think it looks a lot nicer than the hard ones. 

hard light

soft light

I'm going to test this light with ambient light tomorrow. I hope you find this tip of hard and soft light helpful with your photography. So many things you just have to learn by doing. I didn't work so much with styling this time. I just wanted to have black and white and different kind of surfaces in photo because I wanted to see how the light works with different kind of textures.

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xo

Kreetta