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July 18, 2011
technique – using lens flare for effect
While lens designers try to minimize lens flare, and we use lens hoods, we can often use lens flare for special effect. Shielding the front element of the lens from direct sun and other strong light sources helps giving a more contrasty image. But letting the lens flare take over in a controlled way, can really give impact. That golden, sun-drenched summery feel to a photograph enhances the mood.
During this recent photo session in Central Park, New York, with a couple, Alli and Scott, the lens flare was quite intentional. But as is usual, there’s a certain progression towards the final images …
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July 4, 2011
photographing the 4th of July fireworks display, New York
Braving the crowds (and insane traffic) in Hoboken tonight, I had a good view of magnificent 4th of July fireworks display on the Hudson River. From this viewpoint, Manhattan is to my right, and barely visible on the edge of the frame. I wanted to include the reflections in the water as well, since the surreal blend of colors helped anchor the intricate fireworks. The photography technique was simple enough – a slow shutter speed, a low ISO … and a tripod and remote release for the camera.
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June 14, 2011
using flash in an incandescent / tungsten environment
I have used this photograph several times in the past to illustrate various aspects of flash photography in low light, so it might be time to discuss this image more thoroughly.
We’ll also pull together a few other topics and see how it all comes together at this one point:
- dragging the shutter,
- gelling your flash,
- bounce flash technique,
- direction of light,
- the advantage of using TTL flash,
- working alongside a videographer
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June 6, 2011
eliminate & simplify – the first steps in composing your photograph
These two images were taken from more or less the same spot.
All that changed was my vantage point, and my choice of lens.
This vibrant park in Manhattan seemed like an interesting place to photograph, but when photographing a couple, I really want the accent to be on them. The best way to do this is to frame them so that the background is as simple as possible, but still complements the final photograph. I had the couple sit on top of this grassy mound, and I lay down on the grass, and framed them tightly against the trees in the background.
Even though I was working with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens, I was shooting around 90mm in focal length. But this was enough, coupled with my low viewpoint, to eliminate any distracting elements from the frame. It is essential to look at the edges of the frame when you compose. And that is the key here in the composition – simplicity.
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June 1, 2011
photography exposure metering – expose for your subject
In preparation for my upcoming review of the Fuji X-100 camera, I met up with Anelisa to see how this little camera performed during an actual photo shoot. The image above was one of the photographs we ended up with. Now, there is something specific about it that I wanted to explain in a separate article, instead of it being glossed over deeper inside a camera review.
The composition is simple – I do like my compositions fairly central, it seems. Similarly, the lighting is simplicity itself – all available light. There were two main sources of light – the light inside the shopping mall entrance; and some very strong back-lighting flooding the place.
While the technique here hinged on specific exposure for the available light, there are a few crucial ideas here that I’d like to underline:
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May 25, 2011
video clip – using LED video light for photography
Regular visitors to the this website will know that I favor video lights for dramatic portraits. The what-you-see-is-what-you-get nature of it, makes it really easy to get interesting light on your subjects. But it does need some finessing in how you position it for portraits.
Meeting up with Anelisa, one of my favorite models, Jessica and I created this video clip to show exactly how I use the video light for portraits. It also explains my starting point in choosing the direction of light, and also shows how I direct Anelisa during the shoot.
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May 23, 2011
wedding photography – a photo-journalistic style … or more posed?
A photographer who attended the recent flash photography workshop here in New York, asked me an interesting question regarding my wedding photography style. His observation was about how I seemed to consistently get such well-timed un-posed and natural looking images with my wedding photography. Since my explanation seemed to surprise him, and even bordered on being a real aha! moment for him, I thought it could serve as an article here which might interest other wedding photographers.
When asked by photographers about my style of wedding photography, I like to reply that I don’t quite subscribe to the purist photojournalism, nor the traditionalist style. I think my approach is more along the lines of get-the-job-done-alism.
Instead of subscribing rigidly to a defined style, I’m there to give the bride and groom the best photographs I can on the day. And for this, my approach has to be flexible …
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May 21, 2011
using a macro lens for a photo session of a newborn
I had the pleasure of photographing the newborn baby of Jen and David recently. (David regularly follows the Tangents blog!) Aside from photographing the proud parents with their little one, I also needed to get detail photos of the baby.
With detail images, you see even more clearly just how small this newborn baby is, when you show the scale. A tiny hand clasping a finger. Tiny toes gently flexing against her mother’s hand.
For this, a macro lens is an essential part of my camera bag …
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May 15, 2011
At the recent After Dark workshop series in Cincinnati, my friend Stephanie Zettl surprised me with an image she showed on the back of her D700. She was hyper about it. Really excited. When she explained to me how she shot this, my reaction was, “holy macaroni!” What fascinated me was how she combined in a single image, the world’s oldest camera – the camera obscura, with what is arguably the most technologically advanced camera you can get – the iPhone. But I don’t want to steal from the impact of what she created. Just check the resulting image, and then read the description of how she did this. You just have to be impressed with such ingenuity!
a nude photographed in a Camera Obscura and lit by an iPhone
Some ideas and concepts come to you instantly, as if struck by a bolt of lighting. Other ideas come to you gradually, building and morphing from past experiences and research.
A few weeks ago I wrote about my experience of building a digital pinhole camera for Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. The most common response I got from it was “why?”
It’s a fair question. Why do I want to stick a body cap with a hole in it on a very expensive camera and take fuzzy mediocre photos with it?
I personally thought it would be an interesting little Sunday afternoon project that would be reminiscent of the shoe box cameras we made in school. It would be a relatively cheap project (cost of a lens cap and a can of Coke) and I would be able to say I did it – instead of just surfing the internet or watching television and doing nothing productive.
But what I didn’t expect is that I would get curious about the process and start researching about simple cameras and optics. In my research I came across images created by turning hotel rooms into camera obscuras. Camera obscura literally means “darkened chamber” and it is a device used to project an image onto a screen or the wall of a room, by using either a lens or a pinhole. (For more information on camera obscuras, check out the Wikipedia article on the subject.)
The wheels in my head started turning. It would be interesting to turn a hotel room into a camera obsura and project a cityscape on to the wall. What if I photographed a model inside the camera obscura? How far could I develop this theme? What could I create?
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May 3, 2011
multiple off-camera flash – gelling your flash for effect
All the light you see in this image here, is from two speedlights. The blue color in the background is because I gelled my one flash. While that might give you the idea that I gelled the background flash with a blue gel, what I actually did, was gel my main flash with two 1/2 CTS gels. That’s all I had with me, but I wanted those hard cold blue tones to the background.
A single 1/2 CTS gel would take the flash to 3700K. Adding a 2nd gel didn’t take it as far as a full CTS would’ve, but closer to 3350K, going by my settings with the RAW file.
By having my main speedlight (in a softbox) now at a color temperate of around 3350K, meant the background shifted towards blue in comparison. Intended effect achieved!
Now, about the placement of the speedlights, and to explain what the spectactular background actually is ….
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