In the hood

Update !
My surprise in the box doesn't work. LOL

Never mind, To Be Continued.... *Evil grin !*

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In the hood < -- That is the title of a photography competition from a local photography forum that I use to hang in, you know, like log into that forum and starting to talk cork some sort, making new friends etc etc.

"In the hood", OMG, I really can't understand what is this about "In the hood" ! Being very poor in English language, I started scratching my head. This is too abstract for me to understand the meaning of the title and not to mention trying to portray the message of "In the Hood" from a picture!

Again, my aim is that my submission would be able to stand out from the normal ground. So I turned to my good friends for help: Uncle Google and Aunty Wiki ! LOL. Oh, by the way, I would like to introduce a new good friend of mine that I met recently: Cousin Flickr. LOL. Just type "In the hood" in the search box and my good friends will tell me all about "In the Hood". However the returned result was rather disappointing. What I got was straight to the point of "in the hood" thingy which is so cliché (oh, I spell it correctly this time ! LOL).

Well, why not start from the simplest one? Let's do "In the hood" then. One very famous photo that has this "in the hood" element is the in-famous "The Afghan Girl" photo that was featured in the front page of The Discovery magazine once upon a time. I said to myself, why not I also make a photo like that? Well, as usual, I don't have pretty hot model for the shoot, hence I called my all time favourite supermodel to become my model. Then I set up my "mini studio" with my DIY soft boxes, position the model and shoot and I got this:


I used the same set up for my purple colour back ground by using my cheap gels just like what I did for my Purple Royalty photo, one DIY big softbox to camera right, trying to create window lighting effect and the purple gelled softbox also from camera right so to create a feel of window light falls onto the "purple wall", so to create the sense of having a same light source from camera right ......

*buakkkkk......* Ok, I hear someone is puking.

No way ! I didn't submit this photo! I bet the judge will laugh till he drops from his chair by looking at this photo. LOL. So not to caused someone admitting to hospital because of office accident, I googled again, and this time I asked my new friend Cousin Flickr to help. Still I couldn't find something that inspire me for the title "In the Hood".

Then I came across this idea of shooting a box to show what is inside of the box. With long exposure couple with test flash method, I got this:

Nah, this is too normal, nothing interesting to see, and I don't think this is a good photo too.

After spending some time playing with my spectacle's box, hey, I could just extend this idea of "what's in the box" by showing one fella holding this box with an open hood with a shocked faced to see there is something surprise in the box ! Hey, "In the hood" ! LOL. To add more dramatic, a flash in the box that shine his face to give a feel of "look ma, I found a treasure" thingy. Hence, again, with no hot model to work with, I called my favourite supermodel to come into my mini studio and we started to work out my idea.

First, a try shot of course with a small box.

Nope, the box is too small and it can't even hide my flash from being noticed. Then, I saw there is a bigger box from of Tai Tong in my room, and test shot again.

Ok, a bit better. But the flash still visible. So, the solution is simple, just swivel the flash into vertical position and test shot again.

Hey, much better with unexpected that the box is illuminated ! This could give a feel of treasure glowing from the box ! So, after some test post and test shots, adding another flash so to light up the hood of the box to separate it from dark surrounding, I finally settle with this photo:

I was happy, and went to sleep and planned to submit this photo to the judging panel in the next day. But I couldn't sleep well. Something is missing in this picture, and I thought of it for the whole night. Then I figured out: why not add some key light instead pitch dark background?

Hence, after a long boring hours in the office, and after spending some time with my little monster and after putting him to sleep, I came back to my drawing board, and replan the shoot again. For starter, the pose of my model must be determined first.

This pose looks ok. Let's put in a key light from my back and see if this photo look better or not. So, I turned off the flash in the box and test shot.

This key light is good enough to separate me from the dark background. Great. But I think white colour for the key light is damn boring. Why not I gel it blue and see if this could put in some dramatic feel or not.


Hmm... a little bit mystery. I like it. But then I think I need more separate of me from the dark background. So, I add another flash pointed to the wall....

Not bad to me. So, to combine all the flash light into works and I got this:

Pretty good, eh ? But wait, something came into my mind again. Why not red gelled the background flash ? Well, no harm trying, right ?


Fuh ! I like it ! Mind the out of focus for this photo, you know lar, self timer what. So, I quickly changed one better cloth and reshoot again. Sure need to change cloth lar, so I look more leng chai a bit mar. LOL

And here it is, my submission photo for the competition titled as "In the Hood". I titled my submission as "Surprise in the hood". :p

So, what is my chances of getting notice by the judge ? Hmm... I would say 50-50 lar. But if I submit the first photo of this post (the Afgan Boy Wanabe), I am sure my submission will be get noticed one, and then the judge will laugh till he roll on the floor for many many rounds one. LOL.

I think the result will be out soon. Let's wait and see. :p