On the Mountain

Sometimes I like to stray from people photography and get some landscapes. This image is from my place here in Palestine.  We call it the mountain, but its really just a large hill.  This shot is well after sundown and the start of what is called the blue hour. The sky is a gorgeous blue and with longer shutter speeds, it captures the saturated colors well.

It was nice to just go out and be quiet for a little while, which I think everyone needs that from time to time.  I did have a photographer friend shooting there also,  and it was great just talking shop and hanging out.  Well after dark we were experimenting with 20 to 30 second exposures, but we couldn’t feel our fingers anymore.  So we try that again when it’s a little warmer, and I’ll post the results.

Hiding!

Hiding

This image is truly a keeper! The little girl was pretty shy around the camera,  so it was,  “get ‘em when you can” on this session.  But actually, this probably wouldn’t have turned out so nice if you tried to stage it. The real expressions are always better, you just have to be ready for them. Definitely some lessons learned. Have camera ready! Watch the subject closely! Shoot fast!

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Light Bounce

For this shot, I used one Vivitar 85H flash pointed toward the ceiling of the room.  The light bounces off the white ceiling and fills the room with great soft wrapping light. If I had tried to direct the flash onto the model, any shadows would be harsh, deep and dark.

This method works well when the desired effect matches the type of shot you are looking to make.  But may be too soft for something, for example,  an “industrial” feel that may need more harsh, direct light. It is all up to you and the cool thing is, you can try several ways if you have the time and the model’s patience. Also notice the bracelets- no hard reflections from flash! These large specular high lights (can be seen better in bigger image , of course) keep the attention on the model- not drawing the eye to bright, sparkly things at her wrist.

This shot in color looks good, but looked better black and white. After studying the image for a while in black and white, I decided the model’s  hair needed some color to it and that should also show off the slight high lights in the hair.  I applied a very light brown color that is close to her hair color. The color wash gives the shot a different “twist” that the color or straight black and white did not achieve for me.

A Long Time Ago! (or it seems like it anyway)

Model- Betty Bourdeaux

I have been looking through archived images from when I first started shooting. I think any photographer should do that every so often, to see progression, mistakes, what was right, what was wrong and hey-it’s cool to remember “old times”!

This shot of Betty Bourdeaux was taken on 12/15/07 -just shy of 2 years ago. She was the 3rd shoot I’d ever done! I was pretty nervous since I hadn’t done that many shoots and she was somewhat more experienced than I was.  But the shoot went well and we had a great time.

Since then I have shot more than 30 models and some of them numerous times. You get in a groove- but don’t let that groove turn into a rut!  My best advice to new photogs? Study, learn, shoot…then repeat!

If you are a new photographer-plan ahead! Think of everything – the details-like lighting, f/stops, shutter speeds, ISO and white balance settings-then go over it again. Relax and direct the model, but also let her offer up ideas on poses and looks.  Above all-have fun. If your new,  it’s not “do or die” like if you were being paid $10,000 for the shoot by a large agency.

Keep shooting!!!

Composites

Composites allow us to change the location of a shoot as well as many other cool effects.  The key is making the images merge in a similar fashion-like exposure levels, lighting directions, saturation, focus and so forth.

This is the original image that we shot downtown with very little post work done. I wanted to make the setting Amanda was in, a little more vibrant- with a little more life in the image.  The cool thing is, that we shot this natural light and as you can see, it was pretty overcast so the light was pretty unidirectional-like a big overhead soft box.

 

This is the final image.  The store front was a random shot I took at Olympic Park in Atlanta, while playing with a polarizing filter. But for the image for our model Amanda, it makes a more believable setting for her using her cell phone while shopping or whatnot. The lighting was real close from that day to the day we shot her in Palestine-over 500 miles away and over a year later!

 

Downtown Girl

Amanda and I shot a few minutes downtown the other day. The light was perfect-really overcast…in essence a gigantic soft box.  I shot natural light because my portable flash was on the blink when we arrived. I would have liked to give her just a slight boost of light in her face and also I then could have lowered the ISO a bit. But they turned out good. Nice soft light and the colors come out well.

Stylin’ and Profilin’

I thought this was a cool profile shot of Naomi Noelle.  I used a 10 degree grid on an AB800 camera left and made her star into it! (how mean, huh?)  This grid really controls the spill of light but still has hard shadows since it doesn’t diffuse the light.  It makes hard shadows, that  I think,  looks pretty cool. The hat makes the shot also.

The Wet Look

I know,  I know…it’s been a while since I have posted. But here is what has been happening-I have slowed down on shooting lately to play catch up on other things around the house-plus…just been plain tired! But hopefully things will pick up soon.

Naomi Noelle is a local model I shot with the other day and when we started talking about shooting, we both wanted some type of water shot.  I have never done shots like that so…he we go!

I set up a vinyl background in the backyard to make sure the background was black, and that there was something more than grass for her to stand on. Next  I tried several variations of water nozzles on hoses to get the rain I wanted. I finally bought two plant watering type nozzles that produced a shower type of flow. I used PVC to make a small frame over where she would stand and then flipped the nozzles up.

I used a cross lighting set up on this one-which was a little tricky because I would get lens flare if I wasn’t in the “right” spot for the shot. I used a 10 degree grid in the back light that was towards the camera (otherwise the flare was bad anywhere I stood for the shot). On the strobe I used to light Naomi, I used a short snoot to control the light spill and spotted on Naomi.

The back light is a rim type light that also “freezes” the water drops. The front light does some freezing action too, but mainly lights Naomi.

This shot definitely had to be done in the summer months as she was cold once the water flowed good. Plenty of cool shots and ideas could come form shooting 3 or 4 hours like this but- there is always another time!

It was fun and interesting to get shots that I have never tried before.  It’s always about “something new”! That is how you learn!

Black Widow Shoot Lighting

I love this shot of Amanda in the Black Widow series we did a week ago.  Mainly because of the lighting-of course she is beautiful,   but her pose and expression just “pops” .

This shot was in an alley in downtown Palestine, Texas.  So room was at a mininum. The distance between the camera and her was no more than about 10 feet.  I had brought my Alien Bees 800s (2) and used a 5 foot softbox camera left and a 47 inch octabank camera right. You can see this by looking closely at the catch lights in her eyes. Usually it is a no no to have two catch lights in the eye, but I don’t think it hurts this image.  They are not the same size or shape and I think it looks pretty good. My opinion though.

I was on location with no power available, so I was using the Vagabond II battery system for both lights. That was the second time I have used it and it was flawless. We shot for almost 2 hours and it never slowed down.  I’m pretty happy with the battery and lighting set up I have.

Ok – you can see the catch lights, and I have told you I brought 2 lights-where is the cool hairlight coming from? The super cheap big light in the sky! The sun was just perfect the day we shot and we just moved Amanda around so it would act as a hair light.  It makes the image mor “finished” looking to me. The sunlight shows the texture of her hair and adds highlights that offset all the dark colors. I cant wait to see this shot printed at about 16×20.  It will rock!