Off Camera Flash

Just a reminder: every now and then you should try to get the flash off the camera. It gives each shot a little different feel.

This can be done using a sync cord, infrared triggering device or, if you have a Nikon system, the camera's own pop-up flash will trigger a compatible speedlight--SB800 in this case.

For this shot I used a sync cord and held the flash in my left hand. This is a very common technique and usually when it is employed the flash is, understandably, coming from camera left. (You're holding the camera with your right hand and the obvious default is holding the flash up in your left hand.) As you can tell, however, the light in this photo is coming from camera right. All it took was a minor physical contortion. With the camera to your eye, bring your left shoulder under your chin, extend your left arm out to the right (take a quick peek to see that the flash is pointed at the subject!) and shoot.

A little extra effort and a simple portrait becomes just slightly more interesting.

Headshots

As I mentioned earlier, I do on occasion make portraits.

Kirk Penberthy is a voiceover artist and actor. (His website... here.) Among other things he's had parts in Homicide-Life on the Street, The Wire and the movie The Contender. Also, if you watched last year's Super Bowl you most likely saw this Coke commercial. Kirk's the moderator with James Carville and Bill Frist as the guests.

We did a photo session the other day and Kirk is kind enough to let me blog about today. (Thanks dude.)

The outside shot was done simply with a single speedlight (Nikon SB800) with a mini-softbox attached to help diffuse the light on his face. The speedlight was on a stand at camera right about a 45 degree angle between the camera and Kirk.

The photo inside was done with an SB800 shot through an umbrella that was placed high, directly above the camera. A white reflector is at Kirk's waist level just out of the frame. This helps fill in any unwanted shadows created by the main light. In the background there was another speedlight aimed at an angle at the wrinkled blue fabric creating a little bit of a pattern.

Oh and in case you people don't remember, Kirk is the father of this cool little fellow! And, of course, husband to the cool little fellow's mama (Mariel!) in that very same post.

Anyway, thanks Kirk. Fun shoot!

Be Prepared.

The sun is setting fast and the sky is looking good. I've got a wide angle lens and I've crouched down so as to highlight the clouds. The flash unit is in my left hand, held out and up. I've dropped the exposure by about a stop (I'm guessing here!) and flash exposure is preset in manual mode and likely is at 1/16th power, which usually works at this distance.

Knowing your settings and distance beforehand makes it much easier to capture shots like this.

Also, in the background you can just make out the young man on the lifeguard's chair I shot earlier. (You can scroll down to the "Quality of Light" post to see it.)

Jammin'

So I'm doing a job downtown, near Pennsylvania and 17th. It's a short little in and out. 6 photos. 4 exterior, 2 interior. Takes about 20 minutes to complete. Across the street I hear...hmmm what's that, Louis Armstrong? Miles? Dizzy? Groovy sounds drifting my way.

On the corner is this fellow with a white Redskin's cap. A bucket with an American flag in it. Trumpet case open, coins and bills scattered within. I'm not much of a "street photographer." Not my bag. But this looked to good to pass up.

I'm still on the other side of the street at this point. I pull out the flash, set it on 'remote'... I'm going to hold it off camera and trigger it wth the on camera pop-up flash. Zoom the flash head out to 105mm to get that spotlight look. Under expose the camera's meter by about a stop and a half and then I'm just waiting for the "walk" signal.

I decide I'll just stand there and watch for a little bit. Groovin' to the sounds. Here I am with an orange safety vest, hard hat, work boots, torn jeans, etc. Camera over my shoulder, green canvas bag with the flash in it. He's got to be wondering what this guy's all about!

So I'm boppin' to the tune he's layin' out there...(ya kickin' with my "jazzy" talk?) and I fish out a couple bucks. He catches this and without missing a beat pulls his hat off his head and holds it out to me. I deposit the dough and he flips it back on. Keeps blowin'.

I groove a little bit more then casually pull the flash out of the bag, kneel down in front and take a few shots. He's down with it. No problem. I nod, say thanks. He nods back. Never stops playing.

Get this kid a Kilt!

Spent some time with the Penberthys yesterday. We met at Ri-Ra, a little Irish pub in Bethesda. The place was nearly empty. (Perfect!) A half dozen patrons at the bar, and a small group of musicians partaking in an Irish Seisiun. Fiddle, guitar, flute, banjo and bodhran (wooden framed drum). Quite the festive atmosphere. Made all the more so by the young Talan dancing in his own Cornish/English/German/Celtic/Groovy/Breakdance way. Spinning, twirling, falling down (on purpose!), getting back up, shaking his hips. He clearly had himself a blast! And so did we all.

I used only the on-board flash for these shots. Panned a couple of times as the tiny dancer zipped past me. As usual, a 1/4 cto gel over the flash to help keep the light balanced with the interior lights. That is all.

Cheers.

Jeremy Wade Shockley

This is Jeremy. I met him a couple years ago at a workshop in Jackson, Wyoming. His photo-essay of the Meade Ranch was well received by all. And I'm talking people like David Alan Harvey, Jodi Cobb, William Albert Allard, and James Hill. His work is sensitive, thoughtful and moving. Everyone out there quickly learned he was a great talent.

He visited the east coast recently and we had a chance to hang out and shoot. It was great to hear his thoughts about photographing people. I learned a lot. You can check out some of his work... right here.

As a thank you for sharing some of his insights, I took him out to the Falls--in a driving rain storm with crashing thunder and cloud-to-ground lightning no less! But hey, that's just the kind of guy I am! Luckily, it blew through fairly quickly and we were able to get out to the overlook for some shots.

I chose to focus mainly on the man. (We don't often get to show up in front of the camera) In the first image I just threw a little fill light on him, 1/2 CTO gel and a slightly underexposed background. In photo #2, I lifted the camera above my head and tripped off three or four shots, hoping for the best. I like how his hat stands out against the whitewater below. Last shot was at the house. Simple window light... nothing better than that.

Anyway, it was a great visit. Thanks Jeremy. Catch you next time in Durango!

Are You Experiencing Your Camera?

Thought I'd present a little comparison between relying on your camera's default, auto everything modes and taking some control yourself over the final image.

Today's cameras, no doubt, are sophisticated and advanced enough to almost always provide you with a good image. No matter what the lighting situation. Whether it be a bright sunny day at the beach or a candle lit dining room at home. The metering systems and the default settings in most dSLRs today are up to the task.

But there is so much more these cameras can do when you dig down deep inside the menus and start personalizing some of those settings!

Now...we've already blown the modeling budget for the year, so for today's comparison we had to rely on some flunky on the Kircher's Conceit staff.

First up...Nikon D200 at default settings. Auto white balance. Pop-up flash. Flunky.

This is a fine picture. Well exposed. The camera did a good job of metering, handling three different light sources (daylight, incandescent light, and flash.) But for my taste, I'd prefer a little less flash, and a little more saturation and contrast.

So...same camera and lighting situation but this time I dialed down the flash 3/4 of a stop, added a 1/2 CTO gel to it, pumped up the saturation--just a bit, don't want to look cartoonish--and added some contrast. And yes, all this can be done in the camera! (Who needs Photoshop?)

Anyway, here's the second shot.

I like the skin tone in this one more. I also like that it's hard to tell that a flash was even used. Just popped a little bit in there for the shadows.

Of course, people's tastes are different. You might be perfectly happy with what you are working with right now. You might like something altogether different. But know your camera's limits, its capabilities.

Much fun to be had! Cheers.

Scene Changer.

Let's have another go at trying to spice up a somewhat dull scene. To keep it simple we'll use similar colored gels as before. Also we're not posing anybody. Have to work with what's happening naturally. OK, to start with we have Rachel up in the garret preparing to do taxes. (Fun!) Anyway, this is pretty much a straight forward shot. This is how the space normally looks. Ugly, incandescent, overhead lights.

So, two things, no wait... three things right off the bat. 1) Underexpose the scene by about a stop. 2) Add a flash at about model's eye level, off to one side. 3) Get down low to eliminate distracting background clutter.

OK, this is pretty interesting. Looks like maybe the sun is coming in from a side window (it's not!).

Next, let's add another flash. Splash it against the back wall with a purple/bluish gel to give it maybe a little flair. Same general perspective, throw in a vertical shot, maybe a foreground element or two and well not such a boring setting after all!

Avuncular Duties.

Babysat the little Q-bug last night. She really is a joy. When she says my name it just absolutely crushes me! So sweet. And for some reason she thinks Rachel and I are swell, too. Go figure!

She and Rachel played with pretty much every toy in the house and there are a lot of toys! Many of them are behind the couch, so she climbs up there and points and says, "Mine." Rachel touches a toy and says, "This one?" She shakes her head and continues pointing saying, "Mine," until Rachel randomly falls upon the correct item. Very cute...until you tire of it and then decide OK here are the toys we're playing with tonight, deal! (So, OK, that was me...not Rachel.)

Anyway, she's a lovely little girl and I can't wait to watch her grow into an adolescent, then teenager, then young woman...and so on.

Oh, and she loves her kitties. Everytime one saunters into the room..."Hi kitty!" Terribly cute

The shot above was a quick grab shot (I do that a lot!) Slow shutter speed with a little fill flash gives it that cool sense of motion. Oh and that's Tiki with her.

Opportunities

This weekend I was presented with a great opportunity and a great challenge. I was lucky enough to be one of about 15 or so photographers to have free reign throughout the Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center out at Dulles International. (Thanks Rob!) The place is massive. And it has everything! From the Enola Gay to the Enterprise Space Shuttle...and more! As I said, quite the opportunity!

The great challenge? Making interesting photos. Like most museums Udvar-Hazy is well lit...not nicely lit, but well lit. The photo above of the Flying Tiger gives you a good idea about how it looks throughout all the hangars. Not very compelling, really. And, frankly, it's not supposed to be. It's a museum. It is supposed to display things for people to see. It's not supposed to look really cool for us photographers. That's our job. Make it look cool.

Well, I had no idea what I was going to do. I had brought a minimal amount of equipment, taking a less is more approach. I had never been there, knew nothing of the size of the space or the lighting or the things I'd see. Totally blind. So, after we were given a brief orientation we were set free. I walked around just taking a few snapshots here and there, getting acquainted...trying different compositions. But I bored quickly of that. I soon realized it was the dull lighting that was boring me. I had to create better light.

I pulled out of my pack two speedlights and a couple gels. One blueish-purple, the other amber. I underexposed the ambient light by about two stops--maybe just one and a half, not too sure. But this significantly brought down the plain white light of the museum making for pretty dark photos. I then simply needed to add my own light, using the colored gels to get a little drama out of them. I am fairly happy with the results, but I'd love to get back there someday with the knowledge of the place I now have...I'd bring a couple more speedlights, try a few more tricks.

Until then, here are a few of the shots from that morning. Hope you like.

Santa!

Heck...with just the right amount of holiday "cheer" even yours truly believes!

Merry Christmas!