trampoline shots

I like to fool around with mid air trampoline shots and tonight was no exception.
For the shot on the left I set up a sb flash on a light stand that was raised as high as it would go. I set the ambient light where i wanted it (shutter speed) and then waited for the action.
The shot on the right was just ambient light and i did a psudo hdr using the camera raw settings in lightroom.
I will quit stalling from the real work i have to do tonight.
By the way, the shot on the right is a skateboard that has all the hardware removed and then a pair of sneakers duct taped to it.

one light grad photo

I had a busy photography sunday today.
The image above is from a grad shoot with my niece. I really enjoy shooting these kind of images. I use one light and an umbrella (a small silver one because it wont blow over too easy) and walk around downtown and look for cool locations. I like the fact that i can play with my compositions and light and that i only have one person in front of the camera to worry about.
It was pretty much a stress free shoot compared to the one i did just before it where i had 60 people looking at me to make decent images.
Grads are also fun because i like to challenge myself to make them all look different. I may shoot in this particular alley alot, my favorite spot, but i always make it look different. My clients like this because they say i dont shoot "cookie cutter" grad photos. In defense of someone that shoots grads for a living, they dont have time to make them all unique. They have bookings every hour and need some kind of formula to make their business work.
I am all over the place here because i am watching zack arias live online giving a workshop at creative live.com, so i will finish this post up.
I shot this photo at f2.8 (to blur the background) at 100 iso and 1/250 sec (both of these settings were to darken down the ambient, which was cloudy). I used a 80 - 200 lens zoomed out to 80 but for the real shots i was zoomed closer to 200. Without the flash the image was not as good at all. I needed her lit and needed to over power the ambient just a bit.
I will post more of the photos as soon as i have a chance to play with them so you can see the real results.
Back to zack.

new look

Tonight i noticed some new templates on blogger and i was far overdue to change the look of this site.
Hope you all approve.
In keeping with my black and white month i have converted a very nice color photo. The sparks in color make this one but thats ok. I did not do much to this image in photoshop or lightroom but thought i would give you my camera settings in case you have the chance to recreate this one.
I used one off camera flash pointed directly at his face and set to the right of camera. This took care of him and i kept my shutter open to take care of the sparks. Remember to set your aperature for the flash exposure and the shutter speed for the ambient.
I used a 24mm lens and got in close, sparks were hitting me in the face and head but i did use glasses and a helmet. Shutter was at 1/20 sec hand held, f7.1, at iso 160. I have done shots like this before and just get the guy to weld a scrap piece of metal to something he is actually working on and then get him to grind on the angle you want the sparks to fly.

black and white

After my last post i decided to so some more black and white images. Mabey that will be my monthly theme for a change.
Black and white has always been my preference over color but for some reason i dont convert my images that often.
There are many ways to convert to black and white but here i just took the simple route and drug the saturation slider in lightroom to zero. I did do a curve in photoshop later to bring up the highlights and darken down the shadows and brought the clarity up a fair bit also. I added some bubbles from other photo as the original ones were pretty much just in a straight line. I just used the clone tool, as you can go from one image to another.
One thing i remembered after looking at the image i posted yesterday is that i left a bit of warmth in the photo, just added a curve is all. The one above has no color left at all.

im back

I just checked the date on my last post and it was a month and a half ago. Far too long to let this site go untouched.
I have been reading a few really good books which has absorbed my time (vince flynn is the author of them by the way).
I have also been taking lots of photos and have some good ideas for learning posts here. For example i shot a portrait the other night using two off camera small flashes and i want to show the full series from first to last. The first was not good but it got better by the end. I will get those images ready soon and discuss my thought process.
The one above is just me looking in the mirror. I got a new, used, 35mm f2.0 lens and was trying it out.
I did all photo adjustments in lightroom. Mostly heavy clarity, plus clarity in the adjustment brush. I did open in photoshop and did a much darker version and then masked back in the lighter parts i wanted.
In lightroom i did also do a vignette, tone curve, and sharpened.
Thanks for staying with me during my absence. I had over 1000 hits last month, and thats with no posts. Going for a few more this month.
cheers