Polarize It.. Don’t Criticize It…

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Or, “more about those sunny days of summer”.

Why do you need a Polarizer (“Polarizing filter”, “Circular Polarizer”, “C-Pol”)?

Most lens filters bought nowadays  (“UV”, “Daylight”, “Protection”) do nothing but protect against sand, snow, and rain. And sticky fingers. But one filter, the Polarizer, does something.

Put it on your lens and you see the normal scene (but you need more ISO, lower “F-number”, or slower shutter to compensate for the loss of light):

Now turn the polarizer, and suddenly, the reflections on the non-metallic part of the car, the windows, disappear!

Bit more importantly, look at the sky. Here’s the scene outside my home yesterday at 2pm:

And now I turn the front of the filter until this happens: look at the sky, and observe the green colour of the tree:

And that is why, especially on those blue-skies-with-some-cloud days, you should carry a polarizer!

(Can we do this is Lightroom? Yes – but then you get funny edges around the shapes. There’s no real substitute for a Polarizer in this case.)

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Dear Readers: you will forgive a little promotion in my second post today. Because it is promotion that can help you.

  • Brought on by our lovely weather the last week or so, I have a “Suspicion of Summer” special on for June. For June only, private coaching is available at my Oakville location for $75 per hour rather than the usual $95 per hour. Book soon, since availability is limited to the 24 hours each day has, and they do tend to all fill up. This is made-to-measure individual training, but see http://www.cameratraining.ca/ for some possible subjects.
  • There is still space on the The Art of Shooting Nudes workshop: see http://www.cameratraining.ca/Nudes.html (NSFW).

Whatever you shoot: in just a few hours I can make you a much better photographer.

  • My coaching and teaching are professional and made-to-measure to your needs.
  • All photos I show you are mine, so I can teach you how to take similar photos.
  • I am independent: I do not sell hardware, so what I think you need is what you need.
  • Whether it is weekends, week days or evenings, I teach exactly when it suits you.
  • You get to be hands-on – not just sit and listen.

Take advantage of the special to kick-start your photography today and I promise, you will be delighted. If you like this teaching blog, you will love my coaching and teaching.

Michael

 

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Here’s Matt, the groom at the wedding reception we shot recently:

That is the kind of picture you would get without flash. Matt is too dark, so I could of course add to the exposure (open the aperture, slow the shutter, or increase the ISO). That would make matt’s face well-lit, but it would also make the background brighter and hence less saturated.

The solution is to use flash, of course, as all my regular readers know. A strobe into an umbrella and we get this instead:

Cool, no? And I do not just mean Matt, who is indeed very cool with the shades, but I mean the light as well. Try this, as the sunny days of summer approach.

 

Silhouette How-To

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How do you shoot a silhouette, like this one from yesterday’s maternity shoot?

Really quite simple:

  1. Have a simple background (wall, or backdrop).
  2. Ensure that the background is light (flash!) and the foreground is not (avoid light falling “everywhere”: I used grids on my flashes).
  3. Expose for the background, and add a few stops.
  4. If necessary, do the last adjustments in Lightroom (or whatever software you use).

I used an additional edge light here to emphasize the tummy.

Go try it today!

 

From Prudes to Nudes?

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Since I no longer work for Henry’s School of Imaging (see Peter West’s take on it), I shall now concentrate on marketing my own coaching and training. I look forward to teaching many of you in a private, independent, no-hardware-sales environment. I wrote Henry’s “Travel Photography”, “Outdoor Flash”, and various other workshops, but over the years I have also written, and constantly update, all my own courses, with my own materials: see www.cameratraining.ca for offerings. Private coaching, or coaching in small groups, is very efficient. Just a few hours stand between you and majorly  better photos!

Appropriately, since my end at Henry’s was precipitated by a person objecting to a picture of me nude: Kristof B and I are organizing our the art of photographing nudes workshop on June 17. Nude is not lewd: we shall teach you to shoot Art Nudes. Sign up by clicking on the link: space is limited.

On to the rest of my day. Have a great day, everyone!

 

Photography is Art, but not for Everyone

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Odd, this. I have just been fired as an instructor by Henry’s School of Imaging!

Yup – fired! David Morrow, the head of the School of Imaging (dmorrow@henrys.com) writes:

“This week we received a letter from a Henry’s customer with an [sic] printed photo of you naked from your Tumblr site. This customer recently attended an SOI course taught by you and has promised to never shop at Henry’s again. I am grateful to this customer for taking the time to inform us, rather than just leaving silently.  This loss of a Henry’s customer is a direct result of your personal promotion of your speedlighter.ca site while teaching for Henry’s.”

This is regrettable, and surprising.

For the record, I do not promote competing courses at Henry’s, and I have met all the School’s requirements, including ones that I think unjust, like removing the link to www.cameratraining.ca from this site (that link comes back now). Speedlighter, if clients know about it, is for learning, not for promotion.

Good relationships are give and take. It seems to me that I have given Henrys and the School of Imaging much, much more than I have taken, but I wish them well.

I shall now concentrate on my independent courses: vendor- and sales-independent and up-to-date courses and coaching that teach you all about photography and especially creative light and flash.

Including nudes, if you are so inclined: the preposterous thing is that this was brought about by a client who “will never shop at Henry’s again” because they have seen a picture of me, nude. Really? This is, what, 1850? Almost all artists, including most photographers, do nudes and Henry’s, who cater to photographers, should understand this better than anyone else. Will this client never go to Italy again after seeing Michelangelo’s David?

Regrettable and surprising.

Meanwhile, the good news: You can learn from me..

  1. In my private courses (see http://www.cameratraining.ca)
  2. At Sheridan College’s Continuing Education, where I teach several courses I wrote.
  3. At the Niagara School in August, for a week-long course.
  4. In my article in every second issue of Photo Life magazine.
  5. At tours and private teaching events
  6. And of course here on www.speedlighter.ca!

Photography is art and craft, a mix you can all learn to find your way in, and I am here to help.

 

A Group Shot

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One of the most fun weddings I have shot was Matt and Lucy’s. Such wonderful people, a great fun bride and groom, a relaxed atmosphere, an ultra-friendly crowd: this is how a wedding should be!

The reception was last Saturday, and at the end, we set up some group shots. Here’s one of them being set up, and me preparing to press the shutter:

I used two Bowens strobes powered by a battery. That was enough light to get me f/10, which gave me a nice dark background at 1/300th second (thank you Canon for making the 1D MkIV shutter nice and fast). Camera on manual, flash set manually.  The flashes were driven by two pocketwizards.

For a shot like this you need to look down, or you will never see the second and third rows. A chair is what I used: that gave me enough height.

All that gives me this:

Much better than the simple available light shot on a bright day like this – remember: flash can make your backgrounds darker.


The art of implying

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Among  many other types of photography, I shoot art nudes. And when shooting nudes, to make them interesting, a few things need to happen.

First, try to tell a story. Or rather, try to make the viewer discern a story. That makes  an image much more interesting. “What’s going on here” makes the viewer do some work.

Second, make them civilized. There is a huge difference between art nudes and sexy nudes, or porn. It’s not about the bits.

Third, try black and white – so much more interesting, since nothing distracts from your subject.

Like in this image, taken last week:

Two news items:

1. Colleague Kristof and I are doing a workshop 17 June: The Art of Photographing  Nudes. Click here! There is space – sign up now if you are interested.

2. Exhibit coming: 22 June to 8 July: “Never Not Naked: Natural Nudes”, at Bare Oaks Naturist Resort near Newmarket, Ontario. Come see the art … and be naked while you see it!

 

Wedding Crowd

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A great crowd today at Matt and Lucy’s wedding in Toronto.  And so Kristof B and I, who shot the wedding together, thought of a crowd shot:

For this shot, I used:

  • Two strobes (big flashes), one on the left and one on the right; powered by a battery.
  • To overpower the sun we set the strobes to full power, which gave us f/8 at 1/250th second and 100 ISO. That’s dark enough to get a nice dark background even in full sunlight!
  • I used a wide angle lens (16-35mm on a ful frame camera)
  • And finally, I used a stool to stand on. That gave me an angle which allowed all the crowd to be visible.

Great crowd, great wedding, great light. And I hope you agree, a great shot.