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Reflector as a backround/ backdrop

user@domain.com — 2011-06-19T13:01:14+09:00

I was told that I do not have enough lights and I should have a light to separate the model from the backdrop....
I have a SB600, no pocket wizards yet though.

I want to be able to use the AB800 ring light with the profoto air lights and I do not have money for more profoto lights at the moment. I have the air remote on the hotshoe of the camera and the Alien Bee ring flash connected by wire (need a shorter bloody cable) I have yet to figure out how to slave the AB to the profoto, the recycle time of the AB is terrible compared to the profoto.

Anyway today I thought about a way to cheat, by using my big reflector as the background, it seems to have worked well enough for a pretty high key look.

The setup: profoto D500 in strip boxes and the ABR800 on camera, handheld (yeah it gets heavy) with the reflector on a stand
shot at 200ISO 1/250 and F/11 with the nikkor 24-70mm 2.8 lens at around 40mm.

The search for the new watermark/ logo

user@domain.com — 2011-06-17T20:50:00+09:00

Trying to be simple here.
Can it be done in 5 minutes?
I think so

Will I like it though????
Does it reflect me and my ideas?

Something simple is best I think

First idea

like it but... not sure

this one seems closer to the simple idea

Finished idea, I wanted it enclosed and stamp-like, yeah no name on there but it is identifiable plus at 50% transparency it is pretty unobstructive

After the rain.... waterfalls

user@domain.com — 2011-06-14T14:59:01+09:00

Stupid title?
True though water falls after rain....
Went out to Saigo town in the middle of nowhere to shoot the waterfall again.
Went last year and there was not a lot of water flow, now after the heavy rain of the past few days it is huge.

Shot still with the D700, 24- 70 f/2.8 (really need a 10mm to do this place properly) and a circular polarizer. Worked well to bring out the greens.

Shot at ISO 200 and f/22 for the most part, took the tripod as well

Best shot I think, minimal post as well. Looks nice on the wall.

Posters....

user@domain.com — 2011-06-07T11:53:19+09:00

Crazy maybe, it is the season of middle of the year giving in Japan and I am a little broke.
Thus I am making posters not giving department store goods.

First poster

I know I love my lion shot a little too much for some ;)

after the rain

user@domain.com — 2011-06-05T17:33:29+09:00

After the rain.

Today it rained here for most of the day. Little crazy being with the family in the house all day.

The rain stopped and they went out for a walk.

I started to shoot around the garden.
I am somewhat taken with this red filter, I originally bought it as a way to make fake IR shots with a Nikon D700 which cannot take the IR filter. While it did not work the way I wanted to for that I am liking the high contrast B&W I get. I want to try it in the studio in the future.

So I have the nikkor 24-70 f/2.8 lens taking fake macros of leaves and water drops. All shot handheld in aperture priority mode. With the red filter on and a LR3 preset I made based on the B&W 4 preset.

I guess what is interesting for me is the difference in the leaves, the darkest green ones come out black and the lighter ones are lighter.

Shooting with Raul and "the fish eye for fish eyes" otherwise known as "an eye for an eye"

user@domain.com — 2011-06-04T09:21:23+09:00

My best shot was the shark I think

Then Raul shooting the fish was interesting for me.

Latest Shoot with my best model

user@domain.com — 2011-05-21T19:45:27+09:00

The lighting set up
2 D1air 500W profotos with the air remote
1 ABR800 - does not keep up with the profotos

Retouch from a while ago...

user@domain.com — 2011-05-09T17:30:27+09:00

I am a member of the model mayhem site and occasionally photographers offer images to “play with” to retouchers to sharpen skills and get feedback.

I admit I was out for a month with these images.
I will credit as well as I can the model “Polina” model mayhem number 1582745 and the photographer “Chad” model mayhem number 1385301

So to be clean then I did not actually take this photos and in no way are representing them as my own work.

I did however “retouch” them.

In the first image here, the red is a little dead. I know that this was shot with a nikon at 75mm, ISO 200 and f/8 at 1/200. I know that nikons do not work red all that well from experience with my D700 looking at the exif data this is a D700 as well using the nikkor 70 - 200mm f/2.8 so good glass on that annoying nikon body

I did the usual PP adjustments for skin, eyes etc. Played a little with the hair one as well then into LR3 where I played with the WB as well as the levels for the red. Might have gone too far now looking at the jpeg here but maybe not.

The other set is an implied nude I suppose in the parlance. I like the background and the texture of it

Again over to PP for skin etc. Now this one had a kind of odd WB I though I liked it farm more on the blue side (odd for me as I usually prefer warmer portraits)
On looking at it again today I shifted the WB back over to the warmer side. The blue was interesting but not really my style I suppose

Website Update

user@domain.com — 2011-05-08T21:18:57+09:00

Did a little update on the layout etc.

Originally only was going to do a little blogging about retouching. Then got side tracked. Haha

Anyway what doe you think of the new look?
Took a bit to get it all settled but seems cool enough.

Cheers

Mosaics

user@domain.com — 2011-02-08T21:18:11+09:00

Interesting little bit of software I came across.

Makes mosaics out of images

Original:

Mosaic:

Be prepared!

user@domain.com — 2011-01-25T21:17:32+09:00

Being prepared is key.
I was shooting at a Safari Park out of the car with a 80 - 200mm lens, one camera body. I had the stunning chance to catch the cats as they came down beside the car but, my 24 -120mm and 50mm lenses were in the trunk......

thus:

Manual Mode

user@domain.com — 2011-01-10T21:16:49+09:00

Love to shoot manual mode

So if RAW is the only way to shoot/ save files, then that means that: manual, aperture priority or shutter priority are the only ways to set up the camera.

First rule of the first day of class of PH101 was “learn to love manual mode”. There is a good reason for this. Look at actual professional grade equipment, do you find 21 or 50 different modes? Nope, actually there are only 3 modes: M, AP and SP. Most pros will use auto focus which is something we were not allowed to use either (oh and the instructors did know, it was in the metadata of the file).

Back to the point, why let you camera think for you? Did you spend a pile of cash to use a dSLR as a point and shoot camera? If you did please send me a donation via GOLDHAT. Thanks.

For the rest of us, taking creative control from the camera is an important first step in MAKING photos versus TAKING photos. That is really the point, to think about what you want to convey by the image.

Shooting out of dirty car windows is a challenge especially when you are not allowed to role them down in case a tiger, lion or other hungry cat wants to take a bite of you. Still there are options, the biggest concept when shooting animals is eye contact, without it you get a “so what” image but with it there is a wow factor. So look at the above images, which is more visually interesting?

Back to the idea of loving manual mode (which I do now) thinking about aperture, shutter, ISO, white balance etc etc too tough. It becomes second nature, think of the first time a chef holds a knife or a surgeon for that matter, it all becomes second nature after one learns to feel the tool. The camera is a tool the same way.

RAW RULES

user@domain.com — 2011-01-08T21:16:12+09:00

RAW the only way to shoot!

But my card is too small I have to shoot JPEG.

Right, BUY A BIGGER CARD!!! That or stop taking photos like your camera is a machine gun. It isn’t you know. Just because you can shoot 7 fps does not mean you should.

Ok, so back to my point. Look at the above shot, it is a red tractor in the rain and it looks a little sad. Pretty much what I had in mind when I took the shot. I liked the red tractor and it reminded me of that childhood red tractor that now as an adult I have left far behind. So this shot is totally possible to do as a JPEG but, anyone guess at how long it too me to edit? Less than 5 minutes and probably closer to 2 minutes tops. This is because with a RAW file all of the information for editing is still intact and has not been discarded or otherwise compressed by a conversion to JPEG.

So in this case all one had to do was eliminate all the colour channels except for red, take a quick wipe around with the “saturation brush” to make sure no remain red colours were in the background and done.

I can’t even imagine trying to get this effect from a JPEG.

Plus the other argument is that why put 2000 USD plus into a camera body, lens etc etc then shoot like it was a 15USD kid’s camera?

Color issues part 2

user@domain.com — 2011-04-24T18:19:17+09:00

Ok, I do calibrate my screen it is supposed to be good for at least 6 months but it is a mac screen so it is overly high contrast which means when editing shots I should turn it down to about 50% brightness which I never do then get pissed off at the printers.

Anyway, I found a colour check card on the internet, put it up on the screen and shot it

All are cropped but that is it. All taken at f/2.8 iso200 70mm 1/60
I was trying the difference between sRGB and Adobe RGB colour spaces as well as whether or not it makes a difference importing the NEF or converting to DNG

I printed them out here on the Canon Pro9000 printer (about 6 years old now)

Tomorrow is portrait shooting day. I have printed a large size card to take with me to work with in real conditions. I might just have to buy the real one.

Colour issues

user@domain.com — 2011-04-24T18:06:49+09:00

Shooting with another person is great. The wedding I was a second or backup shooter. I am supposed to be the main on the next one.

However it seemed to my associate that all of my shots at ISO 1600, f2.8, 1/250th (flash fill or not) had a greenish tinge compared to his from his D5 mark 2. So I had a long look at this today.

The nikon D700 apparently does have issues with greenish tinges and purples out of the box shooting in JPEG mode. I shoot RAW so this should not be an issue....

I also came across a firmware update that was released in January 2010 which I installed for the first time today. Boy do I feel like a right wanker (apparently the firmware update is supposed to help with this green issue by helping the auto WB)

Anyway I also am not really supposed to be using Lightroom 3 with a nikon, I am supposed to be using Capture NX2 (which I did download a trial for today)

But there are some fixes in lightroom

Straight out of camera - too red/ orange (auto WB, 1/250, f/2.8)

lens calibration, I have read this is pretty important with the nikon lenses in LR3 for some reason, it is just a check box that the program already knows the lens anyway so why is it not automatic or an option on import????

Altered the shot with the camera preset recommended from the web (D2x of which there are several)

Not really happy with the results but I understand it is progress from the first shot.

So this is the edited version of the same shot from above which I posted yesterday. Must have used flash fill as there is a shadow on the background.

April is almost over????

user@domain.com — 2011-04-23T17:04:57+09:00

April is almost over. So many new projects and happenings.

Anyway, shot backup at a wedding for the first time and playing lighting and art director at the maeodori (which actually was held after the wedding party)

Good experience over all and now I know why one SHOULD pay the wedding photographer the big bucks as it is an EXTREMELY tiring day.

Favorite shot for me is this one:

I know it is not the greatest shot in the world but for some more candid at the very end I liked the bride’s expression.

My best shot I think:

I just like how it all came together as they were approaching the altar.

I was playing around with getting them and their reflection in the floor of the chapel.

Life goes on

user@domain.com — 2011-03-17T17:38:34+09:00

Yes, life does go on in Japan.
The quake was scary, the tsunami more so, nuclear fears have people freaked out but down here in Miyazaki life goes on as normal... basically.

So I did a shoot today. Not my greatest work but hey I got to use a studio space for free and had a free if not totally willing model to boot.

So the Bossman over at Miyazaki Camera has said he would lend me the store’s space to shoot in,
the other day I though I better take him up on the offer.
I wanted to try to reproduce a look that I am seeing with make up adds around now using octoboxes without baffles instead of beauty dishes.
I took about 175 shots of which I like about 3 but I will post a few more

First shot where she started to relax a little, I have the 180cm octobox over my right shoulder(and about 250cm up) and a strip box to her right. Profoto d1 500 air with the hotshoe remote. Not the greatest shot but working it a little

I liked that I was getting an innocent look,

She is at work and in her work clothes which might have been stifling I think.

Then I switched it up to a white background, which had footprints all over it, my reply was to go high key

I wanted all full body shot, this only is 3/4 but I was still playing with light levels

Oddish crop and pose but I liked the expression she gave me here

not really a b&w but I like the different look

I got her to open her collar and loose the ribbon, that was after an older man told her to drop everything. Love those countryside “geegees” This is a Raul effect with the high key and the white vignette, this also looks like I payed with it in PP as well

This looks totally PP’ed, maybe not over the top though. Remember I was trying to recreate a makeup ad look.

Straight out of the camera shot

Another one out of camera, cute but not remarkable

Now she actually liked this and found in interesting. Closer to that makeup ad look

This crop I suppose is closest to what I was working on, I have a lot more to learn with the editing (thanks Master Editor Raul for some tips and hints) The catch light in the eyes matches the ones in the magazine and poster ads so I am overall happy.

The Slacker part 4

user@domain.com — 2011-03-10T13:56:33+09:00

Actually out and shooting today at lunch.

Still playing with fake IR

Still with the red filter this is at f/10 and 1/60 ISO 200 @112mm
Still is not getting much woods effect but the overall B&W is pretty good

Seagull, I frightened it to fly, huge wash out in the details.

My wife playing around, she has that “ghost” look but that is about it

This looks a little better in terms of the woods effect, but it just seems to make the trees appear snowy

Last chance for glory here. The palm should be reflecting the most I think. So anyway it is a nice b&w if you like that sort of look but little in terms of approaching a good IR.
I will have to get the sensor replaced. After the new D700 comes out or a better D3

The Slacker part 3

user@domain.com — 2011-03-09T17:45:48+09:00

Fish anyone????
A challenge of Nikon versus Canon at f/2.8

The local tuna/ fish auction.

Good chance to shoot and a great chance to test out the new nikkor 24- 70mm f/2.8 clear enough lens I think. Later I switched to the 80 - 20mm f/2.8 and Raul pulled out something that resembles an actual canon!

Again this is a trip with Raul so it was a canon versus nikon event.

Yes no on camera flash or even speed light on a sync cord thus blown out fish, very bad man

Yes, those are hammer head sharks in a basket don’t ask what they are for...

My best stop motion of the day but still lacks something I think

Feeding time, these birds hang out until lunch is served

The Master at work

My new desktop image

The slacker part 2

user@domain.com — 2011-03-09T17:27:47+09:00

Other thing I have been playing with is “fake” IR looks.

I wanted real IR after seeing some work out there. Seems to be the new “in” look for weddings etc.

Old Nikon has a brilliant idea to put the best possible IR filter on the sensor of their cameras and it seems that old IR film is not available around here. Thus

I have the DEEP RED filter from Kenko which is not exactly the same as the recommended filters for doing this look but ....

Anyway

The key to the IR effect is the Woods effect caused by the blue and green channels. This is a bit of a challenge as for the nikon cameras these tend to be the weakest channels (according to my research not fact)

Here we have Raul

There is the distinct ghostly look about him but it is not great and the sky is dead. Not exactly the best look.

However straight out of camera is this:

Again the red is cool but seriously odd. Thus technically a desaturation of only the red channels should be enough

Sadly no as there are the orange and magenta wavelengths as well

So here it is with the orange, magenta and red “off” and the blue and green “maxed” this should be as close technically as I can go to IR, not great as the subject is not overly IR reflective.

Not true IR but it does make for a nice B&W

The slacker

user@domain.com — 2011-03-09T12:09:19+09:00

Yes, I am officially a slacker. Nothing new there.

Anyway, again I am in the doghouse with Raul for not having my 365 as an ongoing project. Basically it is not part of my daily routine. When I was taking classes I shot for an assignment per week, I could mull the shot around in my mind and subconscious for a while then shoot. I am good with deadlines and can perform under pressure but.... self discipline is another matter. Yeah something else to work on. I don’t have the problem when working for other people so maybe I should think that I am working for Raul???

Anyway, I am working on retouching this week. My shoot for Friday cancelled out and I have to rebook which means it will be a rush later in the month I think.

Melissa was kind enough to send me some images to work on:
(note: these are not RAW files but small jpegs)

Original is a little dark and noisy brightened it up a little and worked on tones

I like the back tattoo of the koi fish still not all that happy with the chromatic issues

I like the make up So I worked that and the tones and punched it all

I like the movement implied by the sheet

Now that I see it here there is again there are still chromatic issues, but still it works

I like the make up, also the twist of the sheet

This is just cool I think, I would have worked it differently though

Might be too much for some but I liked the over all effect...

My favourite of what she sent over

Not a fan of this crop but I have not though of a better one.

Tried blue but to me it seemed that warm worked better

The sun as a hair/ rim light?

user@domain.com — 2011-02-04T10:53:49+09:00

I have seen this done a lot and for some people it is a signature style.
I am without a studio and am thinking about going outside more.

However shooting in noon is not usually the best for getting faces:

f/10
1/250
ISO200
nikkor 24-120mm @75mm
cable release
tripod

great hair light, not great with the face though

Thus, out comes a strobe (being that I am close to home) I have my profoto D1 air 500W. I know most people would use a gold reflector or even an on camera strobe or speed light. But I wanted to up the ante a little

So set to full power, it totally overpowers the sun easily.

haha too much white out. Still good to know.

2 stops down, still too much

That could make a passable IR treatment with a b&w though.... the eyes pop at least

4 stops down

That seems to have it pretty well. The hair light is nice and the face is visible and clear.
I didn’t tough a light meter. I should have to get a perfect shot. This works pretty well even at f/10 to eliminate the background and pop out the subject from the background.

Can’t wait until that octobox gets here.

Butterfly and Clamshell lighting

user@domain.com — 2011-02-02T11:44:24+09:00

Best model is yourself? hahahah But I am free and easy to work with.
I have been getting kicked in the ass about that excuse I toss up about the lack of models in our area here. Mostly that I am a whining bastard who should be shooting and not whining.

More work here with the same setup as yesterday. BACKDROP still NEEDS and IRON, I know....
D700
50 mm f/1.4 (shooting f/10)
1/250 - strobe sync
ISO 200 (should that really be ISO low though??)

the D1 airs with the air remote
cable release (no remote control here yet)

I also shot some with the F80 for colour testing later
ISO 100 VELVIA 21 degree
1/250
f/9.5 (which I can’t see as being right now that I type it)

Butterfly

First shots where with the boxes 45 degrees and almost touching the camera. Stuck my head in the middle and shot away.

Thus we get this:

Straight out of camera (small crop) but no LR3 effects yet. Pretty flat and even lighting.
Bad hair day I know.

Little texture

Still not overly inspiring but I am not going to play with it in PP now.

Next
Lights were actually set to 2 stops different.

Straight out of camera can you even tell??? Hahaa I guess so

LR3 adjustments

Now it is totally clear. However I needed to bring the higher power light around a little more. Yes I blew things out on purpose. Maxed highlights only and all others on the cure are at -100

Clamshell

What happens when you forget to change the power settings on your strobes?

Godfather lighting? Still more like deer caught in headlights. Takes away the neck/ chin well though.....

However the look I was going for is this:

And for the LR3 follower I did a -31 to clarity to glam/ drop a few years (without going into PP)

So what did I learn in this 1 hour?

It is far easier to shoot though the camera instead of in front of it.
When working with clamshell / glamour lighting (people usually use a reflector not 2 strobes) but with equal power in each it actually works pretty well, HOWEVER as you see in my eyes it causes 2 sets of reflections which I am not too pleased with. This can be fixed by moving the bottom strobe out of the family of angles (move the model or the strobe until it is out of the eyes).

I wish to revisit this concept with the 79 inch octobox, though I may have to work outside. This shoot had me at the limits of my ceilings.

Restared or rebooted

user@domain.com — 2011-02-02T08:14:42+09:00

February 1st 2011
Yes, I did shoot something today.

Family shots. My new backdrop arrived on Sunday. Thanks mom (yes I am not too proud to admit mom bought me something)

Are these my best work? No, do they do the job? Yes.

Odd crop with the hair out of the shot, maxed out on clarity in LR3. As you can see in the eyes two strip boxes at 45degrees, shot 50mm prime (just because I like it and better use it)

One of the nicer shots I have taken of my wife. She got the opposite effect in LR3 with maybe -20 clarity. I did not take her into PP for adjustment as we are trying to stay natural. Same 50mm and lighting.

Son about to kick me for putting peppers in his spaghetti, he got a clarity boost in LR3, thanks to the recycle rate of the profoto lights I could shoot pretty constantly to get stop action of his fighting moves.

And the point of the whole thing a thank you shot for the family in Canada. Not my best work again but it is what what needed. Yes, I should have cloned out the red fluff on the backdrop, it needs and iron or stem as well. Still as a free feeling shot is is ok.

the first few days

user@domain.com — 2011-01-28T15:17:28+09:00

The point of a “project 365” is to take a different photo each day for a whole year.
I made a start of it in January but failed totally.
I will start again from February 1st 2011

First shot in honour of “El Pimp”, he is the one who told me to “Get off your ass”

Second shot was of a reflection

Still dealing with reflections

A tree that caught my eye

The Gauls are invading.

5 shots for 31 days is not a 365.....