Being a full-time engineering student is super busy. However, it's important to make sure to go and have some fun when you can, which is what a friend and I did one night towards the end of the spring semester. Since it was tradition for us to snap selfies and pictures of each other whenever we went out to go do something fun, and we had some cool photo ideas but the only camera available was my phone in a dark room, we decided to recreate the pictures in better conditions.

First came testing settings, framing, etc., since I would be in some of the pictures so I would have to make sure everything was set up first. But, after snapping a few pics, I decided I didn't quite like the location we were at due to the lighting, so we moved closer to the lights nearby.

The light poles nearby make for some good props for photos, and the lights meant I didn't need to use my speedlight, which I couldn't really use when the camera is sideways, anyways. After we determined sitting on them wasn't possible, we tried some other poses while also messing around with how much leggings were shown. I thought that the combination of her outfit, the nighttime, and the lighting added a sense of mystery to the serious photos.

Eventually though, "sitting" on the pole was achieved, leading to some of my favorite photos from the night. The background, lighting, and positioning all came together really well. For these shots, I thought that having more of the leggings and skin exposed would add to the mood of the photo (and also because it wasn't really physically possible otherwise thanks to the stretchiness of her dress), plus it matched the poses well.

My friend decided we should get some group shots again, and after demonstrating and determining that my phone-based wi-fi remote wasn't going to work with the poses we were trying, I resorted to setting up the camera and speedlight (due to the increased distance to get us both in the shot), setting the timer, clicking the shutter button, and then running in a panic to my spot.

To get full-body shots, I had to rotate the camera and tripod, meaning no more speedlight, and set everything up again, giving my friend some more time to have fun before getting some more group shots, including a fun one and one of us being badass looking. We don't mess around.

To be honest, as of right now I find it more difficult to be creative in editing with portraits than automotive photos. However, something I think portraits really lend themselves well to are black and white conversions, which is what the following two photos are. They add this feel and emotion to the photo that can't really be put into words, and that is what I'm after when I take pictures. For some reason, when I look at these pictures, the Jaykode remix of the song "New York City" by the Chainsmokers pops into my head. The first photo involved black and white conversion, followed by adding in cloud and rain effects, while the second was a black and white conversion and darker contrast/blackness settings.

It's always fun to hang out with friends and decompress when life gets stressful. As much as it seems like that isn't possible when life gets busy, time can be found and made.

As you can see just a few posts down, I reedited some old portrait photos of a friend. Now, for some reason, I really like the look of long hair partially covering the face/eye of people because I think it adds a dramatic, mysterious, edgy look to the person. And when I think "dramatic, mysterious, edgy" look, a lot of times I also think of black-and-white images that just look "gritty", sort of like an action comic/manga. I decided to give some of the photos a monochrome conversion, and then the handdrawn effect that I previously used with another friend's pictures. For both pictures I used the same process: I edited the picture in Lightroom, converted the picture to black and white in Lightroom, adjusted the picture some more to have more contrast between blacks and whites, loaded the picture into Photoshop, added the handdrawn effect, and messed with the curves to add more contrast. I have to say, I absolutely love the results, see for yourself:

While I love the handdrawn effect's results, I still love the original black and white conversions I made that were the base images for the handdrawn effect images. Take a look here, I think you'll see why I love them so much, too:

Also, this was from a little further back, but I played around with black and white conversions with the subject facing away. For these images, I feel that facing away provokes ideas of reflection and thinking. I added the black and white conversion and softened the image to make this reflection and thinking appear to be about the past, locked in memories but distant and untouchable.