More Background Effects

Another setup exploring what my lights can do to my backdrops. This time I have a red light and a blue light hitting that backdrop. The backdrop is black in this shot, but you can’t really tell because of the lights. Admittedly, you need a few things to pull this off. Lights, gels, and a backdrop. For this setup you’d need two lights, two different gels, and two systems to apply those gels because gels don’t just magically float in the air for you.

The lighting setup itself is more of a lowkey set up. That’s why the shadows are heavier and makes the images more moody then anything else. Then the cat waltzed in and that really livened up the session. I highly recommend trying out low-key lighting sessions for practice as they only actually require one light, and they will really help you understand working with shadow and light. Depending on where you have the light you will create shadows on the other side. That’s a rather simple concept but it takes practice to be able to visualize it without putting the light down.

Babies and light trickery.

I did some baby photos the other day and they turned out good, but I hated them. So, I redid them. This it worked out so much better.

There are two things going on here – a baby and light shenanigans. For starters, always talk with the parents when dealing with babies. This is key in coordinating an outfit of what you are going for. For these, I wanted a cool moody look and her mom delivered perfectly. After that, you are at the mercy of the baby. You can do every trick in the book to get that baby to smile but sometimes it just doesn’t pan out so take what you can get.

Now for lighting. This is a four-light set up. The key light is a studio strobe with an octagon softbox and the fill light is strobe with a snoot and grid on it. You can see these lights in her eyes by the way. The other two lights are where the fun is. There is a hair light on her that has an orange-ish gel on it. Then there is a speedlite directly behind her pointed towards that backdrop. The backdrop is black but the speedlite has a red gel on it so that back wall appears to be red.

Oh and yeah you see a hand holding her up. You don’t put a baby on a table and just hope she doesn’t fall off. That’s a recipe for disaster  

You can make your own modifiers.

I wanted to test some harsh lighting and low-key lighting techniques. Harsh lighting can make for dramatic shots or make them more intense. That’s also why people like to use harsh lighting in horror shots, except in those cases the lighting comes from below. And sometimes a 4-year-old sneaks on your set and into your shot without you even knowing it.

For these shots I just wanted to go back to modifying a snoot with two pieces of tape. I still haven’t quite got this technique down. It just seems off. However, it worked out a little better when I put a light in back and did the same to light up some of the background.

The point though is that you can build your own light modifications. In this case I used two pieces of gaffers tape, but I’ve made make shift soft boxes with cutup cloth and other light modifiers with cut cardboard. You just have to figure out what you are trying to do. One thing I like to do before I make a light modifier purchase is try and see if I can make a garbage homemade version to test the technique. If I really like it, I can always buy an actual quality version shortly after. For example, my first snoot was a pringles can that barely stayed on. I liked the effect so much I now have a professional grade snoot that I use often, probably too much.

On using strobes outside and getting permission.

Here are some photos of a senior photo session I did the other week. Before the snow. For these shots I used a dance partner, my strobe with a softbox on it. If you do outdoor photography with a strobe two things I highly suggest:

1)      Make sure it has a portable power source. In this case it has a rechargeable battery pack. I do have a portable battery for my corded studio strobes but that just gets a little too heavy for my tastes. But you work with what you got

2)      Bring a photography sandbag to anchor you light stand or you may find your strobe on the ground because of the wind.

One other thing really quick, a lot of what I did here could be done without a strobe, especially given it was a cloudy day and that meant there was already a giant softbox overhead. I prefer to use a strobe because I am a total control freak with my light, but under no circumstances should you think you need a strobe. It helps but a solid understanding of your camera and how light works could get some similar effects here.

Anyway, another thing you want to consider if you plan to do photography professionally is asking permission. You want to ask permission to shoot on the properties you shoot on if you don’t own them. We shot this senior session at a private school, and I made sure to get permission before doing the session on their property. It’s generally a good idea to get permission to be some place if you don’t already have that permission if you are doing a paid gig. And this includes the park I recommend. Most places will tell you yes, but the easiest way to get a permanent no is to show up and start taking pictures.

And if you get told “no” be polite about it. It’s okay to be disappointed, but you never know who you are burning bridges with if you lose you cool over your disappointment and lambast someone verbally by phone or by email.

More tips on working with children.

There really wasn’t a plan with this photo session. She just really wanted the world to see her outfit and who am I to turn away someone who wants to get their picture taken?

When working with young children, don’t be afraid to work with what ever mood they are in. In this case, she was in a silly mood, so I told her about silly invisible giraffes that were in the room with us. She loved that and of course this got her to do more happy movements which are easily caught. Occasionally, I’d ask her to throw me a serious look which she would do and then go back to giggling and laughing. I do this not only to get a few serious look photos (I don’t think people should shy away from serious looks) but it also helps ground the child a little when they are playing during a photo session. After all, it is still a photo session and there is still heavy equipment around – always remember that as the adult it’s your job to deliver everyone and everything to the end of the session safely.

For this session, I did a two-light setup. I’m trying to brainstorm some ideas for a few photo sessions I have coming up and when in doubt I go back to some basics. I had one light with a snoot acting as a hair light and my key was an octagon with a grid on.

Another boom stand test.

More for that new location test and also, I am still working on processing work, so I need a short post again. For this test, I needed to be certain the boom stand would still work from all angles, so I ran a second setup that day. It worked and I think the location will work.

As always, a serious look can be just as good as a smile. In fact, sometimes starting with a serious look will lead to a smile when the time comes. Of course, a step ladder helps too because your subject can play with different heights.

Anyway, this was a two-light setup. One key light overhead and a second light up front as a fill light.

Testing out a new workspace.

Just a quick post because I have a lot of processing to do of a dance rehearsal I photographed and like a clown I figured I could do everything at once time rather than plan ahead accordingly and have posts ready. So, make that a free small business tip:

You can manage to accomplish a lot less then you think you can in a short time.

The flip side to this is that you can accomplish a lot more then you think you can in a long time.

Anyway, I have been allowed to operate my photography testing and practice in a different, much warmer place as opposed to the garage. So, my assistant and I were testing out the area and since the ceiling is slightly lower, I opted to test my boom stand to see if I can still do overhead lighting. And since my assistant has a performance coming up, she was practicing her vocals and that’s what we shot.

I was focusing on different angles and zooming in. The lighting set up was two lights. One overhead and one to the side with a softbox as a key light.

Test your ideas out.

I have a dance rehearsal photo session coming up and I wanted to test a two-light set up I had in mind. It worked well but there were a few adjustments I had to make and even more ideas I came up with during the test session. And that’s the point here: test your ideas. You can get a good reality check on things while at the same time come up with some better ideas for set up.

For example, for this set up I realized the grid I was using wouldn’t make too much sense for this upcoming job. Not every performer will be doing a stationary pose and with just two lights I will want the light to spread out. But I also realized not every performer will be the same size and some will likely do poses close to the ground, so I would want one of my speed lights on a third small tripod that I could rotate in and out as needed. But this also has led to other ideas that I want to try out that might help me improve the results while also reducing time between performers pose shots.

The point is, by testing my plan out I get to go into the actual session knowing what issues and solutions will be in play and already have a strategy to put my plan best into action. Will the session be a roaring success? I hope so and that is what I aim for with every session, but I know I am in a better position now to make that happen then I was a 48 hours ago. And that’s why I am recommending testing things.

#Marylandphotographer #Annearundelphotographer #Dancephotography

The other day it snowed and of course I made sure I was somewhere to snap some pictures and by “made sure” I was luckily persuaded to be some place where pictures would work out.

One note, those batteries in your camera seem to run down faster on cold days because they do. They don’t function as well in cold weather and will run out quicker. Keep that in mind when using your camera in the snow or bring extra batteries to your cold weather shoot. Also, you can always line your camera with a plastic bag if you don’t have any weather covers to protect it from the snow. Alternatively, you can always just wait for it stop snowing.

Anyway, always keep in mind that a lot is usually going on when it snows. Kids go sledding, dogs get confused, and most wild animals become easier to spot (unless you are someplace with polar bears). You get some very unique behaviors going on so constantly be looking around to see who is doing what when you are on scene photographing. For sledding, I find waiting until the very last second you can get out of the way to get out of the way works well. For dogs the trick is still to get down to their level. For wild animals, well that’s not my primary photography focus so it’s still luck for me and honestly a telephoto lens does help there.

Also keep in mind that the snow will make your sensor all sorts of wacky. It really helps to have photo processing tools to fall back on or at least an understanding of how to work the white balance in your camera.

Posing

Back from a week off. I needed that break to plan out the year. Anyway, to the topic at hand; posing.

Posing is a complex skill that plays by the same rules of pretty much any other skill – the more you practice it the better you get at it. If you never practice posing, then it will forever be an uphill battle for you.

Early on two things you want to work on is:

1)      Pose knowledge

2)      Communication skills

For pose knowledge I advise two things. First, simply research poses online. Start with learning basic poses and looking at photos with people posing in them and then figure out why those poses work. There are compositional reasons for those poses that make them work and understanding the bigger concepts can help you come up with poses that better fit the shot you are trying to compose. Second, practice poses on your own. It is a lot easier to remember poses if you have actively practiced them yourself in front of a camera or a mirror.

Next up is communication skills. You can have all the pose knowledge that has ever existed in human history, and it means squat if you can’t communicate that knowledge to your subject. This is another skill that you sort of just have to practice and self-reflect on, making note of what worked and what went horribly wrong. Also, keep in mind that these skills will shift based on the subject. For example, a 4-year-old takes directions in a different way from a 40-year-old. The more you work with each group the better you get at communicating with each group.

All these photos were done with a two-light setup. My subject here is perfectly capable of following pose directions but since she is four turning every direction into a game or a joke worked better. I find she really enjoys doing the exact opposite of “don’t do this!” and she usually does so with delight. I also knew she’d have fun on a stool that spins and would be willing to climb a step ladder.

Happy New Year!

On to 2022 we go!

More strobe testing.

Another strobe test. This time outside as the strobe in question is built to overpower outdoor light we went outside. I put it through its paces and even tested out the high speed sync. Keep in mind if you do get a speed light or a strobe and it doesn’t have a high speed sync mode you will be limited to a shutter speed to over 1/250. Otherwise, you will get light sync issues which means half or all of your picture will be a wall of black. You don’t need high speed sync in order to use strobes, I have two really strobes that lack this feature, but this is why I recommend you understand what type of photography you want to do before investing in strobes. If you know you what you are trying to do then you will have a better idea what strobe to get for the work you want to do.

Anyway, these photos were done on a cloudy day. Cloudy days are great because they act as a giant softbox, distributing the light even everywhere. As previously mentioned, I used a strobe but I attached a softbox so this would be a two light set up. I started by adjusting for the daylight and then zeroing in the strobe. All these shots were taken with whatever we found walking up a short road and back. It helps to have access to some amazing locations but you can still do decent photography out in the neighborhood.

New strobe test.

I got my hands on a new strobe and I was testing it out in a two light studio set up on myself. I really like how this worked out and can’t wait until I can bring it out to the next outdoor event I shoot because I have some ideas. Anyway, this also required me to use my dreaded tripod. Don’t get me wrong, I understand what tripods do for photography and how to use them, I can even understand why other photographers love them, but I dislike using them. I feel like I am fighting the cursed thing the entire time I am using it. But if I want to test out a light on myself, I must bite the bullet and use the tripod.

I went on to test it further, but I am holding those photos back just in case I run out of time this week for other projects I want to share and have something to fall back on.

As previously stated, this was a two-light test. One strobe with a softbox as the key light and a speedlight with no modifier as back light. Use what gear you have to make your photography work, but I can honestly say the sweet spot feels like two lights. Sure, you can do great stuff with 3 lights or even 4 or 5 lights, I’ve done several projects with 3, 4 or 5 lights, but that’s extra time you have to spend setting up those lights. 2 lights still feels quick while still offering various lighting techniques.

But that’s just my 2 cents. Your mileage and organization skills may take you in a different direction.

Dance photos

Here is some dance pose photography work we did last night in studio. This was all basics. Basic poses and basic lighting. When I have a creative idea in mind I like to start with the basics and ease into it. That way if there is something I am missing I am more likely to see it. Granted I can’t always take my time but for now I can and sort of build to the ideas I have in mind. From here I am going to go in two directions. One direction is testing a quick simple off camera flash setup I have in mind to better photograph posed shots with dancers between dances at dress rehearsals and a more complex setup for in studio work I have in mind.

Anyway, for this set up it was a generic one speedlight up above with a softbox and two strobes to the left and right with no modifier aimed at the subject acting as kicker lights.

Merry Christmas.

#marylandphotographer #annearundelphotographer #photographytips

Photography Basics

It’s days before Christmas so I don’t have too much right now. So, let’s go back to some basics. Here is an easy step by step for how to manage a session using flash of any sort.

Step 1: Compose the shot.

Step 2: Adjust for the natural lighting.

Step 3: Add and adjust flash as you want. Not all at once, you need to adjust for each individual flash so if you have 1 flash, step 3 has just one step. If you have 29 speedlites on tripods all around (you monster) step 3 is 29 steps long.

Step 4: Take one more look to see if it’s composed to how you want it.

Step 5: Take the picture.

Step 2 and Step 3 is where a lot of people go wrong, at least its where I’ve gone wrong early on. I’d add and adjust for flash and then wonder why my background was blown out. You get the background down to levels you want it to be (thus step 2) then you add flash to bring back out your subject (thus step 3). Of course, you also need to consider the inverse square law of light, but there’s a reason that’s usually talked about on its own – it’s simple to see but complicated to explain.

Anyway, these photos were just another test with a speedlite. Then the puppy escaped the fence by walking right through it like it was the terminator or something, so we puppy back and moved somewhere else.

Tired after work.

My older niece works at a big chain store as a cashier. Needless to say, her work right now leaves her exhausted at the end of each day of work. So, I made it a point to get her just after work one day and took her picture. And what goes well with an exhausted person? A crying baby of course!

To be clear, the baby was fine, she was just upset her mom, who was right off camera, wasn’t holding her and this session was 3 minutes for her just to minimize the tears.

When bringing themes together in your photo try and think about what you are aiming for. Are you comparing, contrasting, or coordinating (or all three)? It is a lot like setting up your lighting. You don’t just throw light anywhere; you add light that adds to what you are trying to do with your composition. The same is with themes. You must consider what you are doing with them when you use them otherwise you are just rambling randomly at the viewer and unless that is what you are for you need to be organized with what you are adding theme wise.

These photos were done with a single strobe with a grid on that was located just to the side.

For the dogs.

All he wanted to do was just relax in the yard, but then the puppy came along and just wouldn’t stop biting his face. His head is lifted in some of these because she can’t bite his face or ears if he does that. Unless she gets up and climbs on him. Then he tried moving to the other side of the yard, but she just followed him. I don’t want to call her a jerk, but she’s a jerk.

As always, be patient with pets, they don’t know what a camera is, and they just want you to be happy. For these photos I just let the chaos play out. The big guy decided to relax in the yard, and I knew the puppy would do what the puppy does best – play. These two actually play well together. The rest was just getting on the proper angle and since they were playing, they didn’t really care where I moved.

For lighting, this was 100% the sunlight. Sure, the shadow placement wasn’t the best but bad shadow placement is better then losing the action in this situation. There is no guarantee they’d keep playing if I got them to move and there is even less guarantee that they would stay in the area that would have been ideal. So, I just went with what they were offering, and it worked out well. Making these decisions and gambles are part of photography.

Christmas Spirit

I heard on the radio that their Christmas spirit was the only one with heart and soul. We disagree. The Christmas spirit we conjured has heart and soul too – granted it’s someone else’s heart and someone else’s soul. I don’t think they will be getting a return on their heart and soul either. Anyway, be careful what spirits you invite to visit.

This idea literally came from the radio and sort of worked from there. As for props, the heart is made of white resin and painted. The crystal ball is just me not being able to resist using it again. I am overly fascinated by what it does to light flashes. It’s just so weird. I’ll likely overuse it. The headpiece came from online but days before I found stuff in the dollar store that could have done the same for cheaper. We used a little fake blood left over from Halloween. The rest my model put together on her own and she handled her own face makeup for this session.

As for lighting, things are a bit more complicated. For the first two photos it is a 4 light shot. Two speed lights to the sides of the model bouncing light at an angle upwards. 1 strobe in back to bounce light against the fog machine fog. Finally, one light positioned just behind the crystal ball with a boom stand which is edited out into the fog. For the rest of the photos, we got rid of the back light and just used the other 3.

Quick Photography Tip - Spinning Stools

It’s late and I had a long day of photography at the time of typing this so this will be a short post. Here is a little diva showing off. When it comes to young kids use what they can find, and you will have an enthusiastic subject. In this case, gloves, glasses, and stool that spins were what she wanted. What kid doesn’t like a stool that spins? However, if you want more then just a kid spinning on a stool, you can always put the stool away and use something else. Just be ready to address the “where is the stool” question. Also, I forgot to wipe her face off before this session, that’s something you need to watch for depending on what you are going for.

This was a three light setup. Two strobes with softboxes and grids up front and to the side, and a speedlight with a snoot and grid as a hair light.

Nightmares Before Christmas!

To start off our Nightmares Before Christmas fun we invited our here who is burning bright with that Christmas feeling. Unfortunately, he seems to have mistaken “feeling” with “gasoline and fire,” which happens sometimes. But hey, at least he has a friend at this time of the year. Maybe not a willing friend but a warm friend, nonetheless.

This was a year in the making. Our first attempt at this was last year but this sort of shot is challenging to do because you need two things to work perfectly and just getting anything to work perfectly is a challenge. To do this, you need the fire to burn bright and high. Meanwhile, you also need your autofocus to be able to “see” what you are focusing on and in the dark (remember, the fire is in back so we had to use a low artificial light up front). Last year the fire worked, the autofocus failed, and the small LCD screen in back lied. This year we used a different light and we learned from our mistake. I had my assistant practice earlier in the day with me, and then again just before we lit the fire and things worked out.

Anyway, I set up two strobes with grids. One strobe directly to my right and one just up front and to my left. The fire acted as a backlight. My assistant helped dirty my face up with some of her SFX stuff and then I had her take the photo. Then I took her photo. As for our friend, whom we named Yorick, well I’ll post about that on Friday if I don’t have anything else to post between now and then. Otherwise, I’ll get to it when I get to it.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas, and if you don’t like what we did here you definitely won’t like what we will be doing next week. Let’s just say we will be getting into the “spirit” of the season next week.