The Sunny 16 Rule:

• In bright sunlight, set the lens opening to f/16 and the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO.

With a digital camera, you may never need to use the manual mode; however, if you really want to take control of your DLSR, manual mode is the best way to take that control. To use the “sunny 16 rule”, you’ll need a sunny day. The following is a table that should give you a better idea of how ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed all work in conjunction for a good exposure:

Another way to move toward using your camera in manual mode is to note settings of photos that you are taking and the conditions in which you took them.

Technorati Tags: exposure, DLSR, manual mode, shutter speed, f-stop, sunny 16, light, camera, photo, photography

I finally have made headway on getting my photo studio space in order. Ultimately, I would love to have more space - lots of space…but alas, it is not to be so at this time. However, as in all design situations, there are limitations, constraints, and parameters that have to be worked within. That is always the challenge and challenges are to be met head on.  In my case, I am using the “bonus” room of the house which had been built into the lines of the roof structure, so there are diagonal wall sections running from the vertical to the horizontal ceiling.

I have the tabletop setup for a closeup shot here. I am using one Lowell Ego light and a 300ws Alien Bees strobe head fitted with a snoot for the shot.  I have the softbox fitted with a 600ws Alien Bees strobe head with counterbalance arm attached to make the overall scene shot (above).

Here is the final shot using this setup:

Here are a few points on small venue concert photography.  Here is the gear that I used:

• Nikon D70 w/50mm f/1.8 Nikon lens
• Nikon D80 w/70-200mm f/2.0 lens
• Domke F-2 camera bag (olive)
• Charged batteries in camera, extra in bag
• Extra memory cards (unless you have a large one - obviously we all have various gear and budgets)

Camera settings:

• 1600 ISO
• 1/60th second  - f/8 - set your camera to manual you can move the speed/aperture up and down as needed
• Single spot exposure setting - don’t use matrix it will throw things off
• Auto-focus on continuous - because the band is on the move

NOTES:

• Get close and move around
• Take lots of photos - many do not turn out and you don’t have time to check them on site

• Switch between the two camera/lenses
• Stay on the band and continue to look at them through the viewfinder
  • Look for group interaction
  • Look for expressions
  • Wait for exciting “build-ups” and then take the shots
• The reason that I mentioned the bag was because it does not raise any attention to itself. The shoulder strap allows you to sling it onver your shoulder and do whatever you need to do. The flap can be clipped op at will to allow you to easily switch cameras.

In my case in this shoot, the lights did not vary a great deal. The lighting stayed low and there were few times the band was well lit. I had to wait for the occasional times when the lights “were up”. In my case this was rare.

Post Processing:

• Backup everything to disc right off the bat
•  Mark all of your shots with stars (I use Adobe Bridge).
• Select all of the 3-4 stars or more shots
• You’ll most probably need to run filters to reduce the noise
  • Noise -> Reduce Noise
  • I set my strength at 10, reduce color noise 100%, sharpen details 15%, and set the preserve details based on the image

These are not hard rules, just the ones that I used; however, you WILL need to reduce the noise level.  I do not own Noise Ninja, and you may have this filter/software. I have heard it works very well.  Since these images will end up online, it is not that critical.  Should you make prints, you’ll have to take extra special care as the noise will be much more apparent at full size.

On a final note, using a flash unit won’t work very well in this setting. First of all, if you take a lot of shots, which you should, the flash will drive everyone (in and out of the band) crazy and you will be irritating. Secondly, flash lit shots don’t give the look that you want, which is a natural, “what you really see” look to the images.

Technorati Tags: concert, photography, photos, small venue, music, night, images, imagery, photoshop, reduce noise

• Get to the location early - If you haven’t already scouted the wedding location, the dressing and the reception areas, this is a must. Coming in cold a short while before the ceremony is a recipe for disaster.
• Get to know the wedding party as much as you can beforehand - The more your know the wedding party, the more at ease they will be with you and the closer and more comfortable you’ll be with them. Great photos will have a lot to do with how at ease they are with you. It’s nice to be called by your name, instead of “the photographer”.
• You are the photographer - Don’t forget this important fact. Your job is paramount. The ceremony and the reception is for the moment, the images you provide may have to last for more than a lifetime. You are not only creating nice “works of art” for the bride, you are also documenting history for the family. Do your dead level best job at carrying out this important project. You don’t have to be pushy or bossy. Everyone already knows that your job is critical and they want you to succeed.  Your aittitude and demeanor has a directr impact on the subjects of your photos. 
• You must have a flash - Churches can be well lighted and churches can be almost dark. Most of them are relatively dark.  You need a flash and it should be off-camera. 
• You need a powerful flash with a great refresh rate - The majority of church sanctuaries are large. This necessitates a powerful flash. Shooting in RAW may allow you to increase the exposure. However, there is a point of diminishing returns where noise creeps into the image and lots of it. Increasing the ISO helps some; however, the noise factor again becomes apparent.  The refresh rate of the flash has a large bearing on whether you get all of the shots you want or one of the shots that you want. It is difficult to get the exact one you want unless you have lightning reflexes and that is not always as easy as it sounds.
• A tripod is nice and even necessary, but don’t depend on it as a way to overcome darkness in a dimly lit church - Several factors work against the use of a tripod to take sharp shots. Young children are constantly on the move. People blink, move their hands, etc.  A flash and a tripod make a good combination.
• Take plenty of the same posed shot of groups - Eyes close, hands raise to swipe hair or scratch an itch. People are distracted. Make sure you get their attention once you have them in position for the shot. Taking these extra shots of the same pose will increase the odds of having one very good shot of the group. The larger the group, the greater the odds that something will be out of kilter.
• Pay attention to details - Half open zippers, flipped collars, hair out of place, and a thousand other little details can detract from the finished photo. Take the time to notice each individual.  Learn about posing and balance the group. Turn some people, have some stand on the next highest step, and so on. As you pose them, look for that special balance that is needed for a pleasing picture.
• Look for the emotional outbreaks (the good kind) - they only last a few seconds - A hug, a smile, a kiss, a pat on the back can all add human interest to an otherwise hum-drum image. Engage your subjects. Use humor to get them going, even being a little silly can get them rolling. After all, most of the time, your subjects are nervous, tense, or stiff.  They are so absorbed in the moment that they are having difficulty relaxing. A relaxed person makes a much better subject than a stiff or nervous one. I use things like “You’re all movie stars…smiles all around” (and I wave my hand like and Italian chef) or “OK…more fake grins everybody, act like you really care about all of this” (and then I look up and cross my eyes at them or make a funny face).  Anything that is somewhat goofy seems to lighten up an otherwise self-conscious group. Tell them how wonderful they look and the smiles will surface.  Don’t forget that these are people too and they like and dislike many of the same things that you do.

• Keep a mental list of locations that you can use for candid shots  - This comes in  handy once the groom and the bride are available for those special shots of just the two of them.  Find out all you can about how the ceremony is going to process and proceed. This is vital as you have to be where the action is. If you are using limited flash power, find out ahead of time where the subject need to be in the center aisle before you shoot. Also, if your flash has to take a second or two to refresh, make sure you get an idea on timing your shots. You may only get one or two shots of each group that processes down the aisle. You might even start a “clip” book or folder that contains photos that you particularly like. You can attempt to use the same style or even embellish it with your own version to create interesting images. Remember, there is nothing new under the sun. Most of the fantastic photo that you see today were inspired by other great photos.

• Ignore anyone taking snapshots and/or video - Again, you are the photographer.  If someone is holding a video camera and you attempt to avoud their line of sight, your will lose some of your flexibility when it comes to moving around the altar area. - I strongly suggest that you stay on the groom’s side of the  sanctuary so the lion’s share of shots are of the bride. If you are on the groom’s side you will have the bride’s face in view. After all, she is the one that wants the pictures. You can always move over and get shots of the groom. The bride comes first.

• Don’t be afraid to move into the middle of the aisle at important portions of the ceremony to get a shot of both the bride and groom in a more centered, symetrical shot. Even though many of your shots will be from one side of the altar or the other, you still need some of those head on altar shots.

• You’ll need to move in as close as you can when the ring exchange occurs - The suggested minimum distance from the couple is ten feet. Even that may seem a bit close. However, if you want to actually get the rings in a photo, you’ll need to move in fairly close.

• Keep a loose eye on the family members during the ceremony - At important points along the ceremony many of the family members will beam and maybe even tear up during these times. When the minister pronounces the bride and groom as man and wife, when they are called Mr. and Mrs., and so on, these are the times when the family lights up with emotion. It may be big smiles, it may be tears. Regardless of what the emotion brings, it is usually a great shot for you to capture. Don’t forget kids the whole time, they seem to be doing all kinds of funny things that you can get shots of.

Light Angle
The angle of light should be taken into consideration when you need to create a specific effect. Shadows can be very powerful when cast over half of a person’s face. When you decide the angle you want to have the light coming from you are also deciding where the shadows will be cast. The angle of light can show texture when coming from the side because the shadows create the effect of more depth. It can add detail and mystery to a person’s face if you choose to keep half of their face in the shadows.
 

Effect of Light Rays
The effect of rays of light indoors and outdoors can be very spectacular. A brilliant part of some great photographs is the ability to actually see rays of light in a photo. Whether it is in the setting of a brilliant sunset, light pouring through a window or light from artificial lights almost all kinds have the potential to look amazing. Usually the only way to obtain something like this is a narrow aperture (high f/stop) and a very slow shutter speed. I have found rays of light to be very nice in architectural photography in the form of light streaming through windows or spaces.
 

Silhouette Lighting
The way to create a silhouette is to have significantly brighter light coming from behind the subject. Take your camera light reading off of the background instead of the subject so that the camera will adjust for an exposure based on the backlight. If you do this the subject will be successfully underexposed and the background should have a well-balanced exposure.
 

Scarce Light in the Darkness
Photography at night is completely different than photography in the day. At night there is most likely not enough light to handhold the camera if you are going to take a well-exposed photo (without flash). A tripod is very necessary and I always use a tripod when I am shooting at night to take away the risk of blur from hand shakiness. If you keep experimenting with different ways of using light you will find that you can get very interesting results. One favorite location of night photographers is on the roadside of a busy street. With a long shutter speed the photographer can use the car lights to make streams of light across the frame. The longer the exposure, the more fascinating the results with light most of the time.

Try This Technique to Make a Copy of Someone
Set the shutter speed for somewhere around 30 seconds, set the camera on a tripod and set the self-timer so you do not have to press the shutter button. Someone needs to stand next to the camera with a flashlight and someone else needs to be the subject of the photo in front of the camera. The subject then stands in one place while the flashlight is pointed at him and moved in an up and down motion. After around 15 seconds the flashlight is turned off and the subject is told to move to his left. Then the flashlight is pointed at him again and moved up and down until the camera finishes the exposure. If you do this successfully you can create the same person twice in one frame.

Technorati Tags: photographic lighting techniques tips light photo

When I began gearing up for studio type photo work, I knew that I needed lighting. I actually began (like many others, I presume) with inexpensive clamp-on utility light units coupled with daylight corrected fluorescent bulbs (purchased at any large discount mart) on the order of 75-100watts. These were initially used in conjuction with table top shots of still life objects. I also used translucent sheets of plexiglas as a screen to make the light less harsh and more diffused. In addition, I used hardware clamps to hold the sheets upright. The sheets were approximately 1×2′. I also experimented with the diffusers that cover commercial fluorescent fixtures as they are relatively inexpensive. The results were quite good as long as the background could be exposed properly. Sometimes several lights and several sheets of translucent plexiglas had to be employed. Here is an example of an alarm clock shot with this type of lighting:

However, this type of lighting is not very convenient at all. The plexiglas sheets have to be manipulated, the lights have to be clamped to something stable and a fair amount of time is taken to get things right. After putting aside some funds for lighting purchases, I decided to buy two Lowell Ego lights. They are not inexpensive by any means, but their advertisements caught my eye. Since I was still merely taking tabletop shots at the time, these seemed to be the next logical step for me to take. Here is one of the shots taken with the Lowell Ego lights which are daylight corrected fluorescent lights much like the homemade lights that I had previously used:

I wasn’t really disappointed with the Lowell Ego lights (other than the fact that they cost too much for what they were IMHO). Shortly after I began using them, I got a call from a model interested in a photo session where I took the photos and she got several prints as a result of the shoot (TFP: Trade For Prints). I was hoping for an outside session, but since I was going to have to travel a good distance to her location, I decided to take along the only “convenient”, studio lights that I had at the time, the two Lowell Ego units. Fortunately, the people at Lowell put a 1/4-20 screw thread hole at the bottom of each unit. This allows you to attach the light to a tripod. Fortunately, I kept my old, “Junk-Mart” tripods purchased some years back.  Sure enough, as Murphy’s Law states, it was raining when I arrived at her residence. So, not giving up and thinking fast on my feet, I setup the Lowell Ego lights atop the two inexpensive tripods, place the model against an off-white solid colored wall and began shooting. Here is one of the shots that I took:

Some PS post-processing has been applied to the image; however, the specular highlights in Krystal’s eyes and the overall lighting was achieved using the Lowell Ego lights. I shot the image in Nikon RAW and adjusted the white balance when processing the image. Even though the fluorescent lights are daylight corrected, there is still a bit of a bluish-green tint to them. Each Lowell Ego unit contains two 27 watt daylight corrected fluorescent bulbs. This is not a great deal of light. Two of them produce just a little more than 100 watts which is what I was using in one single clamp light.

However, the images worked out well and the model was pleased with the results. You can find Lowell Ego Lights offered here.

Technorati Tags: photo, lighting, tabletop, daylight, corrected, studio, portrait, indoor, lowell ego, lights, tips, techniques, cheap, inexpensive, upgrade, choosing

…if humor is right for you!

This shot was made with two lights. The key light, a 800 WS Alien Bee monobloc strobe with a medium softbox attached, was to the left of the camera at a height of 6 feet. The secondary light, a 400 WS Alien Bee monobloc strobe with 8 inch reflector attached, was placed on the floor at the foot of the white background facing the background directly. The subject was about 3 feet in front of the white background and the camera on tripod was about 4 feet in front of the subject. The camera was set at 1/15th sec - f/9 - ISO 100. The lens was an 18-70mm set at 50mm.

1/200 sec f/8 56mm

This shot of Pete was taken using two lights and a plain white muslin background supported by a Dynatran support system. The key light (800 watt alien bees strobe w/medium softbox) was to the left of camera and set high (7 feet) at approx. 1/3 power. The background light (400 watt alien bees strobe w/7 in reflector) was on the floor facing the background at full power.  The camera was approximately 4 feet from the subject and the subject was about 2 feet from the background and seated. The highest flash sync speed with the Nikon D80 is 1/200 second. The keylight and camera were wirelessly synchronized using 2 Pocket Wizards. The Nikon D80 was tethered to the PC via USB using Nikon Camera Control Pro software.

“Photoshopped ” version of the photo

Technorati Tags: nikon, d80, camera control pro, alien bees, photo lighting, strobe, monobloc, pocket wizard plus, studio, lights, flash, portraiture, portrait, background, support