This Image #4 - Karina Firkins

It’s been a while since I posted a This Image post so I figured this one should be next, had a few people ask about it so let’s get in to it.  Also my blog has been quiet for a bit too long so this is pulling double duty.

Shot back in July 2012 in Liverpool’s China Town it was a rainy, windy cold day with intermittent cloud cover and or open sky, after dodging the rain (none of my gear is 100% water proof) we walked over to Liverpool’s China Town.  Prior to this I had shot with flash for most of the shoot so wanted to change that.

As it goes it’s a real simple image/head shot nothing really difficult going on technically here.  Sometimes it’s good to keep things simple so you can give your subject 100% of your attention.

I also tend to come back to simple head shots during most shoots at some point.

Ok Gear and the Numbers… (Let’s get that out of the way)

Canon EOS 60D
Canon EF 85 F1.8 USM @ F2.2
ISO 160
1/500thsec
Available Light (Sky) diffused through a reflector.

Why 1/500th sec?   Well it was windy enough to blow not only the reflector around but us as well at points so a faster shutter speed helps combat subject and camera movement as a result of the wind.

Why the 85mm lens?  It’s my best portrait lens, certainly the best lens in the bag for head shots using my DSLR’s and I only had about 3-4ft of board to work with which meant I needed to compress perspective, otherwise we would start to see the edges of the background.  Chose to shoot at F2.2 for a nice shallow depth of field, its not that the 85 is not sharp at F1.8 because it is but it suffered from CA (Chromatic Aberrations wide open) and F1.8 would not of held both eyes in good enough focus.

We came across this old board, they type that are used to cover windows in old buildings… nice and simple and has some texture.  The light was coming from above (the sky) and whilst it was soft I still wanted to diffuse it some more to make it softer so in comes a 5in1 reflector used as a diffuser and held by Mark Boadey this was held just out of frame and above Karina to keep it nice and close for soft light.

Once the reflector was in place (held above Karina) I dialed in exposure and started shooting, directing and talking to Karina to get what I wanted.  Karina has a natural smile and as great in front of the camera, working this close (as you can do for head shots) it can sometimes be intimidating for your subject but Karina handled this well.

Would I change anything?  Yes... Always (are photographers ever happy with the work they do?)

I am happy with the exposure and framing (I like tight head shots) I like the pose, light and connection with camera... But I wish I had stopped down to F2.8/3.2 and gone to ISO 200/250… F stop to gain more depth of field to keep the left eye in better focus and the ISO jump would have been needed to maintain a fast shutter speed.  Also would like to tweak colour a tad but my Lightroom Catalogs are being worked on at the moment… colour is not far off but a slight tweak is needed to my eye (it was processed just before I purchased my monitor calibrator).

Looking back at his makes me want to grab my 5D2 and the 85 and go shoot some natural light portraits/headshots.  Anyone need some portraits?

Thanks

Rick

This Image #3 - Bethany Cammack - Salford Quays

Time for the third post in this series. 

The image above was made on location at Salford Quays in Manchester UK in under 5 minuets.  Not trying to say hey look at how quick I can shoot but more that its down to knowing the fundamentals and knowing your gear (Camera, Lens, Lights, Modifiers) sure its not the most interesting stuff at times but you have to do the home work.

I was at a local meetup of photographers run by Welshot Photographic Academy and the event was covering the basic use of off camera flash, since im good with that kind of stuff I let others who were new to it shoot and I grabbed this frame at the end of the evening. These evenings are a good social meet up as well :)

Ok Gear Stuff.... 

Canon 60D
Canon EF 35 F2
Canon 430EX II speedlite
Opteka 1/4 Grid
8ft Lightstand
F5.6, ISO400, 1/15th sec, 1/4 Flash Power ish.

By the time I started to shoot the sun had gone in and the sky was getting darker and darker and that blue colour you see at dusk.  

I decided to switch the camera to tungsten to make the sky turn a deeper blue but that makes the light from the 430EX II a really cold (Blue) in colour temperature which is well frankly not the look either I nor Bethany would like for skin tones ,so I had to correct that problem by using a Full CTO (Colour Temperature Orange) gel to convert the flash from its normal daylight (5500k) temperature to tungsten (3200k) so it matched the white balance in camera.  But wait could you not change it in RAW later?  Whilst its true you can change white balance in RAW post production you can't change 2 light sources and colour temperatures with out using layers and masks in photoshop ... nope no thanks not if it can be done in camera and I have better things to be doing than masking hair and clothes just because I was lazy at camera.  Do what you can in camera with light.

The light stand was camera left about 5ft away with the flash around 1/4 power I say around based off distance and the exposure  F5.6 , ISO400, 1/15th sec and I tend not to note flash power down.  Why these settings?

I wanted a good depth of field which F5.6 gave me but thats pretty closed down, now the speedlite has enough power to shoot at ISO 100 would of needed 1/1 (full power) but my shutter speed would of been 1/4th sec at that ISO which is motion blurr neighborhood.. I can hand hold my 35 on the 60D down to around 1/10th sec but 1/4th is pushing it.  This meant an ISO jump which means flash power can come down as it has to work less hard.

Why the 1/4 Grid?  Its the widest pattern of grid I have and since this was a full length portrait I need that spread to limit the light fall off and to stop her feet going too dark.  I also placed the light a fair distance away to help with this (think inverse square law). 

You may have noted I am shooting a portrait with a 35mm wide angle lens, you will probably hear this is bad and don't do it; I say its not as simple as that and to go try it, make your own decisions, make your own mistakes and figure it out.

Now with this being a wide angle lens and I was shooting full length I took a knee to get the camera shooting position level with Bethanys stomach and posed her to have her lean forward at the shoulders slightly, the reason for this is two fold.. .one the actual pose and two to limit any distortion caused by working close with a wide lens... notice I said working close with wide lens, it's not the lens fault when talking distortion its the working distance.  You need to consider perspective (camera and lens) and working distance.

The image was composed around that focal length and the elements it brought in the the field of view, the buildings, railings and the water in the quay along with the reflections of the water way lights that frame the bottom half of Bethany, that was intentional and you only see them as clear as that from a lower shooting position.  

When ever I am shooting I always try to be careful with composition , think it through and select the right tools for the frame I see. Its rare I crop in post simply because the sensor is my canvas and frankly today's high resolution cameras are not an invite to be a lazy fix it later photographer.

I selected this frame/image because I like the pose and expression and the reflections in the water frame her well and its lit with dramatic had light (love it).. but if I was to shoot it again I would of added a second light to act as a slight fill to lift exposure on the bottom of the frame a little.. just a bit.

It's an interesting process writing these posts, I enjoy sharing the images and information but the biggest take away for me is I learn each time I break down an image and evaluate it. 

Thanks

Rick

Freddies Got Something to Say & This Image blog posts..

This is Freddie the son of a client of mine, I have photographed him over the last 2 years and it’s been great to see him grow. This was taken at a recent studio shoot… little Freddie is now 2 years old…Time Flies.

I have a blog post coming for that shoot soon, for now I want to talk to you about a recent blog post series I have started called This Image, both I and Freddie want your input on those posts :) 

Ok Ok Joking aside..

I recently posted #2 in this series (you can find #1 here) and thought I would open it up to my readers.  Looking ahead I can see these posts becoming more detailed (depending on the image in question) and if I can remember to shoot lighting set up shots.. Seriously I always forget those.  Now what I would like you to do is let me know what images to post about next.  If the images is in my galleries then let me know which one and which image number (see number navigation in galleries), alternatively if its an image I have posted on Flickr, 500px or G+ then send me a link to that image asking for a This Image blog post. 

Now if you have a specific questions about the image then let me know and I will cover them in the post.  You can let me know via email, Twitter or G+ up to you.

I covered why I was writing these posts in #1 but to summarise, it’s to give back to the Photography community and hopefully develop some interesting content for the blog, that and If these posts help just one person then great.. Job done.

So let me know which image will be #3

Rick

This Image #2 - Bethany & Back Lighting

This is image #2 in this blog series I am writing.  I explained the reason for this series in the first one but I want to add that this is my way of hopefully adding to good content online, some meat to the bones of internet photography that seems filled with a whole lot of quick fix bullet point lists and crap.

The image was made in a studio based in Liverpool, it was a different studio place than I was use to, and it’s an old house/shop.  The studios name is Studio House, the couple that run it have some interesting ideas but allot of work needs doing.. That said you can still make images in that space.  Not sure if it’s still running, can’t find a site for it.

For 80% of the shoot I shot natural light so the speedlites stayed in the bag.. Mostly.

Ok Gear Talk …

Canon 5D2

Canon EF 85 F1.8 USM @F4

1/800th sec

ISO 6400 

Location: Studio House – In front of a window.

IS 6400 are you mad?  Not really.  Take look at the image, its high key and everything is push over to the right of the histogram.  Believe me noise is not a problem when shooting this, sure you get some colour noise but luminance noise is pretty much none existent.

The light source was a window, that’s it no flash just window light.  Now you can do this with a white or grey wall and use flash to blow it white but flash has a different feel than natural light and chances are with speedlites your flash might just have too good a duration to get any sense of motion.

I had Bethany stand in front of the window; the day was semi over cast so  not a whole ton of light in camera speak. 

I knew I wanted F4 – 5.6 with the 85 on a full frame camera to give me enough Depth of Field to work with,  I also wanted 500th or faster on my shutter speed and that meant ISO 6400… ok so be it.  Frankly I don’t care about noise generally and here’s why… if the photograph is so boring that all you see is the noise then it’s not a good photograph to begin with it be ISO 100 or Gabillion its going to be a snooze fest.

Yeah I could of brought the ISO down some to 4000 to get 1/500th but 6400 was good to my eyes.

Once I had exposure set I asked Bethany to move and dance a little, move her head left to right to get the hair flicking. I will sometimes demonstrate myself which is funny as hell… have you seen me try to dance :)

One great thing about not shooting flash is I could shoot as fast as my shutter finger would let me as I’m not waiting on recycle times, hell I could motor drive if I wanted.

When shooting back lit subjects your sky, windows, background are going to highlight heaven.. by by gone.. Nothing to see here. By the way that’s fine. 

Their seems to be this rule that blown highlights are bad.. Yeah sure on skin but windows nope, remember the star of the shot is your subject.. That person you have in front of the lens, not the windows.

The bulk of the light is coming from behind, some will rattle around in the room depending on the environment your in but mostly it’s all from behind, this mean you need to open up exposure 3 or so stops as far as the background is concerned, this will give you your exposure on your subject other wise they are a silhouette or dark on your subject.

One thing you will notice is the edge of the shoulders and arms start to bleed in to the background, personally I don’t mind this in fact it can help thin a subject (not that Bethany needed this).

I chose this frame because I like the hair motion and the fact we can see her smiling and see part of her left eye through the hair, I also like the hand coming up to the mouth.  Shot a few in the sequence and this frame felt right.

Ok who’s clicked that this can be done anywhere, don’t need a studio just a windows and enough available light to work with.  Beyond that you can use flash.

Go try it, its great.  As much as I like dramatic light I do still have a soft spot for back lighting.

Rick