same angle, different light

I was coming back from lunch today and noticed the sky was very grey and mottled with dark and light.
I had my camera in the car and took a minute to snap 9 bracketed shots (camera on a tripod).
I ran three of the exposures through photomatix and then opened the image in photoshop.
I retouched dirt spots in the grass and then used the dodge and burn tool, alot, to create some dark and light areas and give it the feel i wanted.
I was very tired tonight after a very long week but i could not stop on this one till it was done.
I am glad i stuck with it and was able to stay awake.

watching the light

I was mowing the lawn last night and noticed my neighbor, who is a very talented artist, working on a wood carving.
The sun was high and not in the right spot but was moving in the right direction. I would mow a strip and look at the sun, mow a strip and look at the sun, etc, etc. It was still probably 20 minutes from being where i wanted it but my lawn was done and he was about to mow his, so i was going to loose him. I grabbed a 50mm f1.4 and my 80-200 f2.8 and started shooting. The long lens was ok but the 50 set to 1.4 was where i wanted to be. I shot a bunch more to the front of him and was pretty well done when i thought i would try a side angle into the sun. Flare was an issue of course and i had to use a bit higher angle than i wanted and hold my hand above the lens as a shade. I was waiting for him to hold the carving in a way that i could see it a bit better but i didn't want to instruct in any way. I wanted this shot to form up all on its own.
In photoshop i did a couple curve adjustments, a couple vignettes, retouched a bit with the healing tool, and used the burn and dodge tool quite a bit. I dodged, set to highlights, around his right eye and the highlight on the front of the birds face. I wanted to try and create two points that would attract the viewers eye.
As usual i was very glad i grabbed my camera or it would have been another one of those shots that got away.

one light after dark

I haven't shot much lately and have been itching to get the camera out.
A new profile photo for facebook is always a good excuse and it worked tonight.
I set up one light (sb flash) bounced into an umbrella and up fairly high placed to the left of frame.
I wanted to capture some blue in the sky and there was not much there so had to shoot at f1.4 with a 50mm lens.
I set the flash to its lowest setting and used a long shutter speed, 1/10 sec i think to bring up the sky.
Hardest part was focusing as it was dark out and camera was searching alot. I had a couple shots that i really liked that were out of focus.

on my way to a shoot

Just on my way to a shoot and thought i would throw up a photo of the day.

nothing special

Nothing special today, just tired and heading to bed.

new hdr

I haven't shot an hdr image in awhile so thought it was about time.
I was going into an awards shoot and the doorman was looking to see if anyone was coming.
I hand held as i did not have a tripod with me and blended three exposures in photomatix pro (new version out by the way).
I was not centered and the right side was trailing off into the distance so i used the transform - skew and made it so the lines in the photo were straight and even and the right side looked more like the left.
I also used the dodge tool a fair bit over the doors where the text is.

f2 portrait

I took a portrait today that i was very happy with. Not only was the shoot fun but the results also met my expectations.
And I had some expectations on this one.
I had decided, before i arrived, that i would be using a 85mm lens set to f1.8 and two or three sb off camera flashes.
I turned the flashes way down (only used two in the end) and set one into an umbrella and the other pointed direct at the background from a sharp angle on the right hand side of the frame.
I set the main light (umbrella) as close to him as i could get it so the light would wrap around his face.
While setting up i had also decided to set this main light further around to the left and to shoot from a low angle. As much as i preach about having a idea before you start i also would say that if its not working then change gears. I didn't like the low angle but did not realize that until i shot from a higher one halfway through the shoot. I also moved the light around more so the light would hit both eyes and switched to f2 for just a touch more depth of field.
In photoshop i retouched a bit, not much, and added a vignette. I also increased the contrast using the method i have described in the past (new layer, desaturate,mode to luminosity,up highlights and lower shadows, and lower the layers opacity).
I had decided to shoot this in his living room as he has a house of color and was made to photograph in. That was my best decision of the day.

a walk around town

I went for a little walk on saturday morning and decided to bring my camera along.
These are just a couple straight up shots, no fancy work done to them.
I thought they went together nicely.

stand out in a crowd

I photographed the president of a building association recently and this is one of the shots.
The client sent me two photos as ideas and wanted to have her in amongst a crowd of hard hats.
The shot was supposed to be taken from above but i did this angle first and then moved to the higher shot.
I liked this one and the client likes the other. I never have a problem with a client liking a different shot, no matter how much i like another. I would not be shooting the image to begin with if it were not for them and at the end of the day i want them happy so they will have me back for more.
I lit this with two sb flashes pointed directly at the subject. My main was more powerful than my fill by a bit and i was careful to place her in the light and not someones shadow. I did not have long for this one as all the guys gathered around as soon as we got there and i hadn't even set up a light stand yet. The doors were also wide open in this warehouse and it was freezing in there. My guess would be 10 minutes max on this from get there to tear down.
In photoshop i darkened everyone except my subject by creating a darker layer and making a mask. I also put a lens blur on that layer as well.

baby photos

I was at an event tonight where a very good friend of ours won a very big award.
Her daughter and granddaughter were also there and I was trying to make the baby smile.
She gave me the strangest little looks so of course i had to take some photos.
I wanted to be in fairly close so used a 35mm lens. I wanted a shallow depth of field so i set the lens to f2.0.
In a recent little lesson i gave, i talked about deciding how you want your photo to look before you take it. I have talked about doing that alot on this blog and this photo was just another example of that.
If my camera had been set to program mode instead of manually setting the exposure, my flash would have popped up, my fstop would have probably been 5.6, and the background would have been black because the camera would have chosen a faster shutter speed. And i would not have been posting that shot on my blog.
Take the time to play with your camera, learn how to shoot in manual mode, and i promise you will enjoy your photos a whole lot more.

church two

another photo of my church excursion.
No photoshop on this one. Went pure photo on it.
I did do some work on a few images tonight i had shot awhile ago for a magazine cover.
I will post them when i run out of church photos.

Cathedral walk

I got a chance to go for a little walk the other morning with some friends and took a couple photos around this church.
I did nothing to this shot other than expose properly in camera and crop it a bit.
Two more shots in the que for the next couple days.

window light

I have been away, so to say.
Now I am back.
I will post photos.
Today and the next day.
I setup a light stand with an off camera flash and a large umbrella tonight to take a nice photo of my daughter, and then i did not use it. The light from the window was very, very nice. I wanted to shoot it at f1.8 for a nice shallow depth of field with an 85mm lens. That aperature in the end was too shallow however. The eye on the left was nice and sharp and the other eye was way too soft. I increased to f2.8 to bring in the other eye a bit and was satisfied. In photoshop i desaturated, applied a vignette, and dodged and burned the eyes to bring up the contrast of them a bit. When you burn use a low tolerance, like 7, and set to shadows. When you dodge use a low tolerance, like 7, and set to highlights. A few passes over the eyes and you will notice a nice improvement.
Its good to be back.

bit of a break

I have not been shooting for the last two weeks as i had a little surgery repair on a small hernia.
It still hurts and i will be taking it easy for a few more weeks to recover. Today was my first day back to work and tonight i can certainly feel it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better and stronger.
As part of my recovery my son made me some cupcakes. He used a recipe from the "kitchen boss" show on TLC for the cakes and butter cream icing and they were incredible. These were the only photos i took while i was off and of course had to be made.
I used a low depth of field (f2 i think) and available light from my kitchen. Pretty basic and simple but effective i think.

seeing in black and white

A black and white photo walked into my office today, and it had to be shot.
I knew exactly what light i wanted to use, i knew how to get the pose (a little music and some dancing), and five minutes later i had the image and was downloading.
In photoshop i desaturated in lightroom, upped the contrast in photoshop with a curve, retouched the background, and created a vignette. The only other thing i did was use the burn tool set to shadows and went over the dark side of his face to darken it up some more.
Thats it. Five minutes shooting, five minutes processing, and image complete.
It wasn't till the drive home after work that i thought of something i would have rather done.

do i hear 12 into 1

I went to an auction last weekend and took a few shots of the action going on. They had 300 vehicles go through their bay and it was pretty cool to watch, for an hour or so anyway. I ended up shooting from a bunch of different angles but the one your looking at was the first one i picked. I was using a 24mm lens and although it brought a great deal of the room to the sensor, it did not bring enough. I held the camera vertical with the 24mm and did a few panos. This shot was made from 12 seperate images. I usually try to shoot close to a 180 degree view just to give me the flexibility to crop later. You always loose a bunch on the top and bottom of the image also which is why i shoot a wide lens vertically.

looking for an angle

I shot an event the other night where our premier spoke to 1000 people. I thought i would try some different angles and during the course of his speech i was pretty well all over the room. I really only needed a few shots of him but for some reason i decided that this was a good time to challenge myself. Motivation is a very good thing for a photographer. Some are motivated to do good work by money, awards, and other peoples praise of their work. And whats wrong with all that. Photographers are a weird bunch though. Their main desire, and what keeps them going and growing, is to please themselves. To look at a photo after you have spent time shooting it, and more time working it on the computer, and say wow. To see what you envisioned in your mind before you even took the shot come to life is a beautiful feeling. This is what motivates photographers.
I shot this at a wide open at f2.8 so the lights in the background would not have a hexagon pattern from the lens. I played with the composition so he was encompassed in lights and they were in a pleasing location behind him, not coming out of his eye or mouth. I set the camera to high speed motor drive and held my finger on the shutter release when he would turn his head my way as facial expression can sure make or break a photo. Camera settings were iso 800, 1/160 sec, and used an 80 - 200 lens set at 160mm, white balance set to tungsten. I took about 70 frames and ended up with one i liked.
There was alot of thinking behind the shot and even more patience used up but in the end i was very happy with it, and lightly, under my breath, all alone in my office, i might have even said wow.

adding "son" to the business name

My son had to take a photo for a school project tonight and i think he did a great job.
He needed a photo to bring in so he could write a story about it. Fred is his cat and only his. He sleeps on his bed every night and really doesn't pay much attention to anyone else in the family.
We used an off camera flash held to the left of the photo, that was my part, and he did the rest, as in taking the photo, doing all lightroom adjustments, and touching up in photoshop. I did add a vignette with his supervision but that was all.
Great shot, by a great young man.

many me

I had to set up the studio this morning for a couple head shots and when i do this i take a couple test shots of myself where the subject would be to see how the lighting is. I took the couple shots and then had an idea, which you see before you. I had planned on taking a bunch of shots of me in different shooting positions and then having me again posing on the chair. Then my buddy walked by and I decided to make him the subject with me shooting and primping him.
I was lucky with my positions as they didnt overlap each other and balanced quite well.
To do this i just set the camera to self timer on a tripod and the focus on manual. I would just hit the shutter button and then get into position. I then just opened all the photos i wanted to use in photoshop and drug then all onto one image, i think i ended up with 5 layers or so. I then created masks on each layer and painted with the brush tool on the masks till i could see what i wanted on each and have the rest hidden. It was very easy and really took no time at all. The only tricky parts were the shadows created by my different positions but i just blended them in by painting on the mask with a lower opacity brush.
My only complaint was that i look bald in photos (ha).

different shot to start the year

I thought I would start the new year with something a bit different.
I was going to use this post to talk about reflection on the past year and how photographers use the christmas break to analyze their work, past, present, and future.
Instead i think i will ease into the year by wishing all that read this blog the very best and hope we all have a fun and creative year ahead. I am very much looking forward to it.

closer hdr

I shot a couple angles of the windows i shot last night and this is the close up.
I processed this one to look a bit more like the typical hdr images you may have seen around.
I used a 7 image bracket and then in photomatix combined 3 images.
Photomatix can be a little bit of a guessing game with all the sliders it offers so i thought i would post my settings for this shot.
Strength 100, color saturation 63, luminosity +6.3, monocontrast 100, smoothing low, white point .926, black poing .111, gamma 1.090.
I then brought it into photoshop and sharpened, did a curve to boost the contrast a bit, and added saturation as i wanted the colors to really pop.

nighttime hdr

I haven't done many hdr shots in awhile.
I had to shoot windows of downtown stores tonight and this is certainly one of the nicer looking stores on my list.
I decided to shoot an hdr of it and used three of the 9 exposures to make the image.
The only other thing i did was retouch the top of the image a bit and apply a vignette and sharpen.
My fingers are just warming up.

happy holidays

We had a great year and hopefully you did as well.
Happy holidays to all of you that frequent this blog.
For this fun family photo i combined two different shots to use the best of both.
The camera was on a tripod so not much changed between them.
I placed one on top of the other and used auto align layers and then used a mask on the top layer.
I did have some retouching to do afterwards as there were parts that just didnt show through properly but for the most part it wasnt too bad.
I applied a curve to warm up the blacks (just add magenta and yellow to the shadows) and applied a couple vignettes to darken up the edges.

hi contrast card

Thanks first off to these models for permission to post this image to my blog.
I was happy with the shot and wanted to make sure i got the notes down so i would remember how i did it, as well of course as sharing the information so others could do it too.
I set up 4 lights. The main, which was high and ust to the right a bit, was a large softbox shooting straight accross the ceiling. I had a light on the left and right which were reflected into umbrellas. I also had a light high up and directly behind the group which was aimed direct at them with a 40 degree grid spot. The power packs were all set to full power and the lowest setting they could go.
In lightroom i put the recovery, fill light, contrast, and clarity at 100%. My blacks were at 70% and saturation was -38%.
In photoshop i sharpened about 37% and added a vignette (twice actually) to burn the edges down. I also applied a curve to increase the blacks and lighten the highlights (just moved the top and bottom of the curve in a bit).
This was just a fooling around shot at the end of the shoot by the way. Otherwise i probably would have removed the last pair of socks.

collage project

No explanation November is almost over so its now time for descriptive December.
I have decided to start collecting images for a collage project. I have no idea what it will look like in the end and really only have this one image so far. I guess anything can happen now. I will post images as i collect them. I will also try to get lots of images up early in the month as i plan to try and stay off the computer over the christmas break.
I upped the clarity in this photo and wanted even more so in lightroom i also painted over the entire image with the adjustment brush which i had put the clarity at +100. I also lowered the saturation and did nothing else.

david suzuki

swamp pano

Remembrance Day

cat

hdr theater

a face in the crowd

into the sun

black and white

karate action

This is a little different image for me today.
I shot this against the dojo wall but it included some of the ceiling as well. I wasn't happy with the background to say the least but liked the lighting and action, post looked cool too (upped the clarity and ran it though photomatix).
All i did to darken the background down was to create a new layer and then ran the vignette three times on it set to max. I then created a mask and dodged it out a bit.
I am still not happy with the background and will perhaps try the image again, not sure.
I am excited and very much looking forward to a big shoot i have tomorrow so i may just have to move on.

colors

Tonight i am trying to finish up a job i shot a couple weeks ago and have been doing alot of hdr on the photos since then.
I really enjoyed the shoot and am enjoying the photos even more, thanks "A".
This is a crop of a chair image that was in someones yard downtown. I ran the single image through photomatix and then sharpened heavily. I also added +33 to the saturation to get the color to how it felt to me when i shot it.
I have alot of images to prepare and once my clients website is live i will direct you there to view the rest.

football action

This is a shot i took at my sons football game today.
I thought the image was a little quirky with the ref, guy in the air, ball half in, etc.
Thus it had to be posted.
When i shoot sports by the way i like to be lazy. By lazy i mean that i turn my brain off and use aperture priority on my camera. This of course is not being lazy i know. The light seems to change so much that you could miss a great shot. The clouds blocking the sun just as your scene is unfolding would be one example. Aperture priority setting usually solves this and gets your exposure close enough. I also use the largest aperature on my lens (f2.8) to blur out the background.

car hdr

I took a couple minutes today on a visit to my parents to shoot a quick hdr of my car.
I used a tripod of course and bracketed 9 exposures. I chose three of the exposures and exported from lightroom to photomatix pro. I then added a heavy vignette and spent some time on curves to get the look i wanted. I also sharpened about 100.
I created a mask on my vignette layer and painted through to the unvignette layer underneath in the areas that i wanted to show through bright, like around the car and a line up to the top of the image through the trees.
The left image is the normal exposure with nothing done to it.

swimming action

I shot some swimming action photos tonight and ended up being happy with a couple of them. Swimming is not the easiest sport to shoot i have found. First my camera and lenses were in my car for an hour or so before i went to the pool and as such were cold. The second i stepped on deck the lenses fogged and 15 minutes later were still fogged. I spent the next five minutes wiping them off with a lens cloth and was then able to shoot. I found out a few years ago that they do not like it when you bring in a couple off camera flashes, thus i was shooting in a fairly dark, wet area. My iso setting ended up being 2000 and my camera settings were f2.8 (70 - 200mm lens) and 1/400 sec. I ended up using aperature priority mode as the light fell off about two stops as they got closer to the edge of the pool. It worked out pretty good shooting horizontally but was a bit dark when i switched to vertical. The next tricky part was the focus. I used continuous focus tracking and continuous high motor drive. The camera however liked to focus on the water being splashed up in front of the swimmer. I think if i were shooting this sport for a living i would play with my cameras fine tune focus to tweak it just a bit further back. The only other problem i encountered was a huge splash on a swimmers turn that covered me, camera, and lens.
I shot 4gb worth and ended up with a few keepers and wet jeans from the knees down. Just another day at the office.
I played a bit in photoshop too by the way. I bumped up the clarity, sharpened, and lowered the saturation for a more muted look.

yet another gull

Another seagull. I know.
I have so much real work to do but yet it is 11:30 at night and i am sitting alone in the dark masking out this seagull that i shot today during my daughters soccer game. Crazy i know.
Its times like this that we often ask ourselves why we do the things we do. The answer for me is enjoyment and the satisfaction of creating an image that i am happy with. Everyone would have their own reasons of course but i think the one thing that photographers would share is the need to create images. Its like an addiction but worse, its part of who we are. Be it photos of seagulls, people, landscapes, or whatever. The subject itself does not really matter.
For this photo i made a duplicate layer and bumped the contrast way up with a curve and then changed the layers mode to multiply. This gave me a pretty funky sky but made the gull pretty well black. I masked out the gull from this contrast layer so it kept its detail in the underlying layer. I sharpened the photo and thats about it. The masking took awhile but i thought in the end it was worth the time.
Looking at the photo now i realize that i should have darkened the bottom right corner some more so your eye would stop there and bounce back into the image. Some sleep right now is more important however.

back to hdr

The sky last night was amazing. This photo does not do it justice unfortunately.
I walked out of a building beside this one after a shoot and i was tired. Actually tired may not be a strong enough word, you get the point. I got in my car and i drove 20 feet. There i sat and debated if i was going to go into the trunk, dig out the camera, set up a tripod, and do an hdr of this scene before me. It was a toss up, did i mention that i was tired, but in the end the sky won.
I set up a tripod and put a wide angle lens on the camera. I shot 9 bracketed shots, several times, and then hopped back in the car and came home.
I planned to wait and photoshop the image when my brain was functioning but again the scene won out and i had to download and process right away. I ran 5 images through photomatix pro and then opened it in photoshop. The building was distorted like crazy from shooting it at a low angle with a wide angle lens. I worked on a curve first just to see if i could make the image look good and then moved on to transform skew. This worked for the building but the lamp post on the right hand side looked like the leaning tower of pisa, but worse. I made a loose selection around the lamp post and then hit copy and pasted it to a new blank layer. I then hid the layer and retouched the post out of the background layer (selected it and filled using content aware). I turned the new layer back on and rotated it until the post was straight. I retouched in some problems with the grass in the center of the image, added some yellow to the lamps, and did a vignette. Sharpened the image and i was done.
I was still tired in the end but was glad i stopped the car.

night wedding

I shot a wedding this past weekend that started at 6:30pm.
Thus when the wedding was over the days light was also almost over. I really, and i mean really, did not want to shoot group photos in a hotel ballroom against a blank wall so i quickly set up two sb nikon flashes and went to work setting up groups. It is amazing how fast you can get them done when it is really cold outside and it is getting darker by the second. It was so dark in fact when i shot this one that my camera was having a really hard time finding the focus.
The ground and trees in the background were black so i had to lay on the ground, in my freshly dry cleaned pants, and use what little light was left in the sky to break up the black. The shutter speed on this one was 1/3 sec, f3.5, and iso 500. I used a 35mm lens so i could get closer to the group and shoot up at a steeper angle. Of course the camera was hand held.
If it wasn't so dark and cold i would have adjusted this group a bit. I would have preferred some of the people in the back to be a bit higher but i really had to compromise on this one.
The wedding was great, i was happy with the photos, and i slept very well when i eventually got home.

no idea

I have no idea why i take photos of seagulls.
Even more so, i dont know why i post them on this blog.
Oh well.

street buskers

This is a shot of some street buskers that we watched during the harvest jazz and blues festival which was this past weekend. I played around with longer shutter speeds on some of the shots to create patterns with the fire. I should be able to post a few more this week.

photo effect

This is a filter that i recently found called pixel bender.
I am going to bed so i will explain it and give a link in my next post.

seagull portrait

I took this shot recently in bathurst new brunswick in between soccer games.
I am not much of a wildlife photographer but what i liked about this shot was the background and the color tones in the shot.
Since this one i have seen a coyote, in my subdivision, a moose, and deer. No other photos however.

business portrait

I was asked to shoot a portrait at work and there was only one problem, it was mid august and my brain was on vacation. The only thing going for me was that the guy i had to shoot looked good no matter what i did. I shot in various locations throughout the building that he works and then we walked across the street to the location seen in this photo.
For me, photographically, this location was by far the best for background. When looking at this shot you first just see his face, but when you look past to the background there is alot going on. There were some distracting reflections of light in some of the windows which i had to retouch out and i did some work on my subject with the healing tool and the liquify filter.
I used one sb flash bounced into an umbrella and placed to the right side. I balanced it with the ambient for the background.
For starting off slow i ended up being very happy with the shoot.
I will be talking about vision, and lack of, in the near future.

different angle

While shooting my sons baseball game i decided to photograph the rest of his team also so that i could send them some action shots to remember their season. I had fun and played around alot, with different lenses and angles. I laid along the third base line for a few, the same for first base, and took lots from behind the mound. This was just one of the shots that worked out pretty good.