Activism

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So today I shot Serenity Hart, the feminist activist who is touring Canada to emphasize women’s right to go topless. I shot her when she was being interviewed by Michael Coren on Sun News:

See here for the entire video, and see here for some still and a few portraits we took afterward (the latter contain toplessness, so if this is not your thing, do not click the link).

Here’s a “suitable for work” shot:

You can support Serenity’s tour via this link.

For most of today’s photos, I used a flash off-camera shooting through an umbrella.

  • No flash gives bright backgrounds and flat light.
  • Straight flash gives flat light and hard shadows.
  • Off-camera flash rocks.

To see an example or two of each of those lighting style, look at the pictures in detail: http://www.mvwphoto.com/naakt/20140408-SerenityKim/ — these contain toplessness).

More about the light:

  • For all these, I used TTL off-camera flash.
  • For the second set, by the boat, using the umbrella was impossible: too little light from a small flash. So I used the flash direct and unmodified. That gave me enough flash power. Just.

Good light is a necessity for good pictures, so when you are shooting, always think about the light. And I assure you that that is what I was thinking about today: not breasts, but light.

 

Miscellany Musings

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Learning opportunity: Tomorrow AM and Friday PM, you can see me talk at the Coast To Coast arts convention at Toronto airport. Come learn about camera basics (tomorrow) or Landscapes (Friday).

Cat Opportunity: always be ready to shoot your cats with a wide open lens in available light. And I never waste an opportunity to post a cat picture:

Theft opportunity: that is what you are giving thieves by leaving gear in your car. A good friend last night had her multiple cameras, multiple expensive lenses, and laptop stolen from her parked car. So sad, a terrible loss. The lesson can benefit us all: DO not leave cameras in cars. Even if you do not have a license plate like mine (NB: link is not suitable for work!).

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel: your home insurance, and if you do not have this your car insurance, may well cover part or all of this loss. Immediately make a police report, and then immediately contact your insurance company. Meanwhile collect serial numbers. in the EXIF data of each photo, things like camera serial number and often lens serial number are present. You can use a free utility called EXIFTOOL (Google it) to see the full EXIF data, if need be.

 

Improvise

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I shot in a venue yesterday where the light was going to be speedlights off camera, using light stands and umbrellas.
In the event, it was not possible to bring in lights, so I had to use one on camera flash. And here’s what I got:

I bounced my flash behind me. Up and behind me, but down enough to ensure that I hit a white wall, and that we get catch lights in the subjects’ eyes. And using TTL flash. And with flash compensation set to +1 to +2 stops.

And that gave me ok light!

Shoot.

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There I was, having a drink and some food yesterday with David Honl at Toronto airport.

David is known from his pictures of Middle East conflict areas, as well as from the excellent range of Honl Photo small flash modifiers, which I use extensively, and wholeheartedly recommend.

Yesterday, David was on his way from Istanbul to LA via Toronto. Here he is, as I shot him with a 16-35mm lens set to 16mm:

See how the leading lines draw you into the picture? And how black and white makes the picture about the subject, not about the colours in the background? And how I avoid putting the subject too close to the edge, where he would distort unacceptably?

Many photojournalistic images are made with a wide angle lens, and in B/W. I always carry a camera, I always carry a fast lens, and if it’s photojournalistic images, I often use a wide lens and B/W.

I suppose that if there is a moral to this post, it is this: always carry your camera!

 

Pic of the day

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The pic of the day is a profile:

For this I used

  1. A camera set to “studio settings”: 100 ISO, 1/125th, f/8.
  2. A small flash aimed at the background, fitted with a Honlphoto grid and a Honlphoto purple gel.
  3. A flash aimed at the subject, also with a grid, from in front of her, slightly behind her from my perspective.
  4. Pocketwizards to fire the flashes.

If I leave out the front-of-subject light, I get a pure silhouette:

And if I do the normal studio stuff (I add a hair light, key light, fill light), I get this:

 

Thanks to my three student volunteers from my Sheridan College class.

 

 

On A Mission

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Yesterday morning I shot a mission. I shall tell you about it in a moment, but let’s start with the light.

Said light was not inspiring. Shade. Like this:

So the solution is easy: I grab an umbrella and flash. I use

  • An umbrella and light stand.
  • TTL flash, light operated. Using a 580EX on my camera and a 600EX in the umbrella
  • I set the ambient exposure to 1-2 stops below meter (the meter indicates 1-2 stops minus).
  • That gave me 1/250th, f/6.3, 800 ISO.
  • White balance is set to “Flash”.

I now get the light I want:

Now the mission.

The young woman on the left is on a mission called the “Topless Tour De Canada“, and her objective is to point out that going topless is legally allowed in Canada, for women as much as for men.  Her tour starts in Toronto and will take her through the major Canadian cities, and she will be filmed and photographed in each of these cities—top free.

Here’s a Behind The Scenes shot:

See the light stand? And yes, umbrellas get blown over by wind, so hold them!

And here’s one of the finished shots, in front of The World’s Largest Bookstore in Toronto—a bookstore that, alas, has recently shut down.

There are lots more: see one here. And see another one here.

Bring it close.

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To shoot a true macro picture, you need a macro lens (Nikon calls this a “micro” lens). This is a lens that allows you to focus close-up. Like this from yesterday’s shoot, a shot for the make-up artists to detail their work:

When you click and see it full size, you will see how ridiculously sharp this is: “DNA-level”, as I like to call it.

So why and when do I take a shot like that?

I do macro shots:

  • When I want to have some fun. Macro can be done in your kitchen all year round: when you make small objects large, they take on an entirely different life of their own.
  • When needed to document things—like the make-up job above.
  • When shooting small objects, like jewellery.
  • To get detail of an object, detail I cannot
  • When I think I may want to get close, even if I may not need to, I still like to use the macro lens so I have the option.

Shooting macro means you are close… and this in turn means that your depth of field is extremely restricted. You will probably need to shoot at f/8, f/11, f/16 or worse. You may even have to take multiple shots with varying focus distances and put them together electronically. A very close shot at f/2.8 has a depth of field (“where it is sharp”) of fractions of millimeters.

One mantra one often hears is that a tripod is necessary. Yes, it is recommended, and sometimes it is necessary, but with good shooting technique, you can often do without it too. Like in the shot above. 100mm lens on a Canon 7D camera; set to manual at f/11, 400 ISO, 1/125th sec.

Finally, the light. I used a bounced flash and I ensured that only the flash shows (by using “fast shutter, low ISO, high F-number”). Using only flash ensures that you see no motion blur: a flash happens in about 1/100th second (or even faster at lower power settings), so it’s like using a fast shutter speed.

 

The colour of the day.

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Why do we use colour?

Sometimes I like simplicity, like here:

Sometimes, on the other hand, especially when I print images, I like to fill the frame with colour. Like here, from last night:

(Make-up by Glam IX Studio; model Kim Gorenko.)

The colours match the dress and the eyes. Two speedlights aimed at the background.

That last shot also emphasizes again the importance of getting a glamour-type shot like this right in terms of pose, light, and make-up.  Look at the before/after. Nothing was done here, only make-up. Straight out of camera:

The make-up and hair took about three hours to do: these are serious skills.

For a successful shoot, it all has to come together!

Now on to my Video with DSLR course, which is about to start.  Check www.cameratraining.ca for details on upcoming courses.

 

Primes and why

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I love my 85mm f/1.2 lens, as readers know. My students know it, too. Here’s one of them, from Wednesday’s “The Small Photography Business” class:

The 85mm is a prime (i.e. fixed, “non zoom”) lens. And 85mm is a great focal length for fashion pictures, portraits, and so on. And extremely fast: f/1.2 is a great wide open aperture value. Of course that does not mean I always have to use it at f/1.2. When you stop a lens down, it gets better, and when I stop this lens down, it is very good indeed.

The reason I like to use a prime is multi-faceted.

  • I can shoot at faster shutter speeds or lower ISO values then with a cheaper lens. The pictures here were taken at 800 ISO, f/2.2, and 1/160th second in an evening classroom. Who needs a flash?
  • I get wonderful blurry backgrounds, so I can live with less than ideal backgrounds, as in the photo above, I just blur them out.
  • Primes are usually clearer and sharper than zooms, which are always to some extent a compromise.

But an oft-overlooked reason, and for me often the main reason, to use primes is that they give you a consistent shoot. You see, each time you zoom in or zoom out, a number of things change:

  1. Depth of field (how much is sharp in front of, and behind, where you focus).
  2. Minimum acceptable shutter speed if handholding the camera (think 1/f, where f is the focal length).
  3. Depth/perspective. Wide angle pictures look different from telephoto pictures. Long lenses compress perspective; wide lenses can exaggerate it.
  4. In a broader sense, the entire compositional look of your photos. A prime means you get to really understand the ins and outs of your shoot’s creative feel, rather than every picture being a new adventure. And it means that a shoot will have a certain feel, rather than being all over the place.

Here’s one last photo from last night, of another one of my talented students:

Your assignment, if you want one: do an entire shoot, or even shoot an entire week, with one prime lens. Be very careful with focus if you are shooting wide open: depth of field is extremely limited.

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