The One Minute Portrait

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Today, my friend Steve at the car dealership asked me to do a quick headshot snap of his managing director.

No time to think: right now!

Never to be one to shy away from a challenge, I quickly did the following:

  1. Move to the available backdrop with corporate logo.
  2. I used my Canon 1Ds MkIII with a fast prime lens, the Canon 50mm f/1.2L.
  3. Quickly, as we walked to the backdrop I put a flash on it: a 580EX II speedlight.
  4. Looking around, I saw a white ceiling above me so I knew I could bounce the flash off that ceiling.
  5. I ensured I bounced the flash 45 degrees up behind me, so that the light would come from “in front” of the subject. At a slight angle to my left, so as to aim light onto his face straight on from a 45 degree up-angle. Now this is important. If I had aimed up, or even worse, in front of me (a classical beginner’s mistake!), then this gentleman would have had raccoon eyes, reflective glasses, and a shiny head. If I had aimed straight behind me I would have had “broad lighting”: also not what I wanted.
  6. To mix a bit of ambient light, I set my camera to manual, and selected 1/100th second at f/2.2 at 100 ISO. I did a test shot.
  7. I found that this mixed too many different colours for my liking (flash and tungsten and fluorescent), so I decided to go “flash only”. To do that, I selected 1/250th second at f/4.0 at 100 ISO. That made sure no ambient light took part: the light was all flash. The open aperture at f/4.0 gives me that beautiful bokeh: the creamy softness of the background.
  8. I used TTL (through-the-lens automatic) flash metering, and in view of the white background, I selected a flash exposure compensation (“FEC”) setting of +1 stop.
  9. I positioned the subject at a slight angle.
  10. Now I did my second shot. Checked it on the back. Bingo, all good. Catchlight, check. Sharp, check. Exposure, check. Loved it. Took a few more just for safety’s sake.

That is ten steps in less than one minute. As an event and news photographer, I have to be quick. “Hang on while I think” is never acceptable when photographing executives.

The result is below, and I think you will agree it is a shot that, especially when you click through to see it at original size (you like sharp? I give you sharp!) cannot easily be distinguished from a studio shot.(I really encourage you to click though a few times until you have the full size pic, then view it at full size).

Managing Director Mark LeRoeye

Managing Director Mark LeRoeye

All that in one minute!

If I had had time? I might have tried softboxes, a longer lens, and even more different angles. But I would have produced roughly the same. As a photographer, I need to be able to think on my feet. As you will have to – so my advice: practice a lot, until these things become automatic.

Just like in flying airplanes, where engine failure automatically results in the pilot going through a sequence like “trim up – turn with wind – look for field – check fuel switch – check primer locked – check main switch on – mags left/both/right/both – carb heat on – mixture rich – check oil T&P – check fuel sufficient – line up – use flaps if needed – brief passengers – radio mayday – main switch off”. No more complex, and no less complex, than what I did for this shot.

Practice makes perfect, they say. In photography, practice makes consistent.

Brrr…. Motion blur!

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We have all struggled with motion blur: the blurry nature of a shot where you really want it to be sharp. You shoot some animals (or a model and fellow photographer holding parts of an animal) with your long lens; you look on the display and it looks OK:

And then you see the shot close up on your computer, and it is not sharp.

What happened?

Motion blur. Your shutter speed is too slow for the lens length you are using.

If we look into the EXIF data for this image, you will see a 95mm lens focal length is used on a 1.3 crop camera, with a shutter speed of 1.30th second and f/4, at 400 ISO.

Rule of thumb: your shutter speed needs to be at least one divided by the effective lens length. Preferably much faster! (Yes, VR/IS makes this easier, but it is still wise to stick to this rule). So the effective lens length above is 95 x 1.3 = 125mm, so in that case 1/125th second would be the slowest I would recommend using. Hence, 1/25th second does not cut it: too slow.

Q: Can’t I just turn up the speed and set it to 1/250th, say?

A: Um… yes, but then the image would be much too dark, unless you increase the ISO or open up the lens (use a lower “f-stop” setting).  Or you add more light (by going outside, say, or by using a flash).

Here’s an image shot at 1/640th second at f/4 and 400 ISO:

On close inspection, that one is sharp:

Two more notes:

  • The longer the lens, the faster your shutter needs to be. So a wide angle lens is easier!
  • Use a tripod. Unless the subject itself is moving much, in which case you just simply need a faster shutter speed.
  • When you use a flash, that flash is very fast, so then this determines the “effective shutter speed”, at least for the parts of the areas lit by the flash.

A final note: there are other causes of blurriness of course. Read this post from August to brush up your understanding of this subject.

An Admin Note from Speedlighter

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Hi there friends,

Michael here.

I thought it is be time for a quick admin note for new readers, this morning (morning for me: my readers are everywhere from Japan to Canada. My Japanese friends, my thoughts are with you. I know Sendai and I am so sorry to see the devastation in Japan – and so impressed by the stoicism of the Japanese people).

Anyway. A few words about this resource.

  • What it is: Speedlighter.ca is your prime resource for photography training. As you may know, I, the speedlighter, am one of North America’s premier educators and speedlight users. I teach at Henry’s school of Imaging and I teach at www.cameratraining.ca – speedlighter is my way of helping spread knowledge. From basics to state-of-the-art technical knowledge.
  • Frequency: I aim to do at least one post a day. I have been able to do this since I started this resource in 2009. This brief, to-the-point article each day educates, trains, gives you a tip, or explains a technique or technology. I aim at everyone from experienced pros to total beginners. You can search through all previous posts – I urge you to read them all.
  • More posts: If I do any “admin” notes like this, they are in addition to, not instead of, the teaching post.
  • Cost: Speedlighter is free, and will remain so. (You can always contribute at http://www.michaelwillems.ca/Payments.html, and I would appreciate this greatly, but this is purely optional and you will not see me begging and talking about my kids here all the time).

Due to “registration spam”, which started to arrive every 10 seconds through the day, I have recently had to shut off registration for emails, but I will get this back again soon. Stand by.

A note for Toronto-area readers:

I have spots open for two workshop courses this weekend: “The Art of Photographing Nudes” on 2 April and my all-new “Event Photography” on 3 April, both in Mono, Ontario. “Advanced Creative Lighting” is also still open, for 23 April. These are the last ever Mono workshops, so do it while you can. Go here to book. (And as of next month, “Events” will be taught via Henry’s School of Imaging as a Michael Willems special: stay tuned).

A note for Oakville readers:

I might need an assistant for a shoot tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, in Oakville. Around noon-3pm-ish, all around Oakville, lifestyle portraits of a politician. This does not pay  much for me (and hence for the assistant) but it would be a great opportunity to hone your skills. I would need someone who knows about photography, but of course I teach while we shoot, so you do not need to be a fully trained pro. Interested? Then email me. Postscript: it looks like this is filled – the power of the Internet! Tony, you are on. Meet you at noon, location to be confirmed.

And now, back to regular programming. Go out and shoot!

Lightshop? Photoroom?

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Yesterday, a reader asked:

Just wondering…what are the benefits to using Lightroom over, say, Photoshop?

Good question. And an easy one to answer, for someone like me who spends many hours like this, in both those applications:

Adobe Photoshop (CSx or Elements) is good for “deep-editing” one image. If you want to spend an hour on one image, because you are an illustrator, say, or because you are producing Vogue’s next page, then you should probably use Photoshop. Photoshop is for these photo editors.

Adobe Lightroom is different. It is aimed at people who have a lot of images to organize and edit, like, say, photographers. In Lightroom, you:

  • Organize images. Full asset management, including ranking, choosing, keywording, storing, rating, organizing, sorting, and comparing your images. (You store the images where you like, by the way: nothing is dictated to you.)
  • Do things to multiple images at once (like set the white balance all at once for all images in a shoot).
  • Edit quickly and conveniently – more so than in Photoshop. Although the tools are not quite deep, they cover most of what  a photographer needs. I go into Photoshop (from within Lightroom which keeps managing everything) for around one in 300 images.
  • Never touch the original image – Lightroom does “virtual editing” without touching the original. Ever.
  • Get production functions like publishing to web sites.
  • Get a wonderful print engine.

Lightroom has an Apple equivalent, Aperture. But like many photographers, I use Lightroom even though I have a Mac.

Lightroom takes a few days to learn. But Photoshop takes many months to learn. Any photographer who does not have Lightroom, ought to download it and try it out for free for 30 days. You’ll never look back.

Strap talk

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A reader asks:

“Could you talk about straps on your blog a little bit? You mention that you use Domke and the blackrapid. Are you still using them or are you using anothere one? If you use multiple ones, when do you use them? You also mentioned the ezee strap. Looks like a nice idea but I haven’t heard much about it. Personally I don’t like how it looks at the back. Almost feels like I have billboard on my back, if you know what I mean.

I am looking at buying a strap. People like the blackrapid but the idea of having the camera on my hip makes me nervous. I prefer it on my chest. But that might just be me.”

Agreed.

Yes, I use a Domke strap on my cameras. They are tough, unrecognizable (no loud “CANON 1Ds” or “NIKON D3x” logos), and they allow themselves to be quickly unhooked using a quick release clasp at each end. They also have rubber bands interwoven, ensuring friction.

I also very much like the Black Rapid strap. It screws into the bottom, where the tripod normally mount. The camera thus hangs down, and the camera slides along the strap. Very convenient. It looks dangerous but if you screw the Black Rapid strap into the bottom firmly, it will not come off.

And I use the Domke strap because when I put the Black Rapid on, I can unclasp the Domke and take most of it off quickly.

So when so I use what?

Normally Domke. But when shooting an event with multiple cameras, the Black Rapid. The other strap, seldom.

Straps are personal, so find what you like and use it. As long as you use a strap of some kind, you are fine. Make sure it feels good to you: if a strap does, you will be well served by it.

Keep your eyes open

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Sometimes even experienced photgraphers poverlook something.

At the corporate shoot the other day, my assistant and I set up a group shot (one of several, in addition to individual portraits).

For this shot, we:

  • Designed the shot.
  • Set up the room.
  • Set up the lights and modifiers.
  • Tested the light after metering.
  • Both remarked on how we should shut the door to avoid reflections and to simplify the shot.
  • Positioned the chairs .
  • Called in the group, and did the shot:
A corporate group, positioned around a conference table

Corporate group around a conference table

So we both failed to notice the open door!

No worries, this is rough out of the camera and I can post-produce it out, just as I will crop a little from the top. And the light and positioning are good. But it goes to show, attention matters.

It also goes to show, in an odd way, why you need to do this properly by using pros.

  • Yes, both pros overlooked something here, but for both me and my assistant a failure to notice something like this is the exception, plus we can make the shot good in post. An inexperienced photographer will make mistakes like this in many shots.
  • It shows how annoying little oversights like this are.
  • It shows how simplifying your shot is such an important element of a good shot.

So my piece of advice for today: pay great attention to ways you can simplify the photo. Remove any extraneous items.Position yourself for simplicity. Do this consistently, and your photos will be good, and the odd oversight can be forgiven and fixed.

Cheer for an old tool

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…where “old” does not mean “outdated”.

I am talking about the light meter.

Some of you may think this is a tool that rusty old photographers used to use in the 1960s.

Not so. Modern, cool, young photographers like me (you are as young as you feel) use them too – every day.

The light meter is different from the light meter built into your camera:

  • Unlike that camera meter, it is not a reflective light meter, but an incident light meter. It measures light falling onto your subject. Unlike your camera, which measures light reflected from the subject. So for the camera, the subject affects the measurement. A dark subject will reflect less, a light subject, more. So the camera will expose a dark-skinned person in a black suit differently from a light-skinned person in a white suit. And that is wrong: the camera should not care about the subject. Light is light. (Yes, true: keeping the exposure constant means that a dark subject will look darker than a light subject. But hey – that is exactly the way it should be!)
  • Also, the modern light meter is a flash meter as well. It reads the bright pulses of light emanating from a strobe (or a speedlight set to manual). Which is exactly what the photographer uses it for.
  • It is more accurate, sensitive, and quantitative. It can read light in stops or EV (exposure values), and it can read up to tenth of stops.

If you have never used a light meter, I urge you to start. When you shoot portraits, you have little choice, but even for outdoors light, and especially for mixed light, a meter will make your images’ exposure guaranteed good.

Use your mter as follows:

  1. Set the meter to the right mode (Flash, or ambient);
  2. Set the ISO to your camera’s ISO;
  3. Set the shutter speed to your camera’s shutter speed (e.g. 1/125th sec);
  4. Press the reset button, so the aperture displayed is zero;
  5. Hold the meter where your subject will be;
  6. Fire the flash;
  7. Read the value;
  8. Set that value on your camera.

You will not look back, once you get the hang of this excellent tool!

The importance of being hairlit

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Portraits look better when a bit of kick is added. An edge light, or a hair light.

The following two shots, straight out of the camera and unedited, from Tuesday’s executive shoot in Toronto, service to illustrate this point quite well:

Without hair light:

And with a hair light:

The hair light is 1-2 stops overexposed. It is provided by an assistant holding a light stand with a snoot, aimed from behind at the person – and aimed carefully, or bad shadows will result.

Here is one more sample, from the same business shoot:

You see how well that shine works?

More on this in the Henry’s workshops I teach and in the Mono workshops: three more, on 2, 3 and 23 April. If you have always wanted to come on one, then act fast: these will be the last ones ever in Mono, so book now!

Assignment with lights

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The other day, I gave a student an assignment: shoot a picture where, using dramatic light, you tell a story, using flash. This means not lighting parts is as important as lighting them. And it means that you tell the story by not showing things as much as by showing them.

Here is her resulting image:

"Broken Hearted", By Mel McBride

She used TTL flash. The main light (on our right, of course) was an SB-900 with a Honl Photo Traveller 8 Softbox, and the hairlight is an 8″ snooted SB600.

So using TTL, Melony would have:

  • Used flash exposure compensation (minus!) to ensure not too much light.
  • Positioned the lights carefully.
  • Watched the shadows.
  • Avoided lighting the background – hence the snoot andf the carefully aimed softbox.
  • Thought about her story!

And that last point is important: what you shoot is actually as important as how you shoot it! And what you shoot is determined by how you shoot. Complicated? No, simple, actually.

The story: a depressed teenager with an iPhone – you can guess the blanks, I think?

A job well done. Those of you who like assignments: do the same. A dramatically lit image that tells a story. See how you do!

Speedlight tip

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If you take portraits with speedlights you may well need to see where that light goes. Remember last night’s portrait? Here is one last version of that:

As you see, I have now finished the picture by adding a background light. Another speedlight, with a snoot (the 5″ Honl snoot). The snoot aims light on to one part of the background only.

To see where that area is, you need to fire the flash.

And one good way to do that is to fire a test flash. See that red button on a Canon speedlight?

That’s right, button. That red light is not just a red light. It is also a test button. Press it and the flash fires, so you can see where the light will go.