It’s time to catch up, so lets step back a bit. At the beginning of… May? – Holy smokes, I kicked off the month with a portrait session for a family not far away. Set up indoors, on location studio style, no assistants – just simple relaxed and fun.
For background light, there’s two SB900’s each with a reflective umbrella fired at the wall giving roughly 1.5 stops over main. Main light is simply a 60″ shoot through.
Here we killed the lights and used just sunlight backlit through window keyed with a partial gold reflector to camera right.
Went lengthwise in the building to encourage light falloff and gain a background with no distractions. Cross-lit with bare flash about 45° behind subject to camera right for a slight backlight / kicker and small 28″ softbox camera left.
Lighting is still basically the same here, we just shuffled positions and concentrated the key light on Owen for a little separation .
Move in the main a little bit closer and you get a little more separation…
Back to natural light, and not much of it…
ps: Pretty much all files I upload still got exif data buried in there somewhere for those of you who are curious to know more.
About 4,000 years ago around what is now called Pepper Lake, there lived a solitary civilization. They’re extremely unusual cave paintings and burial sites are said to have been influenced by the abundance of cacti in the neighboring forests just north of Hector, BC. To the cacabelly’s, the cactus was considered a deity.
Anyways – let’s fast foreword a bit…
Strange things happen in this part of the country too. One minute I going out to do some instructional lighting and before I know it, we’ve stumbled upon the ancient acts of cacti worship. What a great opportunity to grab a few frames!
I got this one before we set up the lighting, for they soon squealed off under the setting sun.
The season for hitting the road is near. Of course I’d probably live longer not trying to simultaneously operate a camera and motorcycle. Here’s one that survived from last year.
I know there hasn’t been much steady activity on my site the past while but hey; I’ve been busy too! As some people know, I have done quite a bit of work with one model this last summer. After the first couple test shoots, I’ve used her almost exclusively depending on the assignment. She’s got expressions and poses that are seamlessly congruent to the intended story. This is the kind of model who is able to project the mood before I even finish explaining the intention. At this point she prefers to maintain self-representation, which is good for me – otherwise she’d be too busy, flying around the country no doubt.
I have to salute all the boys and girls out there who make their way in this world by contorting their soon-to-be transfixed ego in front of the camera, finally submitting to sometimes unusually strange requests from oddball photographer’s. Although isn’t that what ego’s are for?
Here’s a few from a couple shoots in slideshow format just for fun.
It’s now really pushing it to be getting prints for christmas on time. I’ve been more than a little busy shipping and receiving print orders before the holidays. And now from a shoot from a couple days ago, you’s knows who y’all is, well, they’re ready. You asked for a couple but I’m givin you nineteen. Here’s a random few in no particular order, for maybe some particular reason, at an unknown time, too early in the morning…
Some people wonder why pictures don’t seem to look good on their monitor. I’ve heard people say; “It’s too dark” “The colors are funny” “its distorted”. Well guess what - buy a Mac. Not only are their monitors amazing, you will have a computer that is designed to actually work. You plug these things in and then carry on with your life. Sure, a Microsoft machine may be cheaper, but so is an outhouse. It is really an unfair comparison because they haven’t built anything that can compare with Mac. Who in any state of mind would consider buying a Chinese folded metal carton full of Microsoft driven combine parts that runs like a 60 year old, 25 horsepower milking machine?
Back on topic – Regardless of which company writes your software, every monitor displays differently. Most monitors do not necessarily display with accurate color and luminance. My screen is capable of displaying images that are extremely bright and vivid (mac). But my screen is also calibrated. This basically means; the way a picture looks on a calibrated monitor is the same way it will look on a print (when done correctly). And it’s all about how it looks when viewed on chemically processed paper. By using an accurate monitor, the ‘displayed picture’ will be homogenous to the ‘real picture’, making it possible to get consistent, accurate prints. Lets say I’m using a monitor which is not calibrated and the colors happen to be off from the ‘standard’, I will adjust the image to where the skin tones look natural, but when I run the pictures through the lab, the subject may have just come down with a case of jaundice. Viewed on older monitors or inexpensive ones, pictures can often appear dull as well. Higher quality monitors and ones built more recently do a much better job of displaying consistently and accurately from one to another. Keep in mind there are many variables just waiting to interfere. So next time you‘re having trouble looking at a professionally completed image, realize it might just be the screen your viewing it on, which is probably connected to a windows machine.
Last tuesday I had to forget about using a softbox or umbrella. (Unless I wanted to do aerial photography) We managed to get in a few shots before being blown around the countryside. Here’s a couple…
A few people organized a get-together for a handful of musicians that have played together over the years. This was their opportunity to reconnect and put on a memorable show. Good friends and good music! Here’s a couple…
