Hello again,
So today is a departure from the nature shots I have been taking lately. Every once in a while, it is nice to get some actual human beings in my photos, and having the job I have, there are definitely some perks. Seeing as how fire prevention week is coming up, I thought it would be cool to pay a little tribute to firefighters. Here are a few.
In the kind of environment that firefighters work in, lighting is a very important part of getting a good shot. Here, I like the balance I got with the light on the two closer firefighters, and the one in the doorway. You still get a three dimensional feel, but the shadowy firefighter is still visible.
After playing with these photos, I’ve decided that smoke is one of my favourite things to work with in photoshop. By playing with the lighting levels, I was able to coax out a really good, shadowy texture from this photo, which before I played with it just looked like a bunch of gray smoke.
Again, the most important part of a shot like this, I think, is the lighting. By having just the right ISO, f-stop and shutter settings, I was able to expose the flames properly while also getting a usable shot of both the firefighter in the shadows and the one outside.
For one reason or another, people in firefighter outfits tend to look solemn, which is great for capturing some emotion. Sometimes it can be as easy as framing a firefighter in front of some smoke.
In this case, colours play a big part. Even if it’s just some peeling paint and yellow firefighting equipment, like in this shot, great colours can make for an interesting shot. Oversaturating the colour can be fun too!
There is not much to say for this photo other than smoke makes for awesome shots.
So there are my firefighter shots. I hope I have convinced a couple people to try some smoke shots, safely of course.
Other than that, I would just like to say that even just watching these guys training impresses me. They may just be training, but they are dealing with real fire.
As always, hope you liked the shots!
