Engagement Round Two

Between being gone and running over to Wisconsin for an exploratory venture for the wedding shoot, I have been one busy boy. I was able to finish editing the engagement photos and upload them to the lab for a first round of prints including a spiral bound print book. Samantha really loved the images but with anyone has her own taste. I had provided a series of images with different treatments for her to select from. The one of her backlit by the sun she liked but thought her eyes needed to pop a little more. Definition was definitely in order.

The only known way to do this right was a trip to photoshop. Most of what I wanted to do in PS I can do in Lightroom but removing improving the area below her eyes and make an adjustment to her arm would require a trip to Photoshop. You can see in the image below Samantha's eyes show much more contrast between the highlights and shadows. This is the definition that draws the viewers eyes.

When an image has as much light in the background as the one above, you would normally think you eyes would be draws to the brighter light. The secret here is to to create a funnel of contrast that draws the view into the eyes of your subject. Ad to that some nice sharpening to the eyes and you mind is compelled to look into the eyes.

Samantha is a very slender lady, but even with that, the camera does bad things to body parts. She asked if I could work on her arm in the foreground so it does not look as large. Thus my other reason for jumping into Photoshop. A couple of clicks in the liquify filter and her arm looks like it really does rather than how the camera compressed it.

Here again, the big, big key is moderation. A little bit of Liquify goes a long, long way. Tomorrow I will have another image that was an example of not loosing hope in your imagery.

Take care for now... Doug

Vacation's Over... Back to work!

I have had a nice break from the regular routine and it is now time to set to plan things for the fall. While summer is not even near over, senior pictures are right around the corner. Not that I have been slacking while on vacation or anything it has been quite the opposite. My time off back in March was spent slacking.

This past couple of weeks have been very enjoyable because we have had an opportunity to get to know our future daughter in law a bunch more. We made a trip to Chattanooga TN to pick up the rest of her stuff and then turned around and spent a week out in Maryland with our daughter, her family and our oldest son. Two days after we got back from MD Evelyn took off on a bike trip (as a cook) with the youth group from our church.

Photographically I have not been totally asleep either. In MD I had an opportunity to do a baby shoot, then in TN I did some pictures of my son and his fiancé. To cap that off this past Saturday evening I did the engagement session for the happy couple.

We visited a number of different locations and while on the way to one I remembered an abandoned barn that I had scoped out previously. As we were pulling up the lane, I noticed the rapidly disappearing sun and asked Samantha to come down the lane. Getting the sun to backlight subject with the proper amount of fill flash is one of the most beautiful lighting condition in photography.

The real key is to use the right amount of fill flash. Enough to fill while maintaining the shadows. Camera specs on this shot; Gear- Canon 5D MkII w/EF24-70 f/2.8 USM lens. Exposure- 1/640 sec at f/2.8, focal length of 42mm with an ISO of 320.

I'll put up some other images of what I have been up to in the next few days.

Take care for now... Doug

Two Starts Posting

I thought I would try something that I haven't before. Start a post on my iPad while not in a WiFi area and push it up to the web when I get to my hotel room. Ok, nothing earth shattering here. I did need something to do while sitting at one of my favorite restaurants. That would be Carrabas Italian Grill.

Ok so onto the real post. I said the other day that I would put up a post on the lighting setup for my pregger session. Well, I didn't get to it. Don't you just hate that when someone drops the ball. So it's just a blog and for the ten people who may be tracking ok, I'm sorry.

The shoot was with constant light which used to be called hot lights but with the daylight balanced flouresents available today they are far from hot. They may not have the warm temperature of a 500 watt incandescence that's what the temperature slider is for in Lightroom. Yes I could get some a gell and work it so it would be right in the camera, but technology wins this one hands down.

Here is the setup:

At the top of the diagram is a six foot opening from the studio to a sunroom that is a giant soft box after about 10:00 AM. Normally the opening is closed with a pair of pocket doors so I can work with the studio lights.

A while back I had picked up a sectioned folding divider from Hobby Lobby and have been waiting for the opportunity to use it. The two soft boxes were covering a pair of Westcott TD5 Spider Lights (below) to provide the constant light.

I had replaced one set of five thirty watt bulbs with the fifty watt kit. That left me with five spare bulbs. I also had picked up a Photobasics green screen kit which came with an umbrella softbox with on incandescent bulb. Westcott also sells a unit that is really slick.

It handles the 30 Watt bulbs just fine. It does not put out enough light to light a backdrop but it really shines in product work as a kicker.

Well I got the post in. I have been working on a project that I should have something up here in a day or two.

Take care... Doug

Temperature of Color

I want to make a comment before I get into the post. Posting has been sporadic over the last couple of months and I wanted to let you know I am not loosing interest in the blog but rather have take a rough break in the action so to speak. While I am home I have not wanted to take my family time to post daily and when on the road I am more earnest in posting. Bottom line is that I am not going anywhere and please check back here and again for updates.
On with the post!
Earlier this month Evelyn and I were returning from Grand Haven MI on our Harley when we crossed a bridge over the Grand River north of Allendale MI. The time was about 8:45 P.M. and what we saw was breathtaking. To the spot went into my mental photo-bank for places to return to. It wasn’t until this past week when the sky was going to cooperate. With the rapid changing in sunset times I got to the bridge by 8:30 and the sun was already below the horizon. I really wanted that special time after the sun went down for this chat anyhow.
The opening image was really a mistake in not checking my camera setting before starting to shoot but it has such a rich feel to it, I made it a keeper. While standing on the side of the bridge, the thought of this post came to mind and that triggered the second series of images below.

Woking the Kelvin adjustment on the 5D Mk II, I took images from 3000K through 10000K. We have many settings on the Color Temperature from Sunny, Shade, Flash, Tungsten and also Kelvin. By adjusting the Kelvin temperature, some pretty nice looking effects can be garnered. Why not just select Tungsten for the effect. If you are shooting RAW that is possible, JPEG it is generally not so you can adjust the color temperature for a desired effect.
The image below most represented what was actually being shot and it came in around 7000K

That’s going to do it for today.

For now, take care... Doug

Let the Light Shine

It's pretty late but i feel guilty for saying yesterday that I would be up today. Besides I was putting together some lighting for a shoot tomorrow and found an opportunity to do a review. I had some Westcott TD-5 spiderlites mounted on stands with softboxes for some product shooting a while back and I am going to be working with a baby on Thursday an I just find that strobes work better with the little ones. The modeling lights provide a nice subdued lighting while getting ready and the pop of the flash is so short the baby does not even flinch.

Anyhow, on my last tour I was out on the west coast and found a 1-4 adapter for the Westcott Photo Basic tungsten lights at Sammy's Camera. Two issues here. First the Photo Basics gear and then the lighting. Photo Basics is Westcott' entry level lighting equipment. It is very functional but will certainly not hold up to the riggers of active shooting. Here are a couple of images from their website.

This is the plastic light socket that hold a 500 watt tungsten bulb. This bulb gets very hot and it only took a couple of minutes working around it before it was a little irritating.

Here is the softbox and the bulb assembled which was very easy. The softbox is an umbrella and it erects with the bush of a ring that goes around the light socket. Slide a diffusion panel over the opening and you have a softbox. 

So on a Photoshop User TV episode I saw this little device (below) that screws into a light socket and then you can install four bulbs into the adapter. I had my older spiderlites from my Westcott TD-5 and

turned the Photo Basics uLite into a mini TD-5 spiderlite. Here is how the lights look inside all nice and cozy.

I have not shot anything with this setup but it will be a help with the two TD-5's I already have. It is light enough that I should be able to hang it on a Manfrotto articulating (more or less a boom stand) reflector holder for additional light in products.

Hey now it is late and I am going to head of for a good nights sleep.


Cya... Doug


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Lighting 101 Part 2 (First in Stack)

Here is the studio setup for the image form Yesterday in Part 1. You can see the two Elinchrom's (left key and right fill) with the speedlite for the background. On the tri-pod is my Canon 5d Mk II with an interesting combination mounted on the hot shoe

First the key light. I have the Alien Bees 42 inch parabolic light modifier (their words) which is the smaller of the three they sell that I have that fits a Bees B800 strobe. The reflector that works best with the PLM obviously does not fit the Elinchrom. Being Swiss, neither does the shaft of the umbrella. Intuition to the rescue!

First i take some gaffers tape and secure the reflector to the Elinchrom. There is a hole in the reflector that allows the umbrella shaft to go through o the mono-light but I would not be needing that because it doesn't fit anyhow.

So I take the Elinchrom and put it in a Photoflex Grip Swivel to provide tilt and support for the umbrella. Normally the mono light will be tilted with the light modifier from its base but here I simply tilted the mono light towards the center of the umbrella and then used the grip swivel to tilt the whole unit. I like this option but will get a reflector that actually fits.

Now for the coup d'etat on control over the lighting. There is no standard in light triggering in photography but there is one 2000 pound gorilla, That being Pocket Wizard. The Plus II (shown at right) is just a dumb transceiver that will work every single time. If it doesn't or you didn't turn it on or the battery is dead which could be from not turning it off the last time you used it. Then there are all the others. Elinchrom has the Skyport system which is very controllable so you don't have to have an assistant running around the studio adjusting light power all the time which saves time and money. But how can you get them to work together.

Normally you need two Plus II's to make the whole Pocket Wizard thing work but I also have their E-TTL (MiniTT1 and FlexTT5) systems (here is the link) to fire my Speedlites. The MiniTT1 (camera unit) will allow a speedlite to be mounted to it as well as fire Plus II in dumb mode. With this in mind I thought I would try something Elinchrom or PocketWizard did not intend to happen. I put the Elinchrom Skyport in the hot shoe of the MiniTT1 and then mounted the whole thing on the hot shoe of the 5D Mk II.

It worked like a champ, I had full selective control over the Elinchrpom heads while firing the speedlite from the Plus II.

Hey, that was a lot of fun, but I am getting a here. Have a great weekend and we'll be back monday.

Cya... Doug

Lighting 101 Part 1

In my never ending and new quest to maximize and control light in highlight and shadows, I have done a ton load of research, reading, listening, and attending over the past year and a half. I started off with the available light thing and moved to speedlites (Stobist style) and am now finding the challenge and technical application of studio lighting not only challenging but also rewarding.

Yes I bought a light meter, and no I do not use it as mush as I probably should. On a new setup I will use it to get me in the ball park but then move to the camera for blinkies and histogram. As far as light ratios go, I find direction much more important. The ratio is this... One light has to be more powerful than the other to give gradation of shadows. There, I used a big word so enough of the tech talk. When I am landing the jet, every landing is the same but different, you have to feel the moment. Lighting is much the same except you get another chance if you completely screw it up.

The image above is done with three lights, two Elinchrom RX600 monolites controlled with the Skyport triggers and a speed light gelled blue triggered with a Pocket Wizard. Combining the thought of metering and feeling I find it works best me to set the key or main light to the an arbitrary setting (best guess at this point using the modeling light) and meter that. Now I have some idea what to set the camera at. I will set for aperture priority for controlled depth of field and then adjust speed up to one stop below the maximum sync speed for good measure.

With the key light set approximately, I will light the background and adjust it so the exposure looks right (display & histogram) in camera. Yes if I have to make a serious adjustment to the key, I will bump the background light up or down as necessary. So here is the shot with just the background light.

Now I will add the fill light. In this case a second Elinchrom RX600 with a soft box attached. Feathering the soft box towards the camera so as not to over expose the background. With a hood on the 24-70 or 70-200 I do not get any flare from the light. A wider angle lens might require me to flag the light. So here is the fill light image.

Now I go back and look at how the key will work on the subject as it was originally set with my mug just to get something going. Here is the key only with the background.

And again the final image so you don't have to scroll back up to the top to see the difference.

Tomorrow I have some shots of how the studio was set up for this shot. Unfortunately in the blogger world you probably are not reading this on Thursday but sometime later in which you have already seen the studio set-up in Lighting 101 Part 2 which scrolls first making it historically the first part. I think I got that right!

Anyhow, Cya tomorrow... Doug