Proof of Concept – Applying what I learned

Proof of Concept – Applying what I learned, originally uploaded by TuttleImages.Com.

After taking the Learn To Light workshop last weekend, I knew that to truly "know" that I had learned, not only did I have to be able to shoot a concept and make it into a final product, I had to do it in a short period of time and be able to be professional and create a buzz with the client. In this case, two American Studies teachers at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus, OH. Nate (left) and Bruce dress up as Lenny and George from Steinbeck’s "Of Mice and Men" – the American Library Association’s "Read" promotional posters are something that they wanted to emulate. We had tried something like this earlier in the spring, but my skills didn’t match my vision. NOW after taking the workshop, I calibrated my light (dope on a rope…) and shot these two gentlemen at 11:00 am in the blaring sun. The shot on the left is the out-of-the-camera shot and the one on the right is the final "distressed look" poster. The principal saw it and wants a copy to hang in the hallway at the school (the teachers were going to just have one done to hang in their classroom). Final print size is 20" x 30".

Lighting: One Alien Bee AB800 with diffuser – at 1/2 power – triggered by Pocket Wizard.

(thanks, Don!)

Proof of Concept – Applying what I learned

Proof of Concept – Applying what I learned, originally uploaded by TuttleImages.Com.

After taking the Learn To Light workshop last weekend, I knew that to truly "know" that I had learned, not only did I have to be able to shoot a concept and make it into a final product, I had to do it in a short period of time and be able to be professional and create a buzz with the client. In this case, two American Studies teachers at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus, OH. Nate (left) and Bruce dress up as Lenny and George from Steinbeck’s "Of Mice and Men" – the American Library Association’s "Read" promotional posters are something that they wanted to emulate. We had tried something like this earlier in the spring, but my skills didn’t match my vision. NOW after taking the workshop, I calibrated my light (dope on a rope…) and shot these two gentlemen at 11:00 am in the blaring sun. The shot on the left is the out-of-the-camera shot and the one on the right is the final "distressed look" poster. The principal saw it and wants a copy to hang in the hallway at the school (the teachers were going to just have one done to hang in their classroom). Final print size is 20" x 30".

Lighting: One Alien Bee AB800 with diffuser – at 1/2 power – triggered by Pocket Wizard.

(thanks, Don!)

Sarah – Lighting Essentials Workshop – Akron, OH

Sarah – Lighting Essentials Workshop – Akron, OH, originally uploaded by TuttleImages.Com.

I spent this past weekend taking the learntolight.com workshop lead by Don G – aka, WizWow (check out his site – http://www.lighting-essentials.com for great articles and resources for photographers. I spent two days drinking the koolaide and learning how to think about lighting, how to apply lighting, and how to make lighting work for me. I whole heartedly would say that if you are wanting to push yourself photographically, take this course!

This image of Sarah was done using all SB-28 or 580 EX II’s.

New hair cut (365 #000)

New hair cut (365 #000), originally uploaded by TuttleImages.

Conor doesn’t mind posing for a new photo – particularly when he is proud of his new look.

Shot using the Canon 5D Mark II and the 85mm f/1.2 lens. I used 2 SB-28′s – one as the hairlight and the other into a small softbox aimed right at him.

I choose the stairs as a background because they have a nice neutral color and would force me to use the hairlight to give more separation of his hair from the background. I am not 100% satisfied with the look – I am critical of the chin shadow as well as I think is it underexposed (something I end up doing too much – not enough use of the histogram – I need to chimp that more!)

Ben enjoyed being my lighting assistant – he was in charge of the hairlight and it being angled over Conor’s head.

Yesterday and today’s shot has convinced me that I need to look into a boom arm for lighting. I have had the need to hang a light over or above the talent, yet maintain separation from the talent to the vertical stand.

The 85 mm f/1.2 lens was great to work with, again – even in the tight confines of the stairway for shooting a head shot. I could use that lens all day!

Tiffany – 2 (365 #082)

Tiffany – 2 (365 #082), originally uploaded by TuttleImages.

It has been a while since I’ve posted. I have shot over 2000 pictures of people in the past three days – all with the 5D Mark 2 and I still haven’t had to charge the batteries! I use the battery grip so have 2 batteries in use at all times.

Some observations of the 5D Mark II:
1) Autofocus in low light is pretty good. One-Shot is dead on, while the servo mode seems to search more in the low light than my 1D MkII (overall, the autofocus of the 1D MkII is faster and more accurate – but that is probably because of the differences in the systems)

2) RAW file size: Holy cow it packs a lot of data in RAW! The files are huge – and take quite a while to download. I am using Transcend 133x 8 GB and 4GB cards (btw: these work fine for video from the 5D MkII). I think I will purchase faster cards when I get the chance.

3) The bokeh for f/2.8 and f/1.2 are totally different for the 85 mm and the 70-200. But, I’ll still keep using them.

4) Shooting Tiffany and her boys along the river was a lot of fun – and despite being still early in the season, the backgrounds all fuzzy are awesome. The browns really matched their hair and coloring well.

Self Portrait (365 #062)

Self Portrait (365 #062), originally uploaded by TuttleImages.

How narcissistic do you have to be when you are a photographer?

I HATE having my picture taken. But I don’t mind doing self-portraits. Maybe it is because I have the ultimate editorial say in who sees the image. Maybe it is because I visualize the image I want, then craft the image, and take it.

I was inspired to try this lighting technique the other day when I saw it done in a couple Strobist posts on the flickr pool. I am getting the hang of lighting on the fly – setting up what I want, then taking it.

I need to work more on my location work. Lighting the existing space, and making the image work – I like the stuff David Hobby has been doing (and am very jealous of his trip to CERN and the supercollider!)

Self Portrait

Self Portrait, originally uploaded by TuttleImages.

Having watched an interview with Chase Jarvis, I was struck by something he said, which is exactly what I tell people who complain about their photos: If you don’t push the button, you cannot take the picture. Shoot, shoot, shoot! after all, did you buy the camera to look at it, or to use it to look at the world? I get frustrated with people who push the button once, and are satisfied. I take the safe picture, then, if the model or subject is willing, I play. Sometimes, it is my boys who have to suffer through what I am doing, trying, experimenting with and they have good humor about it. Ben is always a ready model. Conor, not so much, until he sees his brother and me having fun.

This self-portrait was a test shot, just to see where I was regarding exposure and flash setting. I love the ghostly-ness of the image, with the pupils of my eyes being the focus of the image. Having a brief amount of information about the rest of my face (noticeably, my right ear, nostrils, right eye socket, and right side of my mustache and lips. )

The lighting was inspired by the shooting I did in a dance studio where I bounced the flashes off the large room-sized mirrors. Today, I bounced the flash off the mirror in my bathroom while I was attempting to capture me shaving my head. The small size of the room, coupled with the white paint, white ceiling, and white shower curtain posed a challenge in getting the lighting set-up right. I eventually ended up getting it right, but it was more difficult than I had anticipated.

Lighting set-up (365 #58)

Lighting set-up (365 #58), originally uploaded by TuttleImages.

This set-up for this shot was fairly straight forward – light the boy with a soft light, use a gelled flash as the background, try to balance the light, and shoot away. In hind-sight, I should have done the WB with a grey or white card (dang it!) – and will try doing so tomorrow. The combo of the CFL (way underpowered, IMO, at only 150 W) and the flash in blue were not easy to work with. But – it serves the purpose I need/ want: that of giving me a practice space and to see what works, and what doesn’t.

Not having a permanent studio has gotten me thinking more and more about studio space, larger/better/different lights – and someplace to collaborate with other photographers – a co-op? I’d like it to also be someplace to come and learn – that the general public can come take a $10-20 course for an hour on the basics of their DSLR or P&S camera – or basics of photography, lighting, composition, etc. Guest lecture/speaker/instructors would be welcomed – as would traveling workshops (like the one I am going to attend in Cleveland in May – Lighting Essentials).

Lenses: I am now done buying lenses for a while. I hope. Maybe a macro lens, but not for a while (2010). Maybe a 300 or 400 mm f/2.8 if/when either boy gets into a field sport. I am ok with the 100-400 with the smaller f-stop for now. All of my lenses are L-series lenses, which IMO is crucial for the best pictures – I don’t mind what body the lens goes on, from a D-Rebel to my 1DmkII.

Canon 5D Mark II – White Balance in Live View

One of the blogs I read/follow on a regular basis is Scott Kelby’s “PhotoShop Insider.” Scott is NAPP President, as well as Editor-in-Chief of Layers magazine.  He is also a Nikon camera shooter. He and Matt Kloskowski have started (2-25-09) a new site in conjunction with Nikon – Nikon D-Town.  Now, why would I be talking about a Nikon site in a Canon blog? Because as many people will tell you, you can learn a lot of information about shooting from others no matter what gear they shoot (yesterday’s favorite blog quote: “Come to understand that your images are reflections of you as a human and not the machines you used to create them.” – Syl Arena – in Scott Kelbys blog of Feb 25, 2009.

So, where does this lead me with regards to the 5DMkII? In their first installment, Scott and Matt show how to set white balance in the camera using live view. So that got me thinking: Will the 5DMk2 do this as well? And if so, how?

Of course, this all started at 7 am – I had taken the day off from school because the boys have doctor’s appointments, and I needed to be the one to take them (long story). I was hanging in my kitchen, going through RSS feeds and stumbled across Scott’s blog, and clicked the link because I was interested in how Nikon did this, and was curious about it. After watching this first part (the “story” was the first part of the video, I will watch the rest later) – I ran downstairs and got my camera.

How to: Turn on the camera, and place it into live view (press the button to the left of the eye piece) – this turns on live view. Then, on the top right, press the WB button – on-screen will pop up the white balance symbols, and as you scroll through them with the click wheel to the side of the view screen, you can see the white balance change! You can set the color temp by selecting the K and then using the top mount scroll wheel to scroll through the color temp (I am going to use this when I teach next year about white balance – very cool!). Turning off live view retains the white balance, and you can shoot away!

Thanks to Scott and Matt for a great video and for providing me the inspiration to go grab my camera and play.

Watching Time

Watching Time (365 #056), originally uploaded by TuttleImages.

Part of my desire to learn more about my camera and lighting is to play with as many different light sources as possible. Use of a hand-held light (in this case, a small key-chain green LED light) is something that can be done.

I am interested to note that the overall image is not very crisp, despite the fact that I checked and double-checked the focus using the live-view made possible by the Canon 5D Mark II. I would suppose that the image is degraded given that I moved the light around, and the refraction of the light through the glass made the lines inside less clear and crisp (particularly noticeable with the date). I was very interested to note that the LED was very bright and the exposure times were remarkable short to get good results, despite an ISO of 50 and 100.

The lens used today was the EF 24-70 USM II f/2.8.