Sunrise/Sunset Assignment

Welcome back to Assignment Wednesday! I'm going to break my own rule this week because I did not get a chance to shoot at either dawn or dusk this week because of my travels. So here's a picture that is probably my favorite sunset picture I have:



Even without Jake and the canoe, it would have been a pretty sunset picture because the lake is so still and there is a great reflection, but adding a subject just makes me love it!

If you had the time to take a picture this week, add it to the comment section below.

Next week's assignment:

-- Perspective --

When you see something you want to take a picture of, don't always be satisfied with putting your camera to your eye and pressing the shutter button. Look at your subject from different perspectives and see if you can make a more interesting picture. Climb a ladder to view your subject from above, or lay on the ground to get below it. Get behind the subject or just get closer. Have fun! It's due next week.

Wes & Amy's Wedding

A couple of weeks ago we got to fly home to Dallas to be a part of Wes & Amy's wedding (I was a groomsmen). We had a great weekend seeing family and friends and the wedding was beautiful. They had a great photographer, but you know me, I had to take some pictures! I had the D50 and not the D3, so these were shot at ISO 1600 and have way too much noise, but here are a few of my faves:









Congratulations, Wes and Amy!

Day 2

Day 2 is now over and I'm even more tired tonight than I was last night. This morning we spent a ton of time on off-camera flash, and as you know, I already feel very comfortable with that. After lunch, we headed over to a public park where we had the opportunity to shoot more with the models from yesterday. Had a great time and the weather was perfect!

Please realize that many of the shots from today and yesterday that I am showing you were either set up by Cliff or he at least helped me to make them, but I feel like I am definitely capable of capturing images like this, and I will work hard to transform my entire portfolio to images of this quality over the next few months.

Here's my favorites from today:

Day 1

Day 1 of the Cliff Mautner Workshop is over and all I can say is, "WOW!" It was chopped full of great information and plenty of shooting as well. We got to take a trip to an historic prison where we had exclusive access to some really great places to take pictures. Cliff had hired 5 models (4 girls and 1 guy) for the day, and they were excellent.

I'm exhausted from the full day and tomorrow will be just as busy, so I will just leave you with a few of my favorite images from the day. Cliff is a great teacher and these images reflect some of the things we were working on.

Cliff Mautner Workshop

Today I am on my way to Philadelphia for the Cliff Mautner Workshop. Cliff has been named one of the TOP 10 Wedding Photographers in the world! I can't wait to get there and come back 10 times the photographer I am today! Registration for this workshop was capped at 15, so we will get plenty of hands-on help as the week goes on.

I'm certain to have some photos to show you because we will have the opportunity to shoot professional models in bridal gowns in downtown Philly! Wow! I will try to blog everyday if possible, however, it will be a full schedule while we are there.

See you soon!

The HUGE Advantage of high ISO's

I don't have any pictures to show you for this post because I am in TX for a wedding this weekend and did not bring my card reader, but here's what I learned last night:

We had a nice dinner for the families and wedding party at Brio Tuscan Grille. They had put us in a great private room that was dimly lit. The walls were painted dark as well as the ceilings. Immediately, I knew it would be hard to take good pictures even though I had brought an SB800 flash. Why? Let me explain...

If you read this blog often, you know how much I hate using direct on-camera flash. With most photographers, that is considered to be very unflattering light and your pictures end up looking totally flat. However, you can usually bounce your flash off the corner of the wall and ceiling and get much nicer, diffused light even with the flash attached to your camera. The problem is this... light takes on the color of what it hits. So when you have a big white wall, everything is great, but when your wall and ceiling are dark brown (like the restaurant last night), you're in trouble because the light become dark brown!

I did have my 50mm f/1.4 lens with me last night, so I immediately switched from the 18-200 to it, knowing that I would need to be shooting at 1.4 the entire time, I just didn't know if even that would be fast enough. So I put the camera in Aperture Priority, dialed down to 1.4 and took a picture... too slow of a shutter speed. Dialed the ISO from 200 to 400 and took another picture... too slow of a shutter speed. Nervously, I dialed the ISO to 800 and took another picture... too slow a shutter speed.

Now, on my D50 (I just couldn't make myself bring the D3 on this trip), as with most DSLR's, you don't want to use an ISO above 400, but if you have to, go to 800. But that was not fast enough for me last night and I had to take pictures the rest of the night at ISO 1600 which I know will have plenty of noise in them once I'm able to look at them on the computer.

The D3 is such an incredible camera, and is awesome at shooting with high ISO's without any noise, and if I would have had it last night, I could have dialed in an ISO of 2000 without even thinking about it and snapped great shots all night. Instead, I was frustrated with my situation and really didn't even feel like shooting (good thing I am a groomsmen for this weeding and not the photographer!).

I'm not sure what the point to this entry is... I guess I'm telling you to go out and buy a D3 for $5000... or you could get the new D700 with the same chip for $3000

Bokeh Assignment

To get good bokeh, you need a couple of things:

-a good fast lens (one that offers big apertures)
-space between your subject and the background, foreground

In this picture, I was using my 70-200 f/2.8 lens which is great glass and I was zoomed in at 170mm. The background is not only blurred out, but it is a very pleasant look with those little circles of blur that you see.



There was nothing in the foreground because I was zoomed in so far, so there is no bokeh to be had in front of my subjects. I'd love to see some of your shots from this week so comment below with a link to them.

Next week's assignment is:

-- Sunset/Sunrise --

One of the most common photographs is that of a sunrise or sunset, so get out there early or late and see how creative you can get!

Headshot

I did a headshot for a friend of mine today who is trying out for a part at Disney this weekend. As far as a setup, it was very simple. We hung the black background, fired an SB800 through a Lastolite Diffuser from camera right at about 45*, and that was it. With a woman, I probably would have added an extra light to fill in the shadows, but when you are shooting a portrait of a man, you can get away with more shadows because of the shape of our faces. Here's the one he chose:



Jonathan, thanks for letting me work with you on this. Good luck this weekend!

Lighting Your Background

Last week I showed you a picture of Ainsley where I used a white background, but because I did not use a light on the background itself, it actually turned gray in the picture. Here's another look at it:



Last night I took a couple of shots of her with the same exact background, only this time I put a strobe directly behind her facing the white background. This gives us the kind of look you see in many magazine shoots that look very clean and crisp. The way you do this, is to make sure the light on the background is about 2 stops brighter than the light you have on your subject. Here's the keeper from last night:



So the setup for this shot was one SB800 shooting through a Lastolite Tri-Grip Diffuser to camera right and above Ainsley (see the catch light in her eyes). I had a white Westcott reflector hanging beside her to camera left to fill in some of the shadows on that side of her face. Then one more SB800 directly behind her facing the background exactly 2 stops more powerful than the main light. I fired the two strobes with the SU800.

You can just imagine the cover:

Clean Your Sensor

Sorry about not blogging yesterday. I took both cameras in to have the sensors cleaned which led me to blog about having that done. If you have ever started having little spots (dust, hair, etc.) on your pictures that show up in the same spot on every picture, it's time to have your sensor cleaned. My advice is to NOT try to do this on your own. You've invested a lot of money on your DSLR, why not have a professional take care of it for you. You can damage your camera if you attempt this on your own without knowing exactly what you are doing.

Here's a picture from last week's family portrait session, and you can see how filthy my sensor was:



You can see in the sky, water, on their shirts and skin, all the dust and junk that was attached to my sensor, and believe me, it was a PAIN to remove all the stuff in PS. This happens whenever you are changing lenses often. So try to change lenses very quickly. Always have the lens cap off of the new lens before you take the old one off. Also, hold your camera facing down so dust won't fall right into it.

So today I got the cameras back and they look great. Looking forward to getting out and shooting some this weekend.

By the way, if you are in Central Florida, I get my sensors cleaned at:

Southern Photo Technical Service
606 Virginia Dr., Orlando FL 32803

The cost is $45 per camera and usually takes less than 24 hours which is much cheaper and quicker than Ritz or Wolfe Camera.

Blur Assignment

Welcome back to Assignment Wednesday! This week you were to capture motion by using a slow shutter speed so that your moving subject would be blurred out but keeping the rest of the frame in focus. I had thought I would take a picture at night on a busy interstate, but we've all seen those pictures where the headlights look like a long strand of neon. So I got my two favorite models (Brooke & Ainsley) to help me with this picture.

We went to the park and Brooke started swinging Ainsley around. They were moving so fast, my first few tries, I couldn't see them at all in the picture. So I didn't need as slow a shutter speed as I originally thought. Even the keeper was shot at 0.6 of a second and that may have been too fast. But... here it is:



Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Next week's assignment:

---BOKEH---

The parts of your frame in front of and behind your subject that are out of focus. Bokeh is what makes an outdoor portrait look so great to most people. A few different things can affect the quality and the amount of bokeh you will get in a picture:

1. Your aperture (the bigger the aperture, the shallower depth of field you will have)
2. The distance your subject is from the foreground or background (the further away, the more bokeh you will get)
3. Your lens (different lenses have different qualities of bokeh... aka... you get what you pay for)

Traveling Light

Next week we will be going home for Wes and Amy's wedding. We'll get to spend time with lots of family and friends and I will definitely want to take some pictures while I am there. So the question comes... what gear do I take? Obviously when traveling with two kids, you have to travel as light as possible to allow for all the diapers, car seats, toys, food, bottles, etc. Anything you want to bring is much lower on the priority list.

I could just take the Canon G9 like I did in Canada, but it won't give me the low-light performance I will need inside homes, restaurants, etc. where we will be much of the time. I do have the Tenba Sling Bag which is easy to carry, light weight, and will fit enough gear for a short trip like this (which is why I bought it). So I will be taking my D3 and two lenses: the 18-200 VR and the 50mm f/1.4. You already know that I love the 18-200 VR for almost everything because it covers such a wide focal range and with the VR, I gain a couple of stops that I can shoot handheld. However, I will still need the ability to shoot in very dark restaurants and such, so I will throw in the 50mm f/1.4 (it fits in my pocket so it won't take up any room) and probably will shoot with it most of the weekend.

You know what? I think I will also throw in one SB800 just in case I'm feeling flashy! So there's a quick rundown of an easy way to travel light yet have everything you need to be able to get great pictures. Of course, I'll have an extra battery and flash cards for the camera. Don't ever forget those!

DIY Beauty Dish

A Beauty Dish is a light shaping tool that is used in portrait photography and usually you can spend more than $300 to buy one. Many people in the Strobist community have come up with ways to make their own for much cheaper. I built one for just under $30 and it turned out pretty good. If you are interested, here is the thread to the one I followed to build mine:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157604541039854/?search=diy+beauty+dish

This weekend I wanted to try mine out so I set up a little studio in the garage and Ainsley modeled for me for almost three minutes. I used the DIY Beauty Dish above her and camera left and a bare SB800 behind her to camera right for the rim light. Here are the four I kept: