Other side of the camera

I was actually in front of the camera last week. I did a quick little Q & A for the Sony channel. I'll stay behind the camera from now on. #photolife

Little Light That Could

The LED Lenser P7 is always part of my camera bag. Thanks Christine The Photographer for helping me making this image.

If you've ever been to a Click Monkey Event, Preston Castle Photo Day, or have just come along on a shoot with me, then you know that one of my favorite tools is the LED lenser P7. I first came across it in 2009 at Costco. It was on sale and you who know me, I hate to pass on a good deal! I’m always on the lookout for cool lights. I kept it in my bag for a few weeks before I discovered what it was capable of.

I was shooting some portraits in Tahoe with natural light and just grabbed the flashlight to see what it could do. WOW, was I impressed with it! The P7’s quality of light, power, and color temperature was spot on! The way it put light out was smooth with no crazy patterns or hot spots. I had tried a Maglite flashlight in the past and was always disappointed with the result, so I didn’t expect much from this light. The next revelation was that I could focus the beam with one had very easily. This was a huge help in getting just the right light on the subject.

Now, I must say that I warn my models when I’m going to use it on them and also to not look directly into the light. I also try not to keep the P7 shining straight in my subject’s eyes for very long. It is a tactical flashlight and VERY bright!

I have since built up my collection to around 14 different LED flashlights. I was even able to get 3 prototypes of a true red, a true green, and true blue flashlight from LED Lenser. I was very fortunate because only two color flashlights were ever made. Those prototypes gave me an additional option when shooting, as they add a very interesting splash of color to my images.

Working the P7 in one hand and the Nikon D4 in the other.

Most recently my P7 proved handy for one of my larger shoots for HTC. At the time of the shoot, my clients were amazed that a little flashlight could do so much.

I think the moral of the story is to never be afraid to try new and different lighting tools.

Happy Clicking!

Color Shift

I've been interested in traditional ways to shift colors in my images. In a time when it's so easy to add digital flare it's hard to come up with ways to shift the image without relying on the computer and committing to a permanent shift in the camera. I like to see the if I can get as close to the final image as possible in camera. For me it keeps me in a tight visual string or style.

To this end, I have been experimenting with shooting through colored glass and objects. I find myself constantly on the lookout for interesting color or shapes to try.

I’m very pleased with this set of images! Christine and I made these a few months back at the Preston Castle. The light at this location is amazing and it always provides ample room to shoot. I found a small piece of red glass that matched her red lips. The glass was perfect for this set. I love the saturation and color it gave and with Christine’s posing this turned out better than I could have imagined!

It’s now part of my bag of tricks.

Nikon D4

ISO 800

85mm

f3.5

1/500

Afternoon with the clouds

I was able to take advantage of the amazing clouds in the Sierra Nevada Mountains recently. One of my favorite vistas is from the ‘The Donner Memorial Bridge’. There is plenty of parking and you can easily hike around the area for great angles. I did have to keep my eye on the clouds as I was set up on granite outcroppings and didn’t want to be a target for a lightning strike. Fortunately for me, the storm was off in the distance while I was shooting.

With such huge exposure variation, I decided to do some HDR images (High-Dynamic-Range Imaging). Most of the final images were a 5 stop variation. I probably could have been fine with a 3 stop, but I played it safe with 5.

Once I got the images uploaded to Aperture (yes, I still use Aperture), I did the processing with Nik HDR Efex Pro and then for the black and white conversion I used Silver Efex Pro.

I still see the debate on HDR. For me I’m not a fan when overused and hyper real color is added as it is too much. So HDR still has a place in my bag of tricks. These images are for me and they make me happy..

Happy Clicking!

4th Fun

I'm always trying to look at things in a different way. I've shot fireworks in the years past, with some success. This year I wanted to look at the reaction of family and just be a little looser in my style.

Shot with

Nikon D4
ISO 2500
180mm
f2.8
1/320

Fun With Clouds

Thanks Stacey Barton for this image! — Thanks **Stacey Barton** for this image!

So the other day we had some wonderful clouds in the sky. I never seem to be in good position to take advantage of days like that. I’ve always got other things planned. I was so excited to be in the studio with some friends and have the clouds start to do some amazing things. I was fortunate to have Christine in studio that day prepping for an event as well as Stacey Barton for hair and Gene and Carl for assistance.

I grabbed an alien bee 1600ws light and a grid and went outside. Now one the of first things I learned in photography was the sunny 16 rule that states that at normal daylight the exposure is

f16
1/60
ISO 100

So I set my camera for

f16
1/160
ISO 100

I used 1/160 because I wanted the sky to be a little bit darker than it was. I then set my light for almost full power. I wasn’t far off on my first exposure. So I moved the light back until I got the exposure that I wanted.

I played with that set up for a few minutes and then switched to a long mirror as my light source. You must use this technique sparingly because it’s very difficult on the model, the reflection is very intense. The entire shoot only took about 10 minutes.

The final part was importing them into Aperture for some cleanup and black and white conversion in Silver Effects Pro. Then back to Aperture for some additional tone work.

I wish I had more days to work with clouds like that, but you have to take advantage of them when they’re there.

I originally was going to make these color, but after doing a test in black-and-white I thought they had a much more timeless kind of old Hollywood starlet feel to them.

Happy clicking!

The New HTC One - Pre Production

As I’m sure you noticed in the last post, the crew list was pretty extensive. This project was no small feat.

The pre-production process took about a month, and even if we had wanted more time, it would not have been possible to get it. The phone was shipped from Taiwan under lock and key and was on a very tight schedule to make all of its appearances as there where only 4 in existence at that time.

After reviewing the production notes, there were obviously 2 things I needed to do right away. I had to build my team and I had to start location scouting. The idea for the shoot was to follow 5 young people through their weekend in a metropolitan area, specifically San Francisco. I quickly realized the scenes that HTC wanted were also available here is Sacramento. There was also the issue that the original schedule had us shooting in December which meant most of San Francisco was decorated for Christmas.

Kody, Christine and I went out and shot location images of our city to send to HTC and they agreed Sacramento was the perfect backdrop for the project.

Upon the decision being made that we would be working in Sacramento I was able to confirm the rest of the team and get to work reaching out to local businesses and resources. From city agencies, to restaurants, to casting agencies we had everything we needed to start building the schedule and the storyboard.

Even though California was having a beautifully sunny winter, there was concern that some of the outdoor shots would be disrupted with bad weather, so we also had to put in place backup plans for all the outdoor shots that could be implemented the day of shooting.

The next step was to cast the models. We had the pleasure of working with Amber Collins of Cast Images. There were 5 characters we had to cast in this project. Amber built some galleries for HTC to look through based on their descriptions and we had our models selected in no time at all! Sacramento has some amazing talent!

Now that we had our models I could send the wardrobe details and measurements to Simone to start pulling wardrobe for the project. We were given very specific requests for each model based on the character that was created for each of them. We scheduled a fitting and sent some images to HTC for final approvals.

So that was it, I had my team, my locations, the models and wardrobe, I had the storyboard and shot list on repeat in my brain. It almost felt like planning a wedding, all the pieces were in place and the last few days were spent waiting in anticipation of putting it all to work.

Next up, a behind the scenes look of our week long photo shoot!