M. Avaltroni

I met with Michael Avaltroni on Tuesday and Thursday, the week of February 14th.
My first set up was in his lab, although, to be honest it was not the best lab for taking shots. Nothing really displayed "scientist" or "chemist" to me, not even "mad" scientist... but I took some shots to gauge the lighting. His office is relatively small, not enough room to swing a cat in, so I knew maneuvering around while taking pics wasn't going to work. Overall most shots in his office were with the strobe. I found myself at 5.6 with a shutter speed of around 250, with strobe and no tripod. With a the tripod and with no strobe I tried a few between 60-80 shutter speed and f4.5.
Of course some these meant a little more work in Lightroom or Photoshop. We moved out into the lab and the lighting was even, but still felt stiff. I wasn't happy with the surroundings and I did move somethings around and had my subject both standing and sitting, but these just felt too contrived.... I immediately scheduled another shoot before I left knowing it just didn't feel right and that I wasn't done.

Thursday was a nice day at around 55 degrees. We shot outside Lenfell under the columns. I changed my white balance to reflect direct sunlight. (by the way, I did adjust for fluorescent lighting while in his office and lab) After two shots, I knew I had something worth submitting.

These shots consisted of f7.1 and between 250 and 400 shutter speed, no tripod or strobe required. The higher my fstop, the richer, deep blue I received in my background sky. I also, tried to crop the photo with the camera rather than afterwards in LR or PS.