From The Ground Up

Friday, July 24, 2009

In Transition...

I'd like to apologize about the length between this post and the last. As most of you know my primary career is flying. Earlier in the year, I had a good bit of free time allowing for more blogging, but for once I've been uber busy at work. I had a week in Indy, a week in Danville, a week in Huntsville, and this week though not flying, I've been studying. There are some great changes with my job in the works that requires a good bit of studying. Once things settle down in 3 or 4 weeks, I hope to get back to my regular blog schedule. Thank's for your patience, and for your entertainment....here's a fisheye shot of Fez face!

View the full post here...

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Portrait Lighting Lesson 3: 45 Degree Lighting

So we've gone over some good starter lighting equipment and talked about how to set it all up. So today let's go over how to use it finally. This will include camera/light source layout, camera settings (setting exposure), and a touch about posing.

The 45 degree lighting is an easy setup lighting pattern that will produce professional results with your one little strobe flash and a shoot-through umbrella.

Before we start talking about the lighting pattern, let's talk about the effects of light in general. If you want the softest light possible (aka no harsh shadows), this will be done with 2 things. The first is the type of light modifier being used (in this case a shoot-through umbrella). The second is the distance of the light source from the subject. When I first started studying lighting, a fellow photographer and great mentor to me, Mark Warren, was describing how he was sitting in a restaurant underneath a hanging table light. He was just messing around and noticed that the closer his hand got to the light, the softer the shadow that was cast on the table tended to become. As his hand got further from the light and closer to the table, the outline of his hand became more defined (aka a harsher shadow).

Having harsh shadows is not necessarily a bad thing. Some peoples personality and appearance work better with harsh shadows cast on them. For example, a very cut muscular male can often get away with much harsher shadows then say an average female model. For our purposes, we are going to try to keep the lighting as soft as possible.

Although we want to keep our shadows soft, we don't want to get rid of them entirely. The light to shadow transition on your model's face is coincidently called "modeling." If the light is coming at your subject from straight on (say on top of your camera), you'll find that the lighting is very flat and has a lack of modeling. This is why snapshot photos you see on most peoples Facebook and Myspace pages have a very flat and non-flattering effect. To remedy this, we move the light source off of the camera axis to the left or right. 45 degrees in particular is an angle that creates very nice modeling and tends to thin your subject (I don't know many people who don't want to look at least a little thinner).

To do this, when you position your flash and shoot-through umbrella, you'll want to place it as close as possible to your model so that it is just outside the frame of the camera. (See Diagram 1)

Once we have our umbrella setup 45 degrees to the camera lens axis, you're ready to fire some test shots to determine the proper exposure. For starters, you need to understand that the role of shutter speed is seemingly quite different when you introduce a flash to your photography.

The shutter speed in previous lessons has been used to freeze or blur your subject. Now that you introduced the flash, the shutter speed doesn't serve the same purpose. The flash ends up acting like shutter speed in that because it happens so quick, it freezes your subject in place, even at lower shutter speeds or if the subject was moving. So what then do I use the shutter speed for? Well oddly sounding enough, the shutter speed is used to control the amount of ambient lighting that plays a part in your photo. You need to start by determining the maximum shutter speed that your camera can sync with. If you set it any higher than this number, you'll notice a black line introduced probably near the bottom of the photo. This is due to the shutter not being able to keep up with the speed of the flash. The Canon EOS 50D has a max sync speed of 1/250th of a second. SO!!! The faster the shutter speed (up to the max sync) the less ambient light is introduced to the camera. For example in the photo of the girl in the stables, you'll notice in the background, the ambient light of the sun. The faster the shutter speed, the less prominent the sun is. Let's say I slowed the shutter speed down to say 1/30th of a second . . . the background area in that photo may be blown out, and you may lose all the detail in the greenery. The sun is very strong, however, it's not always the only ambient light in a photo. Sometimes the ambient may be a man made light in a parking garage or essentially any light that you can't directly control. Sometimes with these lights, due to the fact that they're much dimmer than the sun, at your cameras max sync speed, you may not even see it in the photos because the flash completely overpowered it. Let's say the light pattern it cast on your subject or the background is desired to be kept in the photo. In this case you may want to set a slower shutter speed like 1/30th of second mentioned before to re-introduce that ambient light as part of your photo. Ok, I know that was tough to get through, but hopefully you have a good idea about shutter speed and it's ability to control ambient light.

That leaves 3 more things to control the exposure of the flash on your subject (well 4, but I'm not going into ISO at the moment). Those three things are the power setting on your flash unit, the distance of the light source from the subject, and aperture.

It should be noted that with most flash units the higher the power setting, the longer the flash takes to recycle after each burst, and subsequently the quicker the battery drains. With that said, assuming you don't need full power to try to overpower the sun, let's start with 1/4 or 1/2 power on your flash.

After setting the power, you can then move the flash unit closer or further from your subject to adjust the exposure, but remember if you want the softest light possible from your light source, it should be just outside the cameras frame. With that said, let's leave it as we have it to keep the soft light. Just don't forget that this is an option for controlling exposure.

Lastly, we have aperture. The larger the hole, the more light that gets in. Thus if you fire your test shot on say F/5.6, and it is underexposed, you'll need to increase the size of the aperture hole to increase the amount of light that reaches the sensor. Perhaps try F/4.5 or F/4.0. Great! You have the exposure nailed (hopefully).

Let's throw one more monkey wrench in the mix. Let's say you want to keep alot of the background in focus. For example an on-location photo-shoot often means the background is an important part of the photo. As per previous lessons, if you want to keep more in focus, you'll want a smaller aperture. So let's just say we'll set our aperture to F/8. Well now we have a problem because the subject is really underexposed again. No worries, just adjust 1 of the other factors. Either move the flash closer if possible, increase the power of the flash, or that thing I sorta didn't mention before...increase the ISO. You can do any combination of the three. This in turn allows you to keep creative control over the blur of the background. If you want to blur the background, say for example if you put a sheet up behind your photo as I have done in the self-portraits, simply use a larger aperture and adjust the other available settings accordingly. I did this because the sheet has wrinkles in it. By blurring the background, I eliminate this problem.

When you're all setup and nailed your exposure with a few test shots, you'll want to pose the subject as described below for the purposes of this lesson. When you focus on your subject, it is VITAL that you get the closest eye in sharp focus. I tend to have trouble with this from time to time, but regardless...GET THE EYES SHARP. I can't stress this enough. Use selective focusing zones on your camera if you know how. If you don't, it would be wise to take a peak into your instruction manual to see how this is done.

This lesson isn't greatly focused on posing, but to get you started, you'll want your subject to stand up straight with there shoulders parallel to the umbrella (see diagram 1). Next have them look directly at the umbrella that there shoulders are already lined up with. You're going to want them to look at the camera obviously (or perhaps not, depending on what you're going for), but you don't want there head to be fully facing the camera. Have them turn there head slightly towards the camera so that from the photographers viewpoint, the nose isn't protruding through the edge of their far cheek. Hopefully that makes sense, lol. Next, have the subject keep there head where you just positioned it but have there eyes move so that they're now looking at the camera. If it looks like the colorful part of the eye surrounding the pupil is to close to the corner (you don't see much or any white on the side of the eye closest to you), you may need to have them turn there head a bit more towards the camera. If done correctly, you'll have a very nice modeling effect from the combination of light source placement and pose.

To demonstrate the 45 degree lighting pattern, I took it upon myself to shoot some self-portraits in my kitchen earlier this week. I am also including 1 on-location photo from a shoot I did two weeks ago. In addition, I've included a few setup shots. The setup shot's however differ slightly from the setup you're currently doing. Instead of a shoot-through umbrella, I used my Photek Softliter. It's sort of a combination of umbrella and softbox. Don't worry about this though because the concept is exactly the same. The only difference is that my shadows may be a bit softer than the ones you'll produce with your umbrella. The other difference is that you may notice a softbox right beside my camera. I have this set a few stops darker than the umbrella (key light). This gives the result of lightening the shadow area of the subject just a tad. This is by no means necessary, and the only reason I did it was because I've just been meaning to try it.

Setup Shot - In the photo viewed from behind the tripod, you'll notice you don't see the key light. This is because the view is blocked by the cabinet. Again, don't worry about not having a fill light. it is completely unnecessary.

The finished product...

Happy shooting everybody! This has been 45 degree lighting "From The Ground Up!"

View the full post here...

Friday, June 12, 2009

Portrait Lighting Lesson 2: Setting up your equipment

So in the last lesson (Lesson 1), I talked about and gave some examples of inexpensive items for you to consider purchasing in order to get yourself a basic portrait lighting setup.

Today I want to go over how to assemble it all when you're ready to do your first portrait session. A lot of things in life come with instructions, but I found the Impact brand of products that is made solely for B&H tends to come with little to no instructions.

If you chose to purchase other versions of the same items i.e. a different brand, then these instructions will likely be similar but could easily change. For example, the cord that comes with the Vivitar 285HV is different than the cord for any other brand of small flash unit.

So let's get started:

Step 1: Correct the problem with the umbrella bracket.

When you first open the box to your umbrella bracket, you'll find that the two threaded screw thing-a-ma-jigs on each each end of the bracket were installed backwards (before you do this step, make sure your's were shipped backwards by referring to the third photo. If they weren't, then you can disregard this step). What I mean by this, is that if you use the bracket as it comes in the box, the adjustable elbow doesn't function properly. The elbow should be used to angle the flash head and the umbrella all at once. If you bought a different brand, look at the final photo for this step and ensure it matches. If not, you probably need to follow a similar set of steps

Step 2: Attach the umbrella bracket to the light-stand

Step 3: Expand the legs on the base of the light-stand

In case of heavy winds on an outdoor photo-shoot, you can tent stake the stand to the ground if you are on soil, or you can use sandbags if you're at the beach or on pavement - see note on image.

Step 4: Attach the umbrella to the umbrella bracket

Step 5: Attach the flash head to the umbrella bracket

Step 6: Locate and setup the flash triggering cords (PC male-to-female & Unique pointy cord that came with the Vivitar 285HV)
NOTE: SKIP THIS STEP AND GO TO STEP 7 IF YOU CHOSE THE WIRELESS ROUTE USING CYBERSYNC TRANSIMITTOR/RECEIVERS AS OPPOSED TO THE PC MALE-TO-FEMALE CORD METHOD OF FLASH TRIGGERING

Step 7: Setup the flash to trigger wirelessly with the CyberSync wireless transmitter/receivers
NOTE: ONLY DO THIS STEP IF YOU CHOSE TO GO THE WIRELESS ROUTE AS OPPOSED TO USING THE PC MALE-TO-FEMALE METHOD LISTED IN STEP 6

Step 8: Note how to use the elbow to angle your flash head and umbrella (regardless of whether you chose step 6 or 7)

Stay tuned for Portrait Lighting Lesson 3. We'll be discussing one of the most common lighting setups: 45 degree lighting.

View the full post here...

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Patriotic Festival 2009 - My Biggest Photo "Gig" to Date!

I hate to start a post like this but...in the nature of the photos being of "celebrities," please remember that I maintain all rights to these photographs and that if you wish to use the photos for ANY reason, I ask that you contact me first. Thank you!

So a few months back I'm talking with my good friend Bill, and he mentions some festivals that he has lined up to photograph. I told him that I'd love to help with the events if I happen to be off work when they happen. Sure enough, I was off work for the Patriotic Festival this past weekend in Virginia Beach, VA. Earlier in the week I got a call from Bill reminding me of the event, and I managed to get home from work just in time to make a mad dash to the beach (less the sitting in Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel traffic for an hour).

When I first met Bill through Flickr, he mentioned he worked in radio and told me a few stories of different celebrities he'd met such as Shania Twain, Jay Leno, etc. I guess I knew he had a lot of contacts due to the nature of his job, but it didn't occur to me how rewarding that would end up being for him and I as up and coming photographers.

I knew I'd get to get relatively close to the stage and take some shots of the bands, but it never occured to me that "All-Access" meant more than just center-stage shots. Bill and I were the official photographers of the Patriotic Festival in Virginia Beach for 2009. With that came photographing the meet and greets, access to all backstage areas, etc.

So here's how it went: I'll just kinda list my 2 day event in a schedule like format

FRIDAY
-Arrive on Friday afternoon and take photos of the fans, booths, beach, etc.
-Go on the stage and photograph all the instruments, equipment, etc.
-Photograph the Zac Brown Band (Chicken Fried) from right down front
-Meet the Zac Brown Band after the show, get there autographs on a CD for my brother in Afghanistan
-Photograph the Zac Brown Band signing fans memorabilia
-Get photo taken with the Zac Brown Band
-Make a dash back to the front of the stage to catch photograph the second half of the Gary Allan concert
-No meet and greet with Gary Allan was available for anyone, including photographers
-Go back to Bills and spend 3 or 4 hours sorting photos, keeping good, trashing bad, making minor edits, etc.
-Put photos on jump drive to give to the event hosts (needed by Monday A.M.)
-Make the 1.5 hour drive back to Gloucester to be in bed by 3 A.M.

SATURDAY
-Woke up at 12
-Headed back to VA Beach
-Sat in traffic in the tunnel again
-Shoot photo session of Miss United States at the nearby Cavalier hotel
-Go to event area and shoot more booths, people, etc.
-Go on the stage and photograph all the instruments, equipment, etc.
-Photograph a meet and greet with David Cook (brought the lighting equipment the second day)
-Photograph David Cook & band with small groups of fans
-Photograph David Cook $ Band with the Wounded Warriors who biked down from D.C. (tough lighting situation - 43 people in the shot)
-Have my photograph taken with the band...something to prove I was there (David Cook's a nice guy but I don't really know any of his music and I never really watched American Idol)
-Dart to front of stage to catch the last half of Matt Nathansons concert and photograph it (managed to catch the songs "Laid" and "Come on Get Higher")
-Make our way up to the event coordinators 8th floor suite balcony at the Beach Quarters hotel to get some "Aerial" shots of David Cooks concert
-Matt Nathanson was escorted straight to his hotel room after his show so no meet and greet with him.
-Ran back down to the front of the stage and literally had to fight off women to try to get any shots. Those women were just plain evil if you got in there way
-Finished photographing his performance and headed back to Bills again
-3 or 4 hours of sorting, editing photos, etc.
-1.5 hour drive back to Gloucester to arrive in time to hit the hay at 3 A.M. again

Let me just say WOW! What an amazing experience this was as a photographer. I actually felt like I was a somebody with all that unlimited access. If things go well and the pictures were well taken, we anticipate being the event coordinators concert photographers for future events.

I took just over 1000 photos during the 2 day period and was able to provide him with close to 500 keepers. That's just me... not sure how many Bill ended up keeping.

I'm a big Zac Brown Band fan, so getting to hang out with them for a bit, photograph them with their fans, get a few autographs for myself and my brother....let's just say it was an incredible weekend.

As for being a "Star Hound," it's definitely easy to do during your first event. I can however see how you'd get used to it after awhile. On the other hand, it's going to be hard to go to concerts now and just be a fan. I'm gonna want the All-Access VIP status lol. I thought this was going to be a cake walk but honestly it was pretty hard work. I was completely spent by Saturday evening. Then to top it off, I had plans to do a photo-shoot with 2 gorgeous women on Sunday afternoon. After getting very little rest, getting up early to help my step-dad tar paper the shed roof that he's building, wash my car, then make my way over to York River State Park....I still managed to have a great shoot with the ladies and I anticipate all of those photos being posted by weeks end.

Below is a series of shots from the weekend that I've done some editing to. At the end, I've included the one shot I've finished editing from my photo-shoot with Sharon & Kate (gorgeous ladies mentioned above).

USO Skydive Team