Chanelling My Inner Creativity //Part 2//

I have been challenged myself to try to create a beautiful of (what I called) 'vignettes' photography for the past 4 or 5 days. 

My inspiration came from a photographer I admire very much; Christina Greve. I love all of her photography images very much. It is so pretty, clean and elegant. If you go to her instagram collection her vignettes photography will truly inspire you. I mean not only that - when you read her entire posts it will motivate and encourage you to be better in what ever you are doing; in her case is photography.

I am a person who always like to learn something new. I love to challenge myself to be better and Christina Greve's blog gave me the motivation and the confidence I need. 

I do not mean that you must copy everything from her or other successful blogger you know - but you can take a similar approach to your own unique style. And this is what I did.

There is no secret to do this. You just have to trust yourself and have fun with it.

There are a must in order to get a good image - you need a good camera lens and a DSLR camera. I am not sure if you can use your camera phone but I know there is a good camera phone that suitable for this project. My phone just won't do it.

There are several things you need to know before tackling this project.

1. Pick a theme

2. Have a good background in contrast to your subject

3. Do not put too many items

4. Work with something small first and develop from there.

So let's take a look at my images that I have done so far.

On this image my subject is the vintage camera. And by the way, it was belongs to my husband when he was much younger and I believe this was his first camera. The chocolate truffles and a cup of tea are the support items to the camera. The white material and the small flowers are just a decoration. They are adding drama to the whole setting.

On the next image I wanted to show case the golden clutch. It was once belongs to my mother and she gave it to me a long time a go.  The perfume, lipstick and earrings are the support items to the clutch. The aqua card and the flower are and again as decoration.

The heart and star twig christmas tree decorations are my subject and the rest are just the support items and decoration.

 Before I took the above picture, I used the weathered plank woods as a background. The image did not come out as good as the white background. It was because the star and the heart twigs are the same material as the wood background. It does not have enough contrast. But once I played around with the aperture of the camera and took a closer shot and I  changed the focus to the white roses that everything else became blurred, the image looks much better.

Here the focus is  my mother in law photograph.

 Isn't she pretty? She was a singer when she was a teenager. And she still have a beautiful voice.

I just grabbed a magazine to photograph a long with her picture. And I love it very much.

You can create your own background. This white board I created by painted it myself. You can use a plank wood by putting them side by side together or one plywood like mine above. And you can paint with any color your want. (here and here) I am sorry for I do not know what language is the second one but you can use google translate to use the step by step. 

I used Nikon D3100 camera with Nikon Nikkor 50 mm 1.4 G lens for images no. 1, 3 and 5. I used 50 mm f/1.8 lens for image no. 2 and 4. Can you tell the difference? The reason is when I was in the middle of those projects the new lens I bought came. So I used the new one instead to finish the project.

Another thing that is important is try to set up your setting near a window or a door where a lot of source of natural light comes in. Unless you are using the 50 mm 1.4/G. This lens is fast and good to use under a low light condition room.

While I am here, I would like to talk about the lens. I have been using the 50 mm g/1.8 for the past 2 years. And I love it very much. And it is good for a starter prime lens to own.  I have learned to steady my hand without using the tripod with this lens. It is good to use this lens often because it forces you to take picture with steady hands. Because with a good light and steady hands, you can get a decent sharp image with this lens. I felt that I need to upgrade my lens and I am very happy with the new 50 mm 1.4G. It is fast and it is also auto focus. So my husband who can not use manual mode can use this with auto mode easily to take picture of me when I need him to do so.

So what are you waiting for, give it a go! Pick a theme, may be the best and easy theme is your cooking to start with.

Thank you so much for stopping by!