#HrdLight – Karina

You may have read my previous post about starting a new project #HrdLight well I wanted to hit the ground running with this.  I had a shoot on location yesterday in Liverpool (More on this shoot later) and while I was keeping the project in mind I wanted to get the shots the subject wanted in the bag first.. remember when working with a subject on location (model, client, what ever) its a collaboration always.. your working as a team.

As it turns out the conditions (25mph winds) kind of dictated the type of light that could be used, that type of light was unmodified bare.. #HrdLight   .. If I had tried to used a softbox or umbrella it would of been game over (Wind 1 , Modifier 0).  So to kick start this project off here is my first #Hrdlight frame and incidentally one of the first real frames from my new Camera.

One more thing to say… Karina you were an absolute star and coped with the difficult conditions amazingly.. Thank You. 

FYI - If you or you known somebody would like to be photographed (18 Years or older) as part of this project then you can email me here  Please use "#HrdLight" in the email subject. I am only looking for people in and around  Stockport, Manchester and Liverpool (Basically local).

If you have any questions about this project if you are considering contacting me about being photographed for it let me know. 

Thank You

Rick

Project Announcement: #HrdLight (Hard Light)

Just a quick blog post  about a new project I am starting.  Its a personal project/personal work…but may include work from client shoots also.

Some of you may of guessed what the project is from the title #HrdLight – It’s a portrait project based on using and experimenting with hard light.. no large softboxes, umbrellas in fact no soft anything… just hard light.  The example above is just that an example, I want to shoot all new work for this project.

Hard Light (#HrdLight) can come from using strobe, mid day sun, torches… the list goes on.. its all about the size of the light in relation to the size of your subject and also the working distance as working far away can make a large light source hard (Think Sun).  

What is hard light? - Well its Hard/Harsh Light... you will get shadows and a very hard lines between hightlight & shadow (Light and darker) areas of an image, to what degree depends on how its used.

Why hard light?  Well why not -  no seriously I love it..and like drama and shadows so want to experiment and grow my use of hard light,  will it work for every subject..may be.. maybe not depends on how you use it but it will be fun to find out.

This will be an on-going project and not a 365 picture a day project.. I am planning to shoot models, friends, family, strangers (read anyone I can get in front of the camera) for this.  

Whilst its a project based on using #HrdLight I will still be working with my subjects to make the images, getting to know them and working to find a frame that suits them as well... so there is more to this than a project based around a way of using light, as always with portrait work you have a subject to work with / understand. 

Images will be blogged on this site and sent out on twitter with the #HrdLight and I will also add them to my 500px account until the project is complete and can be added to a gallery / page on this site.

I’m shooting tomorrow no wait today (crap its 2:15am) so I’m hoping to get the first image for the project. 

FYI - If you or you known somebody would like to be photographed (18 Years or older) as part of this project then you can email me here  Please use "#HrdLight" in the email subject. I am only looking for people in and around  Stockport, Manchester and Liverpool (Basically local). 

If you have any questions about this project if you are considering contacting me about being photographed for it let me know. 

Thank You

Rick

A Portrait Of: A Gun Smith

During a recent visit by my Dad to the UK I had an unexpected opportunity to photograph a Gun Smith in his workshop, now in full transparency the Gun Smith is a relative which can makes things a little easier (not always) on an ad-hoc shoot.

I just about to leave to take Dad shopping and was asked If I would photograph David in his workshop…not one to pass up a challenge I said yes.

Upon walking in to the workshop I was greeted by a mix of tungsten desk lamps, fluorescent tube lights.. you know those crappy kind found in most offices and schools and some natural (overcast) window light.  Quite the mix of colour temperatures to deal with.  The space was also small/tight due to the equipment, lathes & tools around.. so wide lens it is then.

Ok so I have 10 minuets to take no Make an environmental portrait under mixed lighting conditions and all I have with me in my smaller bag is…

Canon 500D
Canon 18-55 IS Kit Lens
Canon 50mm F1.8
Canon 430EX II Speedlite – I always carry a speedlite
TTL Cord

No Light stand, no modifiers, no wireless triggers, no tripod – I was traveling light.

My first thought as David set a rifle on the work bench was focal length.. I needed something wide, the 50mm is to tight a field of view on a crop sensor for this space so its got to be the 18-55 somewhere around the 24mm mark.  Next though was oh crap I have a shit storm of different colour temperatures to deal with already and I'm about to add another.. flash, as you can see in the shot above we already have Overcast Day light (not enough to work with alone), Tungsten, Fluorescent and the flash I was about to add matches none of them exactly.

One way to deal with this problem would be to gel the flash ... that and a slight problem the gel packs are sitting in my main bag at home about 30 minuets away. Ok only thing I can do is find a white balance that gets me close.. flash white balance would of made things too warm, tungsten.. nope not going to cut it flash will go cold as would the day light same for fluorescent. So AWB it is, I rarely shoot AWB as I prefer the consistency of locking to a particular white balance but at times it can save the day as it will let the camera do the heavy lifting for me. Using AWB has warmed the flash up a little and balanced out the lighting better than locking the camera into a set white balance.

After finding my composition by dropping low I took an ambient light reading F6.3, ISO800, 1/60th sec .. ok looks good, windows has blown out but that's not important , time to bring in the flash, attached via a 1.5m TTL cord I set the speedlite to ETTL (yes i do sometime use TTL) set the flash head zoom to 24mm to cover the scene handed to to my VAL (Voice Activated Light stand AKA Dad)  and shot the first frame. Always let your subject know you just getting dial in.

First frame, ambient looks ok and I'm happy enough with what AWB is doing but I can drop the ISO  2 stops from 800 to 200 taking my shutter speed from 1/60thsec to 1/15th sec – Why?  It will give me a cleaner file and  I nor my subject are moving, how ever as always dropping down to a slower shutter speed I think got to keep things steady ( I did in the end bump back to ISO400 for a 1/30th sec shutter speed). Looking at this first frame of 3 made the flash exposure is off (+1/3rd Flash EV needed) and the flash is too far off the side so I directed the VAL Dad to bring the flash round a little and took the second frame.

Second frame is looking better exposed I'm happy with the flash exposure and the ambient also  the move of the desk lamp far right has provided a nice rim light on the rifle.  Problem is composition needs shifting a little and the flash is too side lit and too low casting a distracting shadow on the window behind David and to the right of the lamp.

For the final shot I brought the light further round and higher to drop a shadow under the chin and to deal with the shadows on the window panels which can be seen in the final shot below, you can see David’s shadow is now gone (its behind him) and the lamp shadow is now less distracting.  You can still tell this was lit with bare flash (hard light) if you look at the shadows on the apron, rifle strap and the handle of the vice.. also the highlights on he front of the rifle give the cooler temperature of the flash away.  I did not direct David to much as he fell in to this pose and it looked right, confortable for him the only thing I did was direct his chin/head position to avoid loosing light in the eyes and reflections in the glasses.

Overall I am happy with the final image as were David and my Dad, could it be improved. yes with additional gear but that takes time and a stronger back to carry all that crap around, remember it not the amount of gear or tools you have.. its what you do with them that ultimately matters.

Now I will be going back to shoot some more environmental portraits and details shots in he new year and yes I will take more gear with me (modifiers, lights, Running Manual ) but only because I know what they will do for me and the results they will give me, you can do allot with bare flash but its never a soft light and its indiscriminate to what it hits. I’m looking forward to seeing the results from the new year.

Rick

C3 Stockport 120:20 Challenge & Castleton Photowalk

The other weekend I attended a group photo walk at Castleton and Pevreil Castle which was run by C3 Stockport.  A good day out and luckily the weather held up.  Heads up this is going to be a long post,

One part of this photo walk was going to be dedicated to a 120:20 challenge, the rules being that you have 120 minuets to take no more than 20 photographs, no deletions but you can use up one of the 20 shots to retake an image (say if you blew exposure). It was an interesting challenge to complete and is one of many you can do yourself.

We also walked around Peveril Castle before the challenge which gave everyone a chance to warm up before the 120:20 challenge which was run in the town centre.  Below are my shots from Peveril Castle and the 120:20 challenge.

First up the images from the walk around Peveril Castle. You will probably notice I had a thing for black and white on that day.

I won’t be uploading these to flickr until I have renewed the membership (the free account limits your sets and collections).

#1 (Model of Peveril Castle)

#2 (Climb up to the Castle)

#3 (Lisa shooting the Castle on the Climb up)

#4

#5 (Grass and Dew)

#6 (Black & White – 1:1 Crop of another Grass and Dew shot)

#7 (Lisa – Shooting a landscape)

#8 (Part of the Castle Wall)

#9 (Part of the Castle wall and an old gate)

#10 Spiral staircase in to the Castle remains,  not an original feature of course)

#11 (Shot through the window grates making a frame within a frame)

#12

#13 (Looking down from the top of the spiral staircase)

#14

#15 – Yup I know about the leaves and branches sticking in the right of the frame, but this was the composition I wanted for the elements with in the landscape and the people.  I may try to remove the leaves and branches in post at some point.

#16 (Similar to 15 but included more washed out sky and shifted to get rid of the branches, Personally I prefer number 15 and will even more if I can remove the branches and leaves

#17 (Mark shooting the Canon EF 100mm F2.8 L IS Macro on his 7D)

#18 Naomi & I had a bit of fun at the end of the day, she ran around in circles whilst I tried to track her with the camera – 500D  24-105 F4L , these few frames are the best ones out of about 8 (got a bit too close for minimum focus distance)

I would also like to thank Naomi for being a model for me during the 120:20 challenge, speaking of which here are the images from that challenge.

Below are the images (Top = SOOC  Bottom = My Edit)  I am including the edited versions to illustrate a few things that shooting RAW allows. The only images SOOC that had post work are the black and white ones, this is due to them popping back to colour in Lightroom even though they were shot B&W in camera (RAW only captures the RAW Colour Data) and unlike Canon’s DPP the Adobe Lightroom does not pay attention to the Picture styles (at least the way I have it set up).

120:20

#1 

Shooting in to light can cause loss of contrast, I expected this especially with the 18-55 kit lens, its not great at this.

Only some small tweaks in post to bring back some contrast in my edit.

#2

Long exposure of the stream/water.  Achived using a very small aperture f/36 on the 18-55 as this lens will stop down more than the others in my set. ISO100  1/2” got me this result out of camera.

Slight tweaks in post and adjust white balance as AWB made it a bit cool.

#3

Should of upped the ISO to get a faster shutter speed here or opened up the aperture a little. 

Not allot done in post in my edit. Just my own B & W conversion process and contrast tweaks.

#4

Landscape with human interest for this one.

+ 1/3rd Exposure in post as I was a little off with my compensation in camera.

#5

Place marker to show the location.  On a side note always photography major signs or landmarks when you visit places as I will help to complete a set of images.

Not allot done here in my Edit.

#6

Ships wheel.

Only a few slight adjustments here, namely contrast and clarity.

#7

Naomi – I asked here to pose for me and she started winking both eyes one after another   This is the shot I got. Naomi is quite the character, thanks for your help on the Day Naomi. Exposure was dialled in in Manual mode by using spot metering and metering of the cheek then adding +0.3 EV to get the right exposure before shooting.

Just a few basic tweaks to contrast and white balance (I always adjust white balance for portraits in post)

#8

#9

Wow fluffed this one.

I much prefer this version.

#10

Man again!  Shows what happens if you rush things, exposure is fine but framing sucks.  Whoops

Much better. Mental note watch the horizons and edges!

#11

That Sigma 10-20 ultra wide is fun. FYI I go nuts with that lens over the next few images.

Just a few tweaks for my edit.

#12 (Portraits with an Ultra Wide – Yup)

Now I would not normally shoot a portrait with this wide of a lens, this close… but some times its fun to play around.  Thanks again Naomi.

#13

#14

Whoops, should of dialled in about  – 2 ev.  Cameras meter has tried to get the primarily dark parts of this image (camera, jacket) and make them 18% grey  which = over exposed.

This is why I shoot RAW. A jpg would of been lost as the data is simply lost. RAW allows you to recover images in post, but Always try to get it in Camera.

#15
 

I was a little annoyed I blew that last one I shot a similar image again, but this time shifted right to crop the sign out in camera. Oh and this time dial in –1.7 EV

My edit.  Not allot done.

#16

#17 (I like the rim light on the subject walking away)

Street scene. In this SOOC shot you can see the guy just coming in to frame on the right, I missed this as I am a right eye shooter, even though my left eye was open.. that and the 500D does not have 100% VF.

Slight Crop and my own black & white treatment for the edit.

#18

Quite like this crop in my edit. Not possible in camera.

#19

Group shot of Mark, Naomi & Lisa. I said say Cheese . which prompted mark to start to open his coat which would of revealed a Say Cheese T Shirt which is available over at www.newtophoto.com

#20

Last shot of the 120:20 is a portrait of Naomi and her mum Lisa.  I decided to use the barrel zoom technique to create this effect in camera.  If anything the zoom on this is a bit OTT but all good fun.

All in all a good day out shooting, and it made a nice change from shooting in studio or working with models/lights.  I look forward to next years.  As you can see from the images posted from the 120:20 challenge I don't do allot to my images in post beyond adjusting white balance, contrast and sharpening (with the exception of black & white conversions).  I rarely crop unless its needed to make the final envisioned result, I’m a get in in camera shooter.

My take away from this day out and challenge is not only is it fun I can open your eyes to other things by going out and shooting something you don’t normally shoot, those who follow my work online know that I am primarily a portrait photographer and use off camera lighting allot.. but I am aware shooting other subjects can also help improve portrait work by looking at shape, patterns, different compositions and colours all of which you will get by going out and shooting different subject matters. Also its good to break away an get out of your comfort zone.

Thank you Lisa & C3 for a great day out shooting.

Rick