Category Archives: Technique

Jamaica

Posted on by
Reply

As Bob Marley said:

No want you come galang so;
No want you fe galang so.
You want come cold I up;
But you can’t come cold I up

(“I don’t want you to be like that / You want to put me down, but you can’t put me down” – from “Trenchtown Rock”).

Jamaica made me cheerful. Not just because Bob Marley, whose music I have listened to since 1975, was from here (I saw his Mausoleum, and much ganja was smoked there), but because people are friendly and happy and smiling; and because I love the Jamaican patois, and the handshakes, Ya man, everyting irie. Respect!

But I am cheerful also because Kristen and Dan’s wedding was a lot of fun to shoot. Since I was with them all week, they got the entire week covered: the trip, the wedding day, the “trash the dress” the days after, and their friends and family.

And when the mood is great, the photos are great, as was the case here this week.

And in the Caribbean, it is all about colour and light.

Or lack of light: keep light off subject, then expose for the background and the picture takes itself:

But sometimes the light needs some help, like here:

An image like that is taken how? Well..

  1. by first exposing for a darker background – 1/250th second, 100 ISO, f/8 perhaps. F/11 would be even better but then the flash has to punch through that f/11, so it had better be a powerful, close by flash.
  2. By taking the flash off camera. I used pocketwizards and one flash, today.
  3. And by modifying the light.

My single flash was modified and held by guest TJ:

This makes for great photos, some of which I might also do a little Lightroom treatment on, like here:

And some I will not do that to, like this:

I apply the Rule of Thirds, of course. And I use negative space. And close-far. But can you see how here, it is all about light and colour?

In family shots too, which I made for a few people (featuring Catharine, the groom’s mom):

Now in all these I used the settings and rules and principles above. But as the day went down, it as necessary for me to progressively open the lens more. More about this later – and how and why I did them without using either TTL or a light meter.

Going home tomorrow. No want Sunwing to cold I up….!

Michael

 

What you need on the beach

Posted on by
Reply

…is an umbrella, and an off-camera flash in that umbrella, as I said the other day. Some of you have asked “why” – so here’s why.

Bride and dad, with no flash:

Same, but with flash in an umbrella:

As you see, the first example is terrible. Now, I could have increased exposure (higher ISO, slower shutter or lower “f-number”), but that would have also lost the background: it would have become all white.

Two more examples:

Both cases show why you need flash, no? Without my flashes, I would have done little of value in Jamaica.

And on-camera flash would have looked flat und uninteresting.

Here’s a typical setup – and the yellow flash and ghost hand (if you look carefully) belong to a person I have removed here for clarity 🙂

And I did not need a lot:

  1. Camera, of course
  2. Wide angle lens.
  3. Two pocketwizards.
  4. PW to flash cable from flashzebra.com.
  5. Flash, with spare batteries.
  6. Lightstand.
  7. Bracket for mounting umbrella and flash on lightstand.
  8. Optional: second flash with pocketwizard and cable, fitted with 1/4″ Honlphoto grid and Egg Yolk Yellow gel.

Easy once you have the knowledge… which brings me to my courses. Have a look at www.cameratraining.ca under “Schedule” and see what I can help you achieve – then sign up now.

 

Light.

Posted on by
Reply

A phosphorescent dinoflagellate, you say?

Yes. A kind of microorganism that glows in the dark.  And it lives in salt water, but especially in Jamaica’s Luminous Lagoon. And it glows when agitated – like when there’s swimmers:

I was the only person to get any pictures. Why? Because it was dark. Very dark. Very, very dark.

So I had to shoot like this:

  • 16,000 ISO (!)
  • f/2.8 – f/4
  • 1/2 second shutter time, on a boat.
  • Manual focus – guessed because it was too dark to see even to focus manually.

Even then, I had to push the shot a little in post.

Longer shutter speeds and a tripod, you say? Not on a moving boat!

I could not see my focus scale, so I could not even look at the lens and manually set the sharpest point to, say, 3m. It was all guesswork – and guess what, it worked. Good gear (f/2.8, 16,000 ISO, yes, sixteen thousand) helped me a lot.

 

Note To Self

Posted on by
1

I am in Jamaica shooting a wedding. When traveling, you may want to bring some of the things that in packing last Sunday at 3AM, I did not remember to pack – and usually do:

  • Bring a power bar. Hotels never have even remotely enough  power outlets.
  • Bring clear lens filters, just in case.
  • Bring enough memory cards.
  • The worst, for me:  Bring a mouse with the computer if you want to edit. Pads are useless for accurate editing.

I did remember some things of course, so I was able to get a lot of good shots.

The things I remembered include:

  • Bring enough batteries! Change them all the time.
  • Bring an umbrella. Without the umbrella and Pocketwizards and flash cables and enough flashes I could not have done the shots I did, like the one above.
  • Bring a laptop and Lightroom.
  • Bring a spare disk – backup, backup, backup!
  • Bring two cameras and 16-35, 24-70, 70-200 and 50mm prime lenses.
  • Bring microfiber cloths and a small brush to clean cameras at beach.
  • Bring medication for tummy upsets – have not needed this but always carry!

If I had had more powerful lights, I could have made more dramatic images – but the images I made were just what I had in mind…!

Now  bath, then off to breakfast, then the pool or the Caribbean sea: decisions, decisions!

 

Zoom zoom zoom!

Posted on by
1

The documenting of Kristen and Dan’s wedding continues, and so, of course, does the photography. Today at Dunn’s falls:

So, how did I light that?

With an on camera flash aimed straight ahead – yes, you can do that outside, when the flash is being mixed with ambient light. On-camera, straight-ahead flash. Which is often a sin, but not here.

But it was flash with a special setting: I zoomed in the flash to the “135mm zoom” setting, while shooting 35mm wide angle (yes, your flash has a zoom setting). That had two effects:

  1. The light is concentrated “flashlight style”, i.e. it is centered, leading to this great vignetting.
  2. The light is more concentrated, and that is what I needed to beat the f/11 at 200 ISO.

Another couple of examples:

Jamaica is wonderful, and the people are wonderful.

Ya man!

 

Kids

Posted on by
Reply

When shooting kids, it is important to shoot a lot of different ways, to see what will work. Take a lot, and see what works, then refine that. Best to use simple studio lighting. I try to engage the child in the shoot, allowing him, for instance, to choose some of the gel colours.

Here’s a few from that portrait shoot this morning:

Kids move, so a nice prop (like a stool, in the example above) is good.

Do not be afraid to get close and fill the frame!

Try desat or otherwise changed colours in a few images.

And try different positions.

Simple backgrounds are good, because the emphasis should be on the child. But I sometimes just change my position to get a difefrent background, like the grungy one here:

Bribery helps, too!

If you do not have a studio setup, use a prime (fixed) 50mm lens and larger aperture and 1600 ISO indoors in reflected light. Either way, you will end uyp with good images. Do it – your child is young only once. And do also consider going to a pro – if you come to me, I will teach you some useful photography skills while we shoot!

 

Ten Tips for Comp Cards

Posted on by
Reply

I shot a male model yesterday for his comp card (the hand-out that a model uses to get considered by, and used by, agencies and clients).

The key to a shoot like that is to do it well. It is usually a studio-only shoot that includes attention to make-up and hair, and involves various looks all designed to give a great overview of the person.

And here’s Ten Tips for Comp Cards:

  1. Include various looks – but mainly simple processing.
  2. Include a standard headshot.
  3. Include a three-quarter profile.
  4. Include a full profile.
  5. Include various outfits.
  6. Smiles as well as non-smiles.
  7. Simple lighting, as well as edgy lighting.
  8. Accentuate strong points.
  9. B/W as well as colour.
  10. Finish the images properly (the ones shown here are essentially unfinished).

A few more examples:

Fun to shoot, and essential to do well. Nothing kills a modeling career quicker than snapshots on the comp card, and nothing helps more than a great comp card, since it is the first point of contact.

(Yes, I shoot males too, and yes, I can shoot yours, if you like: contact me to learn more.).

Now preparing for my Jamaica destination wedding this coming week…

Be in control of your light

Posted on by
Reply

Look at the picture of Sam here, shot last night with the Nikon D4, using a single flash aimed straight at him:

Not bad. Yes, as you all know, direct unmodified flash can work fine – if the flash is not where your camera is.

And the background is nice! But that is a mere accident: the flash is lighting up the white backdrop, too.

But what if we did not want this effect for the background? Say we want it to be back, or to be lit differently, or to have colour?

Well then is paramount to keep the face flash off the wall. And we do this by fitting a grid to the flash:

The grid restricts the area lit by the flash – basically it just lights a circle straight ahead. So now we get this:

So now we have a dark wall. That does not of course mean we need to keep it dark, but now where and how we light is is under our control. We could do these shots:

If we had not used a grid to keep the initial background dark, we could not have coloured it.

The D4 with the Nikon 24-70 performed very well, by the way!

 

More fun

Posted on by
2

[EDITED 8 April]

Today, I did a second one-hour flash course (a part two) at the Rick Bell-organized Niagara School of Imaging show at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens – thanks to those of you who came out to see.

Here’s Rick:

And of course today I had a little more time to talk to Canon, Nikon and the others who exhibited. A few observations, then!

The 85mm f/1.2 Canon prime is the best lens I have ever used. It’s soooo sharp, and its focus ring moves soooo smoothly… a dream! Here it is:

(Ohh… that glass… and as for my image, don’t you love that 16mm look? My 16-35mm Canon is also sharp and quite consistent: I love that lens.)

When I pointed the great focus ring action out to the Canon person at the counter (not a junior staffer), and asked “why aren’t all your lenses like this?”, his reaction was: “you don’t like our equipment much, do you?”.

His reaction took me aback. Granted, it was perhaps partly caused by my having complained about the Canon service program (CPS) nowadays charging money for good pro service; and at the inconsistent focus I have with so many Canon lenses; and my musing about possibly switching to Nikon, but regardless, he continued to point out that he was a pro, a good one, and he had no problems, and that he has heard no other pros complain about Canon focus. It seemed to me that the implication was that I was at fault, that I did not know photography, i.e. that it was all my problem.

Now regardless of whether what I often experience is my problem or, as I strongly suspect, that of my lenses, his is a poor reaction to a customer complaint. Customers, when they engage with you to talk about your product or service, are doing you a very valuable service. It’s great to hear where customers, rightly or wrongly, perceive problems with your products. You don’t tell tem to go away, you ask for more depth, and either use the information to communicate more clearly, or to fix issues and improve your product.

[POSTSCRIPT: I can admit when I misjudged: Canon just called me and they are taking it seriously – the sales guy did escalate my issues, and a lady called and his making arrangements for investigation/repair and loaners. I shall keep you all in the loop!]

And in my case, I believe my concerns are valid. Search for “Canon Inconsistent Focus”:

Google shows 868,000 results. The same phrase with the word “Nikon” substituted yielded only 168,000 results.

[Again: since he did take it seriously and since the Canon lady did call, I imagine I misjudged and I finally got the attention I think I deserve as a great customer. Keeping you in the loop!]

Anyway – off to Tamron next. I tried the Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 lens, and felt that it is almost as good as the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 mark II, and for $1,000 less. And it is stabilized! It is much better than at least my MkI version of the Canon lens. Anecdotal, but an easy to see and hands-on experience.

But the camera also showed Aperture “00” twice when I put this lens on my camera.  This is probably nothing to worry about – the “00” warning usually just means a bad contact – but it is still something to watch out for. I would not, for instance, buy one of these a week before my Jamaica wedding next week, just in case. But: recommended you check it out.

Enough gear talk for now. Back to my two new Bengal kittens. But first:

Beginners tip of the day: as you saw here the other day, remember that to do a flash picture outdoors, your shutter speed must stay below 1/250th second (1/200th on some cameras). First try the picture with the flash off. If the shutter speed is below or at that value, you can turn on the flash and shoot. Otherwise, don’t even try. Your camera will reduce the shutter speed to 1/200th-1/250th sec, and your picture will be overexposed. This will happen especially on sunny days when you want blurry backgrounds.

 

Flash or fake flash?

Posted on by
1

You know that on many cameras, like the Canon 7D or the Nikon D90, you can use your camera’s pop-up flash to drive other flashes. Or you can use an on-camera “master/commander” flash to do the same:

A student asked me yesterday: “how do I turn the on-camera flash off, so it does not flash, and only the external flash fires?”

I told her how to set the on-camera flash to off. On Nikons, in the flash section of the pencil menu you set it to “-“; on Canons you select the option where only the external flash shows, so only it will fire.

“But it is still firing”, she mailed me back.

No. It is not. That is a misconception. Try this: turn off the external flash, then shoot. You see the flash, but the picture is all dark!

How come? What were you seeing?

You were just seeing the flash fire commands at any external flashes in the room, using “morse code”. I.e. you were seeing TTL preflash activity, not a “real” flash, fired when the shutter is open. This was just techie stuff, all before the mirror is raised and the shutter opens. After the shutter is open, nothing.

It helps to know these little techie facts, doesn’t it?

___

For more: http://photonetworkexpo.com/ : come see me talk this weekend in Toronto about Flash Photography, and even better: book online and use promo code Michael2013 to get 50% off a weekend pass. See you then!