Marcin Retecki FineArt Photography

While writing my Expressionism and Photography article, I was looking back to 19th century to unveil the very beginnings of expressionism in portraiture. Today I would like to travel even a bit further in time and take a better look of 17th century painters, especially that they are less known in pop culture.

Lets begin with Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, a Spanish baroque painter, best known for his biblical scenes which are not particularly my cup of tea. However, while reviewing his work I have came upon one that made me stop and stare:

The lighting is amazingly simple, just one window with a strong, warm sun …

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Here is a place to comment my Week 3 self-portrait.

Trivia:

• I sprayed the water and modeled at the same time.
• The shirt I’m wearing is not meant for swimming really. It is a thermo-active t-shirt for running in a bit colder weather.

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In the third episode of In Search for Style I would like to introduce you to some simple off-camera flash techniques I’m using. Those of you who are new to photography are probably wondering how am I achieving the light in my portraits. We will go step by step, set up strobes, check angles and in the end create a portrait.

Let’s begin with a single strobe set at 45/45 degrees. The left picture shows the flash set to 24mm, the right one – 85mm. What does 24 and 85 mean? These are setting found in small flashes like Nikon SB-800 or Canon 580EX II. The width of the beam of light depends on that focal length.

As you can see there is a full stop (f8 -> f11) difference in the power of light, however, when lighting bigger things, you would notice that the area of light is much smaller. …

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Here is a place to comment my Week 2 self-portrait.

Trivia:

• I made confetti out of present-packing band. It took me around 30min but after the first shot everything was on the ground. When I tried to pick them, it turned out to be so electrostatic it’s almost impossible. After another 30mins of gathering it I decided to go for post-processing way and shoot confetti alone.

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Last week I have introduced you to the 365 Project by Maciek Leśniak. Maciek said that the most important thing he has learned with his project is an ability to find inspiration literally everywhere. While this is a very important skill, everyone needs to develop it by themselves. Today I would like to show you a few useful ideas on finding inspirations on the web and creating your own, independent catalog of creative sources.

Where and why…

As a photographer, web designer, web developer and a very curious individual I need to visit really many different places to keep up with all my interests. During last few years I have developed a “catalog” of websites which can daily provide me with a bunch of articles, visuals and ideas.

Fubiz - a place where you can satisfy all your creative needs. I’m not kidding, I love this site, even though it’s in French. Skillful developers have given us an ability to instantly translate all articles on the website, however the quality of translations is not satisfactory. They used to use google, however, now it is some other service and it seems much worse.

Anyway, Fubiz is a place for designers, photographers and everyone with a need for inspiration. Try it ASAP, you’ll never regret it. …

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Week One of Fifty, yes, it is happening! Just now I’m starting up my 50 Weeks Project where I will be posting my self-portraits. Marcinretecki.com/50weeks/ is a dedicated page just for that project. …