Light is light!

   One of the most essential things in photography is light! No light, no photos. When you shoot during the day and it's sunny, there is an abundance of light and thus it's fairly easy to make images. The challenge is to avoid to burn out the highlights and trying to get rid of too contrasty shadows (Unles that's your intention.). When we get to the evening side of the day the light amount starts to drop and the darker it gets you start have trouble with low light. What would be the solution? Artificial lighting is the easiest way to cope with lowlight situations. And what could be better than a speedlight or a strobe or two? So easy to add some punch to your images with one flash. When shooting in a fairly dark surroundings in the city there is though one more option to be used when it comes to lighting your subject. About a week ago I had the privilege to do a photo shoot with Emma. The chosen location was the surroundings of a nearby mall. In this shoot we used both the existing light only and a combination of both existing and strobe light. The challenge with the light you find all around you while walking in the streets is that it's usually fairly weak when it comes to photography. The further you go from the light the less it illuminates your subject. You can always open your aperture or you can raise your ISO, both having their drawbacks. One thing you can do, what we did, is to place your subject as close to the light as you can. This way you'll get the most out of the light. Here's a couple of examples...

        You still might have to raise your ISO for this kind of lighting, but placing your subject enough close the light source, you'll get most out of it and you still get to the ISO level as low as possible.

  How about a combination of strobe and existing light? Just choose a shutter speed that allows you to have some of that existing light shown and then illuminate your subject with a strobe as your key light. Simple as that! Here's a few images made this way...

    So in the end light is just light no matter if it comes from the sun, a light bulb or strobe! Whatever you decide to use, know your light and use it for your advantage!

While packing my belongings

  Even if I kind of love to get out there and make a few dramatic portraits in let's say for example some old abandoned buildings, there still is something in that lazy me who enjoys staying at home. If there is a good reason to shoot inside the four walls, why not! Technically I wouldn't say that my home is a very dramatic backdrop for any image. Just plain white walls and a few furniture. But as we are at the moment in the process of moving, I thought I'd execute one idea I've had already for quite awhile. Now when moving your stuff from place A to place B, it means that there's a bunch of boxes around, at least that's how the situation is here, and that means you could make a backdrop from those already filled or to be filled boxes, and that's precisely what I did. Piled the boxes, placed a small carpet on the floor, added some props to show what's our next destination, and then finally had my model, a.k.a. my wife to sit down on the floor. Nothing very ingenious, but a lot of fun and a good break between packing. To light my scene I used one speedlight with minimal power setup shot through an umbrella, and this from up and camera left. The main light was an orange geled speedlight, softbox and a grid combination, from camera right and a low angle. Here's the resulting image...

    

Still life is still alive!

  One cool way to hone photography skills is to shoot still life photos. Of course in the field, there are those moments when you find some interesting things or items which for sure can be seen as still life subjects, then you shoot them, edit them and eventually showcase them, but in my opinion it's a different story to make up something by your self than just rely on something you just found by chance, something that was made by someone else. First you need to have an idea, so it trains your imagination. Lately I've got some fruits from people I know, so I've used those as a starting point for my images. It's always possible to use just one item, but I usually try to see if there are at hand some other items I can use together with the start subject. Then I just start building my still life scene while shooting and trying different combinations and angles. The other thing where still life photography helps you is lighting. It doesn't matter if you are using available light or artificial light, when shooting still life you have all the time you need to change and see which lighting looks best, and I'm pretty sure the subject won't come up with any complaints. So next time when you are bored and don't know what to shoot, or maybe the weather makes you want to stay at home, why not try a still life shoot. Here's a few of mine, inspired by pumpkin, pomegranate and grapes...

    

Steampunk / fantasy portrait

  Felt that I need a portrait shoot yesterday, so I asked my spouse if she could model for me. You really don't need much for a portrait shoot, but I wanted to do a bit of a fantasy / steampunk kind of a shoot. An old cap that I'm still using sometimes, funny welding glasses, a scarf and then of course some extra props like an axe, white globe, old keys etc. and there you go, your model has been transformed to the hero you need for your shoot.

  For lighting I  used mainly one flashgun from the camera right, shot through a softbox, and a white reflector camera left to fill in a little. In a couple of images we had a flashgun inside the globe as well. Here's the results. You can make up the stiry by your self. Enjoy...

A fairy tale shoot in the garden

  Had a wonderful shoot in our garden this week. As so often, Krisi volunteered to model, so big thanks for her. I had planned for a while a photo shoot under the walnut tree, and finally we had the opportunity. This time it took a while to prepare, but it was definitely worth it. During the last couple of years I have made a nice small collection of lanterns, so I thought it would be nice to use them as well. Then we had a nice set of other props as well, white mask, candles, wine bottle, moose horn, birdcage etc. just to ad to the mood of the shoot. Happy that none of the lanterns didn't fall as we were shooting. The theme was something like "fairy tale supper in the garden". For the lighting I used only one speedlight shot through an umbrella.

  

It takes only few minutes

  Thought I'd share a few images from yesterday. For a long time I've wanted to make a fantasy themed photo shoot in a forest, but it seems that I'll just can't find the time for it. As I'm waiting I'll try to use the time as well as I can and use the opportunities in between, for small photo shoots. This time the session didn't take more than 15-20 minutes. I used some props I've collected from here and there, a top hat, my own coat, my wife's scarf, an umbrella, the models iphone etc.
  For lighting only one simple small speedlight and a shoot through umbrella. As the walls were white and I wanted darker surroundings I hanged a dark cloth on the wall. It's simple as that.

    

Light and white

  Just to do something different, I decided it would be nice to try a hi-key type of shoot. Light and white. Krisi volunteered to model, which was nice and I appreciate it a lot. It was a fun shoot, she did a great job, even if my model guiding skills are still evolving and at the moment are close to zero. In my opinion hi-key is a bit easier than low-key. Just make everything white around you, and let the light flow. For this shoot I used only one speedlight shot through an white umbrella, and one silver reflector to the right. Simple but effective. Even if I still love somewhat more more dark toned images, it's still nice to make some airy light and bright images from time to time.

Control

  If I could choose where to shoot, it most certainly would be away from home. Maybe in an abandoned building or in a mysterious forest. But as much as I do love to shoot outside it can be a challenge sometimes to haul my self out there, you know because of laziness. One more thing is that if I have the privilege to work with someone who is willing to model, I just don't like the idea of him or her freezing to death. It's not that much of a problem during the spring, summer or fall, but the winter. So if the weather isn't fine enough just stay at home. It's so nice to work inside when it's warm and cozy. Good for me, good for the model and the equipment. So what would you have to have in mind when shooting portraits at home?
  I'm not lucky enough to live in a fancy place with lots of square meters. What's worse is that the ceiling is pretty low, you can stand and touch it with your hand without a ladder or chair. The ceiling is white as they tend to be often and the walls are painted light beige. Not too bad if you want to shoot images that require light, maybe some hi-key portraits. But how about some dark low-key stuff? Biggest issue would be the light bouncing from the ceiling and walls, and hitting things you don't want. So definitely a problem, but solvable problem.
  A large black piece of fabric will make a nice dark backdrop and kill some of that light that otherwise would reflect from the walls. The next thing would be to control your light. For the following images I used two different kinds of light modifiers, a home made grid which nicely directs the light to only one direction, and a flash bender, which allows you to direct the light and prevent light hitting for example the wall or ceiling or both.
  So in the end it's all about controlling the light. In a a large space it's obviously easier, but if you are working in a small room you still can manage. Fastest sync speed possible, stopped down f-number, inverse square law, light modifiers, all of these help you to have control over your light.

Lighting up the winter

  I'm on little vacation from nature photography it seems. Of course I'm already eagerly waiting the herp season 2017 to get off, but it will take a while until we are there. So what to do while waiting? Days are getting shorter and that means less light. Good time for some portraiture with some artificial lighting. You don't need to fancy equipment. One flash light may be enough, just as I wrote in my previous post. The rest is up to you. A model and some props. As a model for this shoot was chosen my lovely wife. She was the MUA as well. Clothes from her wardrobe. Some props hanging around were chosen as well... grandpas old alarm clock, a small hat hanging on the wall as a decoration, one free running cat, a snifter and some cheap brandy ( the idea was to use some red wine, but some moron drank it all.). Oh, and a fabric that's waiting to become a dress some day was used as a backdrop. Simple, right? Afterwards some PP. Tried to achieve some kind of a steampunk western look with the filters I used. For an half an hour shoot I'm pretty satisfied with results.

     

How many do you need?

  Obviously the essential form shaper in photography is light. We have the ambient light and then there is the artificial light. So often we tend to love the first, and to fear the second. It feels so safe to rely on the surrounding light. Just choose your aperture and shutter speed and go. But how about when the light surrounding us is not good or there just is too little of it? Of course we could always pump up our ISOs or use a slower shutter, but all this could introduce some other problems, like noise or unsharp subject. That's when the artificial light comes in handy. There's lots of options available, but my favorite is manual speedlights. They are cheap and easy to haul around where ever you go. So, how many lights do you really need for a shoot? I own a couple speedlight units. I carry them with me almost always and everywhere, and then I usually found my self using only one single. We are pretty satisfied with only one sun, so why wouldn't one speedlight do just as well? The only thing to remember is, get that thing off camera. No matter if you use a cable, optical or radio trigger... Get it off your camera! And learn to work with one light first, later it's easy to ad some more lights if you feel or have to. Here's a few portraits made with only on single off camera flash...

         

Sunflower field

  Yesterday evening we had promised to a friend of ours to drive her to water her garden plot just a little outside of the town. Just a perfect place for a little photo shoot, so I asked my wife if she could wear something else than the regular shorts and neon red sports t-shirt. Grabbed my gear and so we hit the road. While our friend was taking care of here vegetables, we moved a little further the road and found this tiny small crossroad kind of a place, from were a sunflower field started. At this point of the summer the sunflowers have seen their best days, but with the setting sun, and a few clouds they just made the perfect backdrop. Placed my lighting, made a few test shots and so we started. I wish we could have continued for a little longer, but due to an attack of some strange tiny and stingy insects I just decided to quit the shoot. Thanks to my models patience we still managed to make quite a few images. Here's a few...