Light It Up!

I don’t typically blog the family pictures from weddings. I know that’s stupid, because they are very important. And this is not a very good one. We were under serious time constraints at the venue when they decided to get a group shot of everyone in attendance. The bride and groom should have been at least near the front but I let everyone gobble them up so we could knock this out and move on. The only reason for this post is because Debra took the behind the scene image and I thought it would be an opportunity to share how I handle a group shot. Churches often have mixed lighting. We had a combination yesterday of a large skylight directly overhead, and spotlights. If I would have shot without assistance of my own lights seen in Debra’s image, There would have been a combination of people in shadows, and people that were lit by the other light sources in the church. What I like to do, is set up a couple of flashes on either side shot thru a small umbrella. Its not fancy, its not creative, but it gives you a nice consistent image that I am sure the couple and their friends and family will enjoy.

The Megapixel Debate

Is more megapixels really important? Well it doesnt hurt. But the quality of an image doesnt come from the number of pixels, as much as the design of the sensor and the quality of the glass. But more megapixels is a good way to sell cameras and the manufacturers know this. Especially Canon, the brand of camera I use. The 2 cameras I currently use have 21 mp and 18 mp. What does this mean to a photographer? Larger files, slower processing, more memory. But it doesnt really make a lick of difference in image quality. In this image below, I am standing (for scale purposes) in front of an image of Dani Pedrosa that I took at the 2005 Moto GP race in Monterey. Im sorry about the 2 fold scores in the print, it was the only way I could fit a 48″ x 96″ print in my car. I took this image with an 8 mp camera. Today, they are slapping 8 mp sensors in camera phones. Now this print, is probably a little bit larger than most of you will print your photos, so dont worry about your megapixels. You have enough.

Black and White

It wasnt so long ago that photographers could only present their work in black and white. Then came color film, but it wasnt very good looking back then. But it was cutting edge I guess. Looking back at family album pictures, the black and white images are the ones that catch my eye. Black and white represents the ultimate in classic, timeless imagery. Without the distraction of colors, mono images enhance the beauty of line and shape and brings an artistic feel to any composition. Its also great for its documentary properties.

But with the ever increasing color capabilities of cameras, the amazing color reproduction in prints, the fantastic resolution available on computer monitors, it is sometimes difficult to shoot with a black and white vision. I am as guilty as anyone of only seeing in color. I dont look at a scene and see it for its black and white potential. But what I do look for in my images is contrast, and a contrasty color image quite often lends itself to a good mono image.

Sometimes the color we see through the camera can detract from other elements of the composition. Especially when what makes a composition interesting is tonal qualities, lines, shape, or textures. Photographs you consider rubbish, can sometimes be given a new lease on life when you change them to black and white. I have often said that a blurry picture or bad color rendition is called “artistic” when you convert it to grayscale. Landscapes, macros, and portraits are all excellent for black and white images.

Yosemite – Long Exposure Night Shot

Im sitting here looking at images taken this past weekend in Yosemite wishing we were still there. I will share images from the trip in the coming days, but I wanted to post this image taken on the balcony of our cabin. Whats cool about this image (well, I think its cool) is that it was taken in complete darkness at about 9:30 at night. If you have a tripod, a full moon puts out enough light to get you a decent exposure, if your camera has an option for leaving the shutter open for a long ass time! This shot was captured by leaving the shutter open for 8 minutes. The foreground trees actually got their warmth from the lights in the cabin.

 

Bewildered – A Guide For Photographers

 

Here it is boys and girls! All you need to know to take good pictures of people.

First, be yourself. If your personalities dont click, then it wasnt meant to be. The pictures are gonna suck. The people will keep you at arms length and the images will never reflect who that person is. And if you think asking people to go to their happy place, remember a happy childhood moment, or remember why they fell in love will help them forget where they are, you are digging a deeper hole. If they wouldnt have a beer with you, they arent going to reveal in front of the camera. Move on.

Now you have found someone that likes you and your work enough to let you take their picture. Dont blow it by asking them to pose like some fake actors on a movie poster for the latest romantic vomit-fest. Give some simple direction, pay attention to their actions and demeanor and build on that. “Pull her in a little tighter”, “A little more smile”, “lean in a little bit”. Give directions like that and you have just improved what they were already giving you. They are going to love the pictures, and you will have new material for your website that doesnt look like all your other images. Shoot for the client first, for your portfolio second.

Lastly, a lousy picture is a lousy picture, no matter how much you photoshop it. If you dont like your results, dont PS it and call it art. Decide why you dont like it and try again. Get the picture you like, and then ruin it in post production. But what do I know.

Media Lifespan

WARNING! Back up your back ups!

Knock on wood I have never lost an important file stored on optical media. But it can and does happen. I just had a client call me to say that during a recent move, her disk containing her wedding images was damaged. She was very happy that I keep archives of all shoots on 2 separate hard drives.

Lets face it, digital photography hasnt been around long enough to determine how long a CD, a DVD, or Blu Ray disk with your photos will really last. I did a very in depth 5 minute google search and I found that a CD can last from 5 to 100 years. So there you go!

And hard drives? They scare me even more. They have moving parts! A failed hard drive can cost you between $50 and $1000 in some cases.

If you have important images, like wedding, baby, or incriminating photos you want to use against a person someday, BACK THEM UP! Disks, hard drives, and flash drives are all very inexpensive when you think about the priceless value of the memories they store.

Take proper care, and in 40 years when your kids are throwing you a retirement party, they will be able to print some nice pictures of you from today.

Jeff and Brianna’s Wedding

Mitch and I shot Jeff and Brianna’s wedding yesterday and had a blast. Just uploading the pictures to my computer right now and cleaning out my camera bag and laughed when I pulled out the strip of photos that we took with the couple in the photo booth. Oh, and this is classic. I had Mitch on light duty with a monopod and a YN560 flash. This little flash has a neat feature, an optical slave. That means it fires when it sees a flash from another camera firing. So I can have a flash on my camera bouncing the light off of a wall, and Mitch can be pointing the YN560 directly where I am shooting. Good stuff. But the flash doesnt know whos flash it should fire with, so it would fire whenever another camera flash in range would fire. So I am standing about 30 feet away from Mitch and “Uncle Bob” and his camera are in between us. He is taking pictures with his camera and the flash Mitch is holding is going off too, giving him way too much light for his exposure. Mitch and I watched him take a dozen photos, looking at the back of his camera after each, and shaking his head. Then he walked away with a confused look on his face. I can only imagine he was racking his brain trying to figure out why his photos were over exposed. Good times! Here are the pics of us in the photo booth.

Nikon vs Canon

This morning I got an email from a Nikon user. I know, I know, but its okay that she shoots Nikon. She has pretty eyes. She had sent me a link to a blog post by the amazing Jay Maisel. It wasn’t sent to me for this reason, but what stood out to me is the statement he made “I’ve been shooting most of the time at ISO1600. (I know you can’t do it on a Canon, but that’s your problem – I never told you to get a Canon.)” He goes on to show a great image of Dave Burnett that he shot at 12,800 ISO at f5.6. If you’re not a camera geek, the reason this is impressive, is high ISO shots will create a more grainy, less resolved image than lower ISO’s. High ISO is required in dark conditions.

Here is my friendly rebuttal to Jay. This self portrait was just taken at 12,800 ISO at f5.6 with my piece of shit Canon. SUCK IT!

Choosing a Lens

One of my favorite lenses to shoot with is my 70-200mm. One of the great features of a long lens is the shallow depth of field that it produces at wide apertures. Your subject will be in focus, and items in the foreground and background will be out of focus. This really gives some nice dimension to your image. This lens is also fun to use if you are shooting tight on your subject. Long lenses are also more flattering for portraits because you have a more “normal” field of view.

There is another great benefit that is often overlooked, and that is long lenses bring the background closer to your subject. Take a look at the 2 photos below. The couple was standing in the same location with the structure in the background. You will notice that in both images, they are essentially in the same location and take up the same amount of space in the frame. The only thing that changed was the lens and my distance from the couple. In the first image, I was just a few feet away and shooting with a 24mm lens. In the 2^nd image I was much farther back shooting at the 200mm length. See how the long lens brings everything closer.

Do it Yourself Rain Sleeve