Sunset Antics

It was nice to be able to walk across the street and snap some photos. It didn't take a lot of time to set up and he got to have lots of fun, past his bedtime.

We shot this photo during the sunset. Walked across the street, asked him to play in the tree, and got a cool silhouette of him trying to pull himself up. Tells quite the story even if you know how the photo was taken.

We liked it enough to print it and it looks great printed.

Complicated Light

A co-worker of mine may be losing his office in the near future. We all may be losing them due to growing needs. It's going to be a sad day when this happens. But to remember the good times, Antoine (pictured) asked me to take a photo of him so he would never forget the good times of having his own office.

He had a chocolate cigar that he wanted to use in the photograph. That immediately got my mind racing with ideas. I knew I wanted to show him in a powerful setting like a crime boss. This is quite the contrast to his real character that I knew it would make a good photo.

I set up in his office during lunch. I had just bought a new 430ex speedlight that I could use for a hair light so I knew I would be getting my most complicated lighting shot yet. I shot at 1/250 shutter speed at f/3.5. This knocked out any light from the horrible flourescent lights that are in the offices. I used my 580ex II to provide the overall fill light. I set up one 430ex speedlight on the ground and shot it through a plant. This is providing a little texture on the back wall, it was pretty boring otherwise. I then had another 430ex speedlight shot through a snoot and taped this on the book shelf. This was providing my hair light that would help pop him off the background. The last 430ex was shot through a snoot with a CTO (change to orange) gel that would hit his face and provide my key light. The CTO gel helps to add some natural skin tone back to his face and help it pop a bit more as well.

Wow, that was a mouthful. First time I've used 4 lights to photograph anything. When he returned from lunch, he sat down and we were cooking. I had to adjust the one light that was hitting his face since I wasn't sure where it would be when I was setting up. I shot for about 10 minutes and got some great shots. I then pulled back my setup shot then adjusted my white balance to fluorescent to throw the overall color blue. With that CTO gel, it knocked the overall room blue while keeping him quite natural.

I moved in with this new white balance setting just for fun and snapped my last photo. I knew I had some good shots so I didn't play on this mode much. But this last shot ended up being the best. The color just gives it a unique feel and I love how his natural skin tone contrasts with the rest of the photo. Not to mention, his expression looked the most menacing.

Learning From Failures

I have come quite a long way since I first started taking pictures as a new hobby. I have learned a lot from websites and books that I've read, but I've learned from a source that I should mention. I have learned quite a bit from my own failures.

This photo is one of my failures. I was practicing this technique. I wanted highlights on the side with a fill light bringing in the rest. I used 3 speedlights for this shot. Two 430ex speedlights set up to the left and right of me. The third 580 ex II was handheld by my girlfriend. She snapped the photo for me as well, I just did all the setup. The 580 ex II triggered the two speedlights wirelessly.

Since it was just practice, I didn't worry too much about the background. I know I wanted to get the sky in the shot, but if I do this photo again, I won't include the power lines or houses in the background. But the background isn't why this photo is a failure for me.

The part I failed on was the lighting. I didn't have the two speedlights to the left & right far enough back. The lights are hitting the front of my face instead of just the sides, causing a very weird and nasty look for my nose. Really, it looks messed up and fat. I also don't like how there isn't much separating my legs from the background. This to me flattens out the image and doesn't define my outline.

So, this certainly taught me some things to watch out for next time. Remember, you can learn a lot from your failures.

Anniversary Take 2

I decided to shoot their anniversary photo from two different locations. This was actually the first I choose. This was taken from the side of their house. I choose this spot because of the continuos color and for the texture of the stucco. I thought it would provide an interesting backdrop for them.

I have tried this technique once before and I LOVED the results. Although, I had only one person in the shot, this time I was dealing with two. I pressed forward and decided to see what we could get, if anything.

I set up one 430ex speedlight right above my camera. I shot this speedlight through an umbrella to get a nice, soft fill light. Then I knocked the exposure of this light down 2 stops. I didn't want this to be the main light - just some fill. I then set up another 430ex camera left to shoot through a snoot. (My own version made from a cardboard box) This would help funnel the light and keep it contained so it only hit their faces and not fill in the rest of the photo.

With the fill light 2 stops underexposed and the key light right on the money, I was taking photos. That's when they started to act natural now that I had things set up. I choose this photo because of the bit of attitude Debbie is showing off. There were some other photos with them laughing and smiling, but this one stood out from the others.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. I'll try to answer them best I can.

The Anniversary

It was my sister's anniversary this year with her husband. She asked me to babysit. Okay, she didn't ask, we volunteered. But it was still fun. We got to watch 4 kids and eat pizza. Somehow, we survived.

Since I was going to be coming over, Debbie did ask if I wouldn't mind taking some photos of her and Mike. They haven't had a photo taken of just them for quite awhile. I agreed and thought I would put to use some of the techniques I have learned lately.

For this particular photo, I used two lights. One was a 430ex speedlight camera left shot through an umbrella to soften the light. The other light was the sun. The sun was setting and creating a nice warm light that was just hitting the their hair. I did put a CTO gel on the speedlight to help match the warmth of the sun. The sun put a nice rim light on them while the speedlight filled in from the left.

This was captured during their fun banter between each other. There was a lot of playing around with these two so we have quite a few photos with bunny ears and open-mouth laughing. I did capture this photo and I choose this one to highlight because of the uniqueness to this photo. I like it because the anticipation of the kiss - just enough separation between them to create a highlight and their expressions show how much they care for one another. There is so much emotion spilling from this photo.

Happy Anniversary Debbie & Mike. I hope you enjoy the photos. The bill is in the mail. ;)