Ron Martinsen's Photography Notebook

Accident or Awareness?

2011-12-21T18:58:00.001-08:00

This shot comes from my Elinchrom Ring Flash review. When I sent a copy of this to the model she put it on her Facebook page (with my permission) and put the caption “accident photo while adjusting my boobs”. The reality is that when I photograph models I try to give as little instruction as possible so that I can try to seize the moment and capture them in their natural pose. For some this means I have to give them some instruction and take some shots to make them feel comfortable, but the ones that are always my favorites are when I tell them I’m taking an exposure test shot or that I’m still dialing in my settings on my camera.

I’m always watching my model with the hope that I can catch them in a great natural pose. This is one of those shots, but honestly I wasn’t totally ready so I shot it from an angle that was a bit too low (hence the abrupt crop at the bottom). When the model looked up I told her to adjust herself again so I could try to get the shot again from a different angle (i.e., no crotch shot), but nothing beat the first shot for its natural feeling.

I contend that this wasn’t an accident, but rather it was not a planned or posed shot.My friend Eric Kool-Brown said it best when he said “There is no such thing as an accident, just varying levels of planning” – I couldn’t agree more!

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a 70-200mm lens set to 110mm for 1/100 sec at f/9. I used ISO 190 and the ring flash was powered by my quadra set to 5.0. Post-processing was quick and dirty using Photoshop, Lightroom, Color Efex 4 and Portraiture.

A Pattern Interrupted

2011-12-21T18:27:00.001-08:00

Many great photographers have said that there’s few things more interesting than a pattern interrupted. Typically that interruption is via a splash of color. However, how do you make that splash without looking like Sin City? Some say adding color to a black and white is blasphemy, others feel it has been overdone, yet others think it’s fantastic? Since art is subjective and beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, they are all right!

In this shot I decided to push myself to go outside of my comfort zone and interrupt the jet blacks and rich grayscale tones with a little interruption. Granted there’s no real pattern here, but the same concept applies. My interruption is subtle (the hood ornament on the BMW and turn signal on the Mercedes), but they are deliberate. My goal is to capture your eye with the BMW headlight, but to pull you deeper into the photo with the color hood ornament. The Mercedes should not be forgotten so I try to pull you deeper in with the color turn signal lamp 9since there’s no other color object on the car to grab you). This hopefully causes your eyes to explore the photo and the vignette hopefully keeps you in long enough that you make a repeat voyage across the attention getting points.

This image was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II using 24-105mm lens set to 24mm and f/11 for 1/4 sec. It was on a Gitzo GT1541 tripod with mirror lockup and a timer enabled for a sharp crisp shot. To process this color photo I used Nik Software’s Viveza to control the light and dark spots, Silver Efex Pro 2 to do the color conversion, and Color Efex 4 for the tonal contrast filter. Photoshop was used so I could do fine level masking on the photo at various points and Lightroom was used for RAW file conversion.

Beware of Branding

2011-12-11T22:07:00.001-08:00

Here’s a shot that I love, but I can’t use for anything beyond editorial purposes because of that Hello Kitty t-shirt. Sure it’s a cute shirt and it kinda makes the shot, but it’s a very well protected trademark that I can’t use for commercial purposes without the trademark owners permission. This is something to keep this in mind in your shots, especially for little things too like the occasional Victoria's Secret branding that will show up on the underwear strap from time to time too.

This photo was taken with a Canon 1D Mark IV at 120mm using a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. This shot was taken at f/13 and ISO 160 for 1/125 sec using my studio lighting setup.

Think about your secondary subjects

2011-10-07T02:59:00.001-07:00

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that the primary subject in the shot above is the model’s well rounded rear, but what I think makes this shot successful is its secondary subject – the photographer shooting her in the background. The head is irrelevant in this shot but the legs are super important. As the eye moves through this photo it goes to the booty, then down the legs then up to the photographer in front of the colored wall, then back to the model because of his camera point to her. It’s a fun shot that just works because of the triangle between these three points connects the dots and keeps the eye engaged in the scene.

This image was taken with a Canon 1D Mark IV using a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at 200mm and f/2.8 for 1/320 sec at ISO 800. The noise was removed with Noiseware and the skin was softened with Portraiture. Other processing was done in Photoshop and the finishing touches were done in Lightroom.

Fisheye HDR – A New Trend?

2011-08-18T05:01:00.001-07:00

Fisheye Forest by Ron Martinsen

I was writing an update to my Photomatix review (discount included) and I decided to process a fisheye photo I took with the new Canon 8-15mm that I recently did a mini-review of here. I decided to cross the two together and voila – this is the result. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it as much as I did, and once again its another reminder for myself to experiment.

I initially processed this photo to look very natural and it felt very boring. In the spirit of wild HDR cheesiness, I decided to go wild with this one and have a little fun. I enjoyed the result so I ran with it. Go to my 500px site to see a larger version (or click the photo above).

This was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II with 8-15mm lens at 8mm for 1/60 sec at f/8 and ISO 100. I just laid the camera down on the ground with the timer, set it up to bracket three shots (-2, 0, +2) and hauled ass. I didn’t make it out of the frame, but it still works.

Go Beyond Black & White With Duotone

2011-08-16T00:35:00.001-07:00

Chris by Ron Martinsen

For years I hated Black & White photography with a passion, but occasionally I would see someone’s work that made me say “wow” and it would be the exception to the rule. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was about their shot that made it better than other black and white images, but it had a kick to it instead of the flat blah that so many other black and white images had. When I reviewed Silver Efex Pro I discovered what that magic oomph was and then I took it to the next level by experimenting with duotones. Now most people when they hear the term duotone they think of nasty colors like cyan and black or something really bizarre like orange and yellow, but I’m not talking about those hideous monstrosities. Instead I’m talking about something that some will confuse with sepia or black and white as I’m talking about changing the white in the black and white to another color like white with a touch of blue for a selenium look or a touch of bronze to get the look shown above. This color has two tones and they are black and this bronze color and everything in between on the gradient ramp to create the image you see above. It starts its life as a color image before the conversion, but the result is something I find so much more compelling.

This image of Chris Vaughan was shot with my lighting setup (article) using a Canon 1D Mark IV using a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens stretched out to 120mm at f/14 for 1/200 sec at ISO 100. The key light here was an Elinchrom 39" Rotalux Deep OctaBox (no diffusion at all) that my friends Tim Wallace, Joe McNally and Frank Doorhof told me was “the” light to have – I couldn’t agree more. I lit the hair with a 27x27” softbox and the background with a bare light from my quadras on a magic arm kit.

Post processing began with Lightroom, then moved to Photoshop CS5 and featured traditional editing along with the use of Viveza and Silver Efex. I sharpened the image with Sharpener Pro then took it back to Lightroom where I added the PC Vignette 2 preset. The border was actually done in Photoshop using one of the default frame actions.

Don't Be Afraid To Do Wild Experimentations

2011-08-05T00:20:00.000-07:00

Forest Fire

Ever since I did my Photo of the Week article of Luc's shot that used Pixel Bender, I've been wanting to experiment with it again. I had seen Luc's other Pixel Bender work before and was floored, but I had mixed results the last time I played with it.

For this photo I used the Black & White image from my Silver Efex Pro 2 article, then applied the Pixel Bender and went wild with colorization to create an image I call Forest Fire. It's totally different from what I'd normally do, but I enjoyed getting out of my comfort zone and experimenting. I encourage you to do the same as it helps you grow as an artist and perhaps find that next hot new look.

The Art of Seeing–Indifference

2011-04-05T13:46:00.001-07:00

I’m currently reviewing a class called The Art of Seeing which will be featured very soon on my blog as well as a special discount offer. This online class is taught by Bryan Peterson and features content from his Learning to See Creatively book as well as other Bryan Peterson books found in my Which Books Should I Read article.

This class taught me a lot about how to look at the world differently and use settings and lenses that I wouldn’t automatically think to use for a given shot. Few shots I took from the class demonstrates the impact this class had on me more than this one.

For this shot I used my Canon 1D Mark IV and 16-35mm lens at 34mm with camera settings of f/22 for 1/40 sec (handheld) and ISO 2500 (dark overcast day at 5:20PM).

Jump for Joy–Cloudy Day Shoots Don’t Have To Be Boring

2011-04-05T12:37:00.001-07:00

I live in the Pacific Northwest so we have our fair share of dark, cloudy days. It’s funny when I hear so many photographers talk about how they can never shoot (especially during the winter) because the weather sucks, but the reality is that every day can be a great day to shoot – no matter the weather. It’s just a new challenge.

Here’s a shot that is a great example. Notice how when you hover over it the shot you see the original and the blah overcast day, but when you mouse out you can see that I brought life back to this shot by giving it some vibrant colors. With the upbeat subject and the bright colors, who really cares if it wasn’t a perfectly sunny day?

I shot this with a 1D Mark IV using sRAW for maximum performance and manual mode to ensure that my camera settings didn’t change. Using my 16-35mm at 16mm with the subject close to me (much closer than it seems in this shot) I shot at f/2.8 (because it was very dark and I wanted to keep the ISO as low as possible – I would have preferred f/11 for this one) for 1/1250 sec (to freeze all motion) at ISO 1000 (used auto ISO so the camera chose this to get a proper exposure).

I processed this shot using Portraiture for the skin, Photoshop CS5 and content aware healing brush for removing debris, and Color Efex by Nik Software for the punchy color. I finished off with Lightroom for the crop and vignette.

Off With Their Heads–Sometimes Less is SO Much More!

2011-04-04T04:36:00.001-07:00

Now let me start by saying this is really a beautiful model so I didn’t crop off her head because she’s anything less than beautiful. I didn’t crop it off because here eyes were closed. In fact, there was nothing wrong with her in this shot, but I felt this image was stronger with this crop because the subject here is her stomach (no liquify here – that’s the real deal). It takes courage to crop a good part of your image, but when you look at the big picture the image is stronger for it. In addition, beauty is subjective so the less you see the more your mind fills in the blanks so this model is probably appealing to a much wider audience in this frame than she would if her entire head was included – which is true of ANY human!

I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark II using my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens dialed in at 70mm and I was at f/11 for 1/160 sec @ ISO 160 thanks to my studio lights working hard for me. The light meter suggested f/14 but I decided to push it on the brighter side and dial it down a touch in post processing.

This was an easy shot to process thanks to this model’s great body condition. I only used Portraiture for skin softening (everyone needs it – seriously) and Photoshop’s High Pass Filter for additional definition in the muscle areas. That’s it, the rest is out of camera and the added saturation boost was just a manual white balance adjustment in Lightroom. No additional changes were made (i.e., no sharpening, saturation adjustments, etc…).

Never Give Up On A Photo

2011-03-17T05:56:00.001-07:00

On my Photography blog I wrote about this photo in the article Photo Thoughts: Experimentation is the key to happiness, and there I described how I didn’t give up on this photo despite not being dazzled by my first couple attempts. This last result is one that I’m jazzed about because it looks great both on the display and when printed from my Epson 3880 on Exhibition Fiber using ColorByte Imageprint. I thought this was going to be a photo I processed for the client and then called it a day, but in this case I came up with something that helped me grow a little more as a photographer today.

This shot was taken with my Canon 5D Mark II in my studio with the new lighting setup. I used my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at 130mm with an exposure of 1/200 sec at f/10 using ISO 160. I processed the shot with Viveza, Color Efex, and PhotoTools and for my sharpening I used Sharpener Pro. I experimented with different backgrounds and borders using PhotoFrame, but ultimately I decided to stick with the white background and a simple frame.

Don’t be afraid to make it YOUR shot

2011-03-14T00:09:00.001-07:00

The model in the shot above is a cute girl with great skin so not much Photoshop work was required. However, I wanted to make some enhancements to her facial features that weren’t exactly honest to the original (hover over above to see the before). Some may call this cheating, but I call this my shot and I edited it so that it looked the way I wanted it to look. She’s a cute girl in the before shot, and I like that one too – but the after is the one I want the world to see.

I shot this with a Canon 1D Mark IV using my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens at 75mm. My camera was set to f/13 for 1/160sec at ISO 160.

To learn more, see my article Photo Thoughts– To Liquify Or Not To Liquify, That Is The Question!.

Sometimes there IS a use for the crappy shot

2011-03-14T00:01:00.001-07:00

In a rare scenario, I found myself needing to find a shot that wasn’t one of my good ones because for marketing purposes I needed to give it away for less than I’d normally charge as a favor to the designer. As a result I looked through some of my images that were technically okay, but didn’t make the final cut. This shot ended up being a winner and is one that fit the bill perfectly. It was good enough, but not so good that it would be chosen over the better shots in the gallery – or would it?

I ended up spending so much time processing this shot which looked really bad originally (hover over above to see the before) that I created something that has actually started to attract interest. Whoops!

I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark II using my 16-35mm lens set to a focal length of 23mm. By accident I shot it at f/5 for 1/30 sec at ISO-100 because my knob rotated from manual to aperture priority (Av). It was a crap shot that was wrong on many levels, but I rescued it well enough that the print now hangs on my door at my office. I kinda dig it now, but if I would have followed most conventional wisdom this would have been a shot I deleted.

For more on this photo, see “Photo Thoughts – Beezerker Overhead (Background Replacement)”.

Beware Orange Can Become Red

2011-03-13T23:39:00.001-07:00

When I started to edit this photo with an orange shirt, I thought I would give the colors more oomph. The original was fairly blah, but I liked the shot so I thought this would be a great chance to dial it up a notch. On my well calibrated wide-gamut display it was perfect – an orange shirt with a little extra punch to it. However, when down-converting from 16-bit ProPhoto to 8-bit sRGB that new shade of orange fell out of the sRGB color gamut and became red. Now I still like the final shot, but it’s a little more saturated and brighter than I edited. Fortunately the print is perfect, but what you see is a super red shirt that requires sunglasses to view – lesson learned!

I shot this with my Canon 5D Mark II using my 100mm macro lens for 1/125 sec at f/8.0 on ISO 160. I also used my new lighting setup in my studio to get fantastic light on this one.

Learn more about this shot in my blog article “Photo Thoughts–Giving Dull Images Some Punch”.

Great colors can make a boring photo fun

2011-01-06T00:57:00.001-08:00

1/125 sec at f/2.8, ISO 250, 200mm

I captured this shot with my Canon 1D Mark IV ( learn more) using my 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. I had an assistant holding a reflector to bounce available light up from the ground to her torso.

Processing this file was actually pretty simple since the shot turned out okay right out of the camera. All I did was:

Run Noiseware on a new layer using the Default settings to remove any noise.
Run Portraiture to add skin softening with most defaults accepted (did samples to get the skin tone insolated).
In Photoshop I created a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and moved the saturation of the yellow channel to –15 and boosted the lightness of the master channel to 7.
I did some dodging and burning on the eyes then I did high pass filter on layer with the blending mode set to overlay to bring more detail back for her eyes. The technique for this and step 3 are discussed in The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers.
I did a LAB color and Shadows & Highlights layer as discuss in the 7 Point System by Scott Kelby.
I did a Tonal Contrast filter on just the dress using Color Efex to bring out the blue flowers a little better.
I performed my final sharpening using Sharpener Pro.
In Lightroom I added a post-crop vignette as discussed in Lightroom 3 for Digital Photographers and I exported the file as a 8-bit sRGB jpeg.
I added the logo watermark to the jpeg.

Total time spent working on this photo was about 90 minutes with a majority of the time spent on steps 4 – 6.

It looks great with wonderful skin tones in print and on a wide color gamut display like the NEC PA Series, but it gets a little drab on more typical displays and in web browsers.

What I love about this photo is the color and the background.

Share your thoughts on the forums!

Patience Grasshopper

2010-11-06T02:50:00.001-07:00

I waited almost a year before processing this photo because I knew it was going to take a lot of a labor doing healing on the skin. This was a good shot of a great kid and I wanted to do a good job, but I knew I needed to be in the right frame of mind to be patient enough to get the results needed to do this photo justice. What you see above when you hover over the image is what I started with and when you mouse out you see what I ended up with. While it may not be true to life, it is what we as photographers do – we make make people look their best.

This image was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II and a 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens for 1/125 sec at f/2.8, ISO 400 using two off-camera 580 EX II flashes controlled by a ST-E2. I used Dfine to clean up the noise, Viveza to clean up the ring around the collar, Color Efex to soften the skin after I manually healed the acne, and Sharpener Pro to make it ready for display. I used Lightroom 3’s vignette feature to direct the focus to the center of the frame.

Halloween – Get your shot and then go have fun

2010-11-02T00:40:00.001-07:00

As I try to be a better father, I also try to figure out how to balance getting those priceless shots we’ll enjoy for years with not letting the camera interfere with a great time with the family. In this case, I had my neighbors over for a quick family portrait so I seized the opportunity to take a nice photo of my son (who kept stepping out of the frame) so I could leave the camera at home and enjoy Halloween with my family. Mission accomplished, no regrets, and everybody – including the grandparents – are thrilled with the outcome.

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens. This shot was taken using ISO 400 and f/4.0 for 1/200 sec @ 45mm with two off-camera white shoot-through umbrellas using 580 EX II flashes. Post processing was mostly Lightroom and Sharpener Pro as well as Genuine Fractals for web resizing.

Reflections Galore

2010-11-01T17:41:00.001-07:00

When under a 15’ x 30’ soft box, just how exactly do you deal with the reflections? The answer depends on how much money you have for the shoot! In this case, it was a whopping 3 figure budget, so the answer is – you make do! This means you have to deal with some unwanted reflections and make compromises with how you place your light. You can take multiple exposures and composite them together (which I may do one day), but that’s more time consuming than my life currently allows me to do. In the end, I just tried to be aware of the reflections and embraced the good ones and erase the bad ones to end up with a final image that I enjoy even if it still isn’t quite perfect or up there with car photography legends Clint Clemens and Tim Wallace.

Here’s a behind the scenes shot from the studio.

This shot was taken with my Canon 5D Mark II and the new Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens mounted to a tripod and remote controlled via a Lenovo W701ds notebook. I shot the primary exposure using ISO 320 and f/13 for 0.8 sec @ 110mm, but I also had a 4 second and 0.5 sec exposures that I let Photomatix blend together so I could better capture the blue color of the car (a single image felt more black and dull). I processed the background using a StuckInCustoms.com texture (as discussed in my Trey Ratcliff interview) and used Imagenomic Noiseware to reduce the noise. Final processing was with Nik Software’s Color Efex and Sharpener Pro.

I hope to have time to work on this shot again to get the results I have in my mind, but in the meantime I’m enjoying a 24x43” print of this in my studio almost as much as I enjoy the car!

The Happy Accident

2010-09-28T20:46:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I’m so busy focusing on the primary subject of the shot that I forget to pay attention some of the less important elements in the frame. Usually when this happens the result is bad and I either end up with a blown shot or spend hours fixing the problem in Photoshop, but sometimes you just flat out get lucky. In this case I was focusing on getting the tattoo shot, but completely missed the reflection in the gas tank. I turns out the logo is the logo for the brand of the bike, and the bike’s designer/builder has a smiling reflection in the tank. I think both add to the shot, so the net result is a subliminal secondary image within the primary image which I think rocks. I wish I could have say I planned it this way, but this was just dumb luck that worked out well this time! I did end up doing a little Photoshop work to bring the logo more into focus, but fortunately it was aligned perfectly!

This shot was taken with a hand-held with a 5D Mark II in an automotive studio. Post-processing was done mostly in Lightroom with a little extra work done in Photoshop CS5 and Nik Software products. The camera settings were 1/200 sec at f/2.2 ISO 100, 50mm using a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Black & White can save the day

2010-08-21T01:13:00.001-07:00

Shit happens, and sometimes it can be some ugly shit as you can see when you hover over the picture above to see the original. In this particular case I had everything going for me – a pretty model, great weather, a killer lens, and two assistants. What could go wrong? Well, a lot actually. This shot ended up with the reflector in the wrong spot so the cheeks got hammered with too much light and the gold tone was just too much. I was really annoyed because I thought this was a nice shot, so I fought to save it. Fortunately I shot raw so I could get most of the exposure back, but the gold tone was going to kill me in Photoshop. Out of desperation I thought, I wonder what this would look like in Black and White so I fired up Nik Software’s Silver Efex and something magical happened – I began to see hope! It took about an hours worth of work to end up with the black and white result you see above, but it was worth it as this is one of my favorite black and white shots in my portfolio.

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a 200mm f/2L IS USM lens (courtesy of CameraLensRentals.com). It was shot from a monopod at f/2 for 1/500 sec at ISO 100. In addition to Silver Efex, I also used Color Efex to soften the skin and Sharpener Pro to do some limited selective sharpening.

Have fun with distortion

2010-08-09T04:14:00.001-07:00

I love my wide angle lens, and I love getting up on ladders and shooting down on people to see if I can get something fun. I have other examples in my portfolio that I like, but I think this one is my favorite because of the dress and colors. The morale of the story here is “embrace distortion” and if at first you don’t succeed with it, try again. Eventually you’ll get one that you enjoy!

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a EF 16-35mm USM lens and a Canon 580EX II. My assistant held a gold reflector off-camera to help keep the body from being too dark and to help make the gold on the dress pop. My camera settings were 1/25 sec at f/7.1 using ISO 100 at a focal length of 35mm. My post-processing consisted mostly of standard Lightroom and Photoshop CS4 adjustment layers with the finishing touches coming from Nik Software’s Color Efex and Sharpener Pro.

Pay attention to the bottom of the frame

2010-06-13T23:06:00.001-07:00

I’m kicking myself right now because the in-camera crop of this shot (hover over the photo above to see it) was perfect, but I failed to notice my assistants reflector in the shot! I ended up having to crop it at the same aspect ratio as you’d have for a 8x10 print (versus 8x12 for the original) which I think ruins the final crop. Another lessoned learned here for my photographers notebook, but a hard one for sure! (Oh yeah, and I am going to try CS5’s content-aware fill at some point in the hopes that it can save it!!!)

This shot was taken with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV and a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. It was a sunny day, so I actually had to use three assistants to help diffuse the harsh mid-day sun (and control the dappled light from the tree) as well as bounce some light back up with the reflectors. I also need to use my 580 EX II for some fill flash, but given the conditions only hi-speed sync would allow me to get a proper exposure and still pop a little front fill light on this model. My camera settings were 1/1600 sec at f/2.8 using ISO 100 at a focal length of 123mm.

This shot was imaged using Nik Software products exclusively. I used Color Efex, Viveza 2, and Sharpener Pro to get the color and sharpness that you see here and some basic work in Photoshop CS4 to get the eyes and teeth to pop.

Don’t fence me in

2010-06-02T03:00:00.001-07:00

I was at the San Diego Zoo recently for the Nik Summit and I faced a challenge we frequently find ourselves in at the zoo – I had to shoot through the fence. If you mouse over the shot above you’ll see the nasty fence I was shooting through, yet you’ll notice that the final image is fine. There’s no Photoshop magic in this photo to remove the fence as I did that in-camera.

I set my Canon 1D Mark IV using my new Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens set to f/2.8 (to remove the fence) at 1/500 sec (to freeze motion) ISO 100 (to maximize the image quality) and zoomed out to 200mm (to maximize my reach) to capture this image. The net result is that despite the fence, I made it disappear because I put my focus point on the lion instead of on the fence (as I did in the hidden shot – mouse over). The fence was rendered invisible and there’s no apparent image quality loss from this decision, so once again I found myself getting the shot that others missed because they didn’t like the ugly fence in the shot.

Now in my shot you’ll notice that I also have the same ugly fence in the background. While this is a discussion of how to remove the fence from the foreground, if I the lions had been farther away from the fence I could have blurred the rear fence out fairly well too. Unfortunately for me that wasn’t the case in this or my Tiger shot below, but there’s tricks to deal with that which I’ll discuss in the future on my photography blog.

Think about your destination output, not megapixels

2010-06-02T02:42:00.001-07:00

I was at the San Diego Zoo recently for the Nik Summit and I was faced with a dilemma a lot of people face at the zoo (especially when on vacation) – my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens didn’t have the reach I needed to get the shot. Even an extender would have helped here because this guy was just being bashful and was very far away. My solution was to recognize the fact that all I ever planned to do with this shot was to put it on my web site, so the answer was simple – I just took what I could with my focus on the eye of the tiger and cropped. In-camera, I used the zoom feature to make sure I had a shot that would work. Mouse over the shot above to see the original in-camera framing.

I had confidence in the sensor and image quality of my Canon 1D Mark IV that it could capture the pixels I needed for a tight crop on the tiger, so I just set my camera to f/2.8 and handheld the shot at 1/200 sec and ISO 250 and zoomed out to 200mm. I put the tiger in the sweet spot of the lens and took care of the rest in post-processing. Sure, my 16.1 megapixel image dropped down to 593x890 pixels which comes out to about a half a megapixel, but who cares? My target output is the display where I’m using even less than my cropped image, and the world can see this magnificent animal.

If I wanted to print a 4x6, I could easily do that with the data in this image, so even printing isn’t out of the question. I couldn’t do a huge poster, but guess what, even if I had the megapixels – I probably wouldn’t.

Think about this the next time you are getting obsessed about megapixels or purchasing that new camera, because it really is about the quality of the pixels in the image your camera creates rather than how many megapixels the has extracted from the data from the sensor. I’m confident that my 5D Mark II would have created equally excellent results, and that my old Canon 40D would have been up to the task as well. However, my point and shoot may have had the number of pixels, but the quality of those pixels never would have resulted in an image like this.

Trust others when they say it’s a good shot

2010-03-07T22:42:00.001-08:00

Recently I took my daughter to the Space Needle and while we were waiting for our car to be brought around to us, I decided to take this shot real quick. The clouds were really cool that day, and this was a less common view of this world famous landmark. When I first processed it for my review of Topaz Adjust I thought it looked pretty neat, but then I dismissed it as dull and boring. However, my wife and Photography mentor both saw the shot and loved it (especially the clouds) so I started to think it wasn’t as bad and boring as I had originally thought. Their judgment is very good, so I’m adding this shot to my list of keepers. I actually kinda like it now, so I guess my first gut instinct was right!

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II with a 24-105mm f/4L IS USM set to f/8 and 1/500 sec at a focal length of 24mm and ISO 400. I processed it exclusively with Photoshop CS4 and Topaz Adjust as I discuss in this article (which shows a before and after).

It’s okay to have fun doing what’s been done a million times

2010-03-02T02:47:00.001-08:00

I live in the Seattle area, so I’ve seen millions of shots taken from Kerry Park that feature the Space Needle set in front of the city with Mt. Rainier lurking in the distance. It’s a great shot, and a stunning view – yet, I’ve never shot it because everyone else has done it – millions (if not billions) of times before me. However, I was talking to my mentor a while back and he said – sometimes it can be fun shooting what’s been done a million times in your own back yard. I thought about this, and decided that in 2010 when my free time matched with a good weather day I’d start trying to take some shots around the Seattle area. This is attempt number one of the many landmark sites of Seattle, so I have plenty more to capture.

Sure, I could have tried to do something different – and I did – but the reality is that this shot has been done so many times because it’s such a brilliant shot to do! I love it and it reminds me of my love for this beautiful city. So to hell with the rules and what I’m “supposed to do” – this was fun, and isn’t that what Photography is really supposed to be about? Is it not great that I now have this great image to hang in my home and I can say - “yeah, I took that!” Sure, why not?

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D mark II using EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens at a focal length of 90mm with the camera set to a long 20 second exposure at f/11 and ISO 100. When you hover over the shots above you’ll see the before image – which is the in-camera JPG with only a watermark added, followed by the RAW processed using my own workflow using Nik Software products (Color Efex, Dfine, and Viveza 2). Click the image to view a larger version so you can truly appreciate this shot!

Be patient and relax

2010-03-02T01:32:00.001-08:00

I enjoy nature but I rarely get out and shoot the beauty of the great Northwest. Fortunately in this case I made a rare exception and pulled over with a car fully of Korean speaking relatives who had no idea why I was stopping. I tried a variety of shots, but finally I climbed all the way down to the water level and laid down on a rock. I tried various angles until I found one I liked, and then I set my camera to mirror lockup with a timer. I experimented with different camera settings, but finally settled on f/16 @ 0.8 sec at ISO 50 using my Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at 24mm and my Canon 5D mark II camera.

Nature is the true artist here, but I did capture a shot that puts me back into this serene place. It took me a few takes and about 10 minutes (an eternity for me) before I got the shot I wanted. In the end I’m happy with the result and have had this shot (without the border) as my wallpaper for a few months. It’s withstood my own test of time, so I now share it with you so that you might enjoy it as much as I do.

Having fun with the grunge look

2010-02-07T01:49:00.001-08:00

I was recently out shooting an event that featured an up and coming rapper by the name of Andrew “Che Blaq” Spates. He was a fun guy to photograph due to his strong presence on the camera. While I have better shots of him singing, there’s something about this shot that I kept coming back to. Perhaps it was the big cross on his chest that stood out from the rest of his black outfit, or perhaps it was the expression on his face. Whatever it was, this shot has a soul and reminded me of the heart felt music that came out of this artist.

I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark II using a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens set at 78mm with the camera set to 1/200 sec @ f/4.0 and ISO 6400. I originally just did a quick pass with Imagenomic Noiseware Professional and a LAB Color adjustment and called it a day. After talking with Che Blaq and thinking about the shot some more I decided to play around with it to see what more I could do. I started by using Nik Software Dfine for noise reduction as it is a little less aggressive and gives me more control. I wanted to keep the detail in the hair, so I was less aggressive with noise reduction there. After that there was much work to do on the background (hover over the image above to see the first version), so I cloned out the outlet and a couple other distractions but left the rest in. I experimented with some textures from Alien Skin Software’s Eye Candy 6, but settled on a Stylize filter from Alien Skin Snap Art 2. This helped to simplify the shapes in the background, so when I applied Bokeh’s Canon 85mm f/1.2L filter I got a nice bokeh with a less busy background. I now had the background I wanted to isolate the subject. All that was left from there was using Nik Software’s Color Efex to apply the Tonal Contrast filter for a nice grungy look (by accepting the midtones default), and then some final sharpening in Sharpener Pro. The final touch was a curves adjustment to bump the brightness.

At the end of the day this was a fun shot to process and I’m very happy with the results. While I know this shot won’t appeal to some, that’s okay. I like it and so does Che Blaq so I’m happy that I spent some extra time pushing myself in a different direction.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

2010-02-03T23:11:00.000-08:00

f/2.8 @ 1/200 sec ISO 400 at 130mm	f/2.8 @ 1/200 sec ISO 1600 at 200mm
f/2.8 @ 1/125 sec ISO 800 at 70mm	f/2.8 @ 1/125 sec ISO 6400 70mm

In January I was invited to a Masquerade Ball Fashion Show at a local club / restaurant to photograph 50 beautiful models. Despite the fact that I don’t really do event shooting, I thought this might be a good opportunity to practice my lighting skills I picked up after reading On-Camera Flash Techniques under some very challenging conditions.

When I arrived, it was worse than I thought when I found myself with 9 other photographers and 30 models in a restaurant private dining room that had to be no more than 300 sqft. To make matters worse the furniture had been pushed to the side making the place even more crowded, and the red walls and no overhead light made for challenging conditions to say the least.

Making the best of a bad situation, I proceeded to line a few models up literally in a space between some tables and take pictures of them against a red wall. I was hoping for the best, but armed with only my on-camera 580 EX II flash I wasn’t expecting much. The top two photos are some of the fruits of my labor, and the one on the left has a before processing image that shows what I was starting with. I used onOne Software’s PhotoFrame 4.5 and layer masks via channel selection to replace the dull red background with a more festive texture.

I chose to do the same thing with the bottom right go-go dancer shot where my umbrella flashed in the window behind her and the background really sucked. I chose to do a semi-transparent texture here to keep a little of the environment so that it didn’t seem like studio shot. The red area by her boots are where my flash reflected back very hot. If you hover over this image, you’ll see another lightly processed shot that has all of the flaws of the second shot.

All of these images were shot freehand with a Canon 5D Mark II using a 580 EX II flash with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens mostly in sRAW mode (maximum 16x11 print size (@ 240 ppi) would be sufficient). For the go-go dancers I had two umbrellas with 580 EX II’s triggered by a Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter. This helped, but it was pitch black so 6400 ISO was required later in the evening when the dancers weren’t able to stand next to my lights.

Lessons learned here were:

Don’t be afraid of high ISO as the 5D Mark II never let me down. This makes me even more excited about my new 1D Mark IV as my early tests suggest that it performs equally well.
Small room, too many photographers, poor lighting, etc… – the perfect recipe to pack up and call it a day. However, the real pro figures out how to get something in camera and if things are still suboptimal then he figures out how to take care of the rest in post-processing (please no debates on that almost religious subject).
Get the Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack. Despite having 16 Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable batteries, I found myself short on battery life for the grand finale fashion show.
Don’t be jealous if another guy snatches the sweet spot for a makeshift studio. Do the best you can with what you have and aim to get a good image of the subject. Backgrounds can be replaced in a pinch, but a bad shot of your subject is useless. I’ve seen plenty of bad shots from others who attended, so I’m happy I had this attitude.

To see more shots from this night (some of which are much less successful, but online as a courtesy to the model), check out this gallery.

Black on Black can be fun with the right tools

2009-12-22T23:04:00.001-08:00

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens in manual exposure (M) set to f/4.0, 1/125 sec, and ISO 800. I used a Canon 580 EX II Flash with a Ray Flash ring light with the flash set to an exposure compensation of +1. Thanks to the Ray Flash I was able to separate the model’s black hair and shirt from the black background as well as creating a the cool halo effect that ring flashes provide. The hair and skin look awesome to me.

I processed this photo using Nik Software’s Dfine, Color Efex and Sharpener Pro (click here for a great deal until 12/31/09).

While I’ve never been a big fan of the ring light or its effect, I must say that I love this shot and consider it one of my personal favorites for 2009! What a great way to end the year!

A great prop can make the ordinary more interesting

2009-12-16T14:53:00.001-08:00

I love the color red in photographs, so if there’s a chance to use it then I’m all over it. This model was working with me last night on a shoot and I offered to take a portrait for her to use on Facebook as a token of my appreciation for her time. It was going to be just a simple shot, but when I saw the red hat she had in her bag I knew I wanted it to be in the shot so I asked if she would keep it on (she initially didn’t want to wear it). While there’s nothing special about this shot from a composition standpoint, it is a great portrait that I think is made even better thanks to the splash of color added by the hat.

I shot this portrait using a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens at f/9 and 1/200 sec at ISO 100. I was using two Canon 580EX II’s shot wirelessly with a Canon ST-E2 wireless trigger (via a package like this) shot through two Westcott 43" Optical White Satin Collapsible Umbrella's in a clamshell style configuration (which I first learned about in Joe McNally’s book The Moment it Clicks).

Identical Conditions – Two Drastically Different Results

2009-11-25T16:53:00.001-08:00

This amazingly sharp, hand-held shot was taken with the all-new Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS USM macro lens (courtesy of LensProToGo.com) mounted to a Canon 5D Mark II body. There are two exposures here, both of which are properly exposed and have merit, yet they have two totally different tones due to the settings used. In the image you see above I used f/2.8 at 1/200 sec with ISO 400 (by accident) and a Canon 580 EX II flash. While I liked the picture on many levels, when I checked my settings I was annoyed to see I had chosen ISO 400, so I brought the camera back down to ISO 100 (since I was using a flash that was totally fine) and set the aperture to f/5.6 for a little more depth of field (not really necessary in this case, but I wanted to shoot at the sweet spot for this lens). I kept my shutter speed at 1/200 sec and took a second exposure (hover over to see the difference). The result is a nice warm image with a totally different feel and more detail on my wife’s shoulder. When you look at them side by side, the warmer tone is usually more pleasing. However, when viewed individually both stand strong on their own. The brighter image feels more like natural light (which it was) with no flash, whereas the warmer image feels like it was taken at night (it was really taken during the day) with only a flash.

The only processing of these images was with Viveza 2.0 to brighten the whites of the eyes in the warmer shot, and Sharpener Pro in both images to give more texture to the hair and clothing (not needed as this lens is amazingly sharp).

UPDATE: Since I posted this article some have mentioned that they can’t tell much difference between the two images, and wondered if the only difference was the presence of a flash. On a calibrated monitor and in print, there’s a fairly large difference between both images with the 2nd image (that you have to hover over to see) being much warmer and darker. Both images were shot with a flash from the same location, but the different depth of field and my position after adjusting the camera settings cause for some other subtle composition differences. This was not a scientific experiment, just a observation that I thought some beginners might find interesting.

You don’t need a pro studio and expensive lights to get a great shot

2009-11-25T03:09:00.001-08:00

Here’s a shot I took recently of my almost 5 month old son, Kai, in my home studio. I only used two Canon 580EX II flashes shot through umbrellas, yet the image quality is much better than you get from most local high volume portrait studios. To take a look at what I have in my studio, click here and check out the Studio section.

For this shot I used my Canon 5D Mark II with a 50mm f/1.4 lens mounted on a tripod with a remote release and mirror lockup to ensure sharpness. I set my my camera to 1/200 at f/5.6 using ISO 400 and had my Canon ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter trigger the off-camera flashes. I post-processed it using Nik Software Viveza 2.0 and Sharpener Pro 3.0 in less than 20 minutes.

Collaborate to create great images

2009-11-25T02:14:00.001-08:00

I’m a photographer and I have my own ideas of what a great image is, and how I want to capture a scene. However, there are sometimes (very rare in fact), where I want to actually be in the image that my minds eye sees. While I could use a tripod and a remote release, that would feel more like a staged image that doesn’t have that authentic feel. Well, in this case, I had an idea in my head and the only way to pull it off was to ask for help. I had my beautiful wife, Moonhee, use my Canon G11, and told her what I wanted to accomplish.

I put some shaving cream on my son’s face, called my other kids in to watch while I began to shave. My kids were naturally excited to see my youngest son, Kai, with shaving cream on his face, so having them act natural was unusually easy. My sweet daughter, Sierra, was peeking out by my side trying to watch me shave (something I’m not sure she’s done in a few years), and my son Taylor. Kai is a natural in front of the camera, so I just let him do his thing. I set up the camera, told my wife where to stand, and she executed on my idea flawlessly! The G11 did a great job, and my only regret is that I didn’t put more shaving cream on Kai’s face (which would probably have caused my wife to beat me with the G11, instead of taking the shot for me).

The Canon G11 was set to Aperture Priority Mode (Av) set to f/2.8 (point and shoots have a greater depth of field than DSLR’s and the light was poor). This shot was taken at 1/100 sec at ISO 320 at roughly a 11mm focal length. I originally imaged this shot myself, but I was struggling with its colors (there’s several going on in this image so white balance is a bear). I asked world-famous photographer, Gary Parker, if he wouldn’t mind taking a crack at it, and he showed me why he makes the big bucks and I still have a day job!

This image was a collaborative effort taken with a simple point and shoot, but the results speak for themselves. It is one of my most highly acclaimed images I’ve got in my collection, and I didn’t even press the shutter release button personally! Credit to this photo goes to my wife Moonhee Kim Martinsen for taking the shot, and to Gary Parker for imaging it to perfection. My idea is now a reality, and as Bryan Peterson so brilliantly put it “Its real value will be in the years ahead when the family throws you that 90th birthday party!”.

Here’s what some of my favorite photographers had to say about this image:

Very cool... a beautiful family pic! - Joe McNally

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!! This image is DEEP photojournalism if you analyze a “moment”.- Gary Parker

It’s a great capture of a moment in time which in truth is what photography is all about - Tim Wallace

I too cast my vote here for an iconic stock shot, which IF taken 15 years ago, would have had some stellar sales… - Bryan Peterson

Let the eyes tell the story

2009-11-03T00:31:00.001-08:00

PLEASE CLICK to view a larger image for the best results

There are many elements to this picture, to me the one that is the most important are this girls blue eyes. This girl was laser focus on catching this Frisbee, and the viewer gets drawn in with her pale white skin in this dark scene which leads you to her bright blue eyes. You may need to maximize your browser to see the Frisbee, and this is really best viewed in a larger size so click the image to see a much bigger version. I love the colors and the story this image tells, but it all starts with the eyes to me. While this image lacks my normal “eye treatments”, it is still pretty solid on its own. I’ll work it some more eventually, but for now I’m plenty happy with the results. Another funny note is that she actually dropped the Frisbee, but you’d never know it leading up to this point would you?

This image was shot with a Canon 1D-Mark III in JPEG LARGE mode (no CR2 RAW for performance reasons) using a Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM lens (courtesy of LensRentals.com) set to Aperture Priority mode at f/2.8 which resulted in a 1/400 sec capture at ISO 800. I used Nik Software’s Dfine to remove a little of the noise, then I did a small curves adjustment, followed by Color Efex’s Skylight filter to give it some warmth, then I topped it off with a nice Local Contrast adjustment with Sharpener Pro only the girl and Frisbee. In looking at the image, the girls face needed a little acne removal, so I broke the rules and went and did a Color Efex Dynamic Skin Softener followed by a few healing brush strokes on the final adjustment. To see the difference these edits made, hover over the image to see the out of camera unprocessed JPEG version.

Don’t forget to look down

2009-10-21T13:37:00.001-07:00

When reading Bryan Peterson’s books, I’m always amazed at how he takes things we always see in everyday life and turns them in to very cool photos. I was out recently walking through the park with my kids near sunset when I spotted this great contrast of colors on the ground with a nice orange leaf and the bright green grass. I was actually walking to another spot to take a picture of the kids, but I stopped to look down and was rewarded with this shot which I like quite a bit.

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a 135mm f/2 lens (courtesy of ZipLens.com) set to f/2.0 and 1/800 sec set at ISO 100. The bokeh is all natural, even though I’ve had a few people who thought I photoshopped it. What I did do in Photoshop is use Nik Software Color Efex 3.0 Complete’s Skylight Filter and then Sharpener Pro 3.0 for the final touch. I also processed an alternate version using Viveza to remove a portion the green color from the grass in about a minute.

Sometimes there’s success where you least expect it

2009-10-12T11:47:00.001-07:00

This shot was one of the first frames I took and it was just an exposure test shot (i.e., never intended to see the light of day). Normally I delete these shots on site, but I liked this one so last night I decided to process it a bit in Photoshop. I didn’t care for a straight up color version, so I decided to process it using a technique I had done for one of my most successful shots. If you mouse over the CENTER of the shot above you will see the before version.

This shot was first processed in its original form using the Scott Kelby 7 Point System. Next, I enhanced it using Nik Software Color Efex 3.0 Complete’s Skylight Filter, Dynamic Skin Softener (at 30%), and Color Stylizer effects. I followed these enhancements by using Viveza for colorizing the background to something less blah, then Sharpener Pro 3.0 for the final touch. There’s also a little work done to remove the brown/yellow cast to the eyes and teeth that was introduced by the Color Stylizer. I liked the brown/yellow tone (that’s intention) but too much on the eyes and teeth made the model look unhealthy.

This shot was taken with Canon 5D Mark II using a 85mm f/1.2L II lens (courtesy of BorrowLenses.com) set to f/2.0 and 1/1250 sec using ISO 100. The wind was blowing from the camera left and the sun was at camera right, on top of a shaky floating deck, so it was a challenging place to shoot. Ultimately I abandoned the location and went to a nearby park instead.

Get down to your subjects level

2009-10-01T23:55:00.001-07:00

For my photos here on this blog I try to share what I learned about some of my favorite shots. This one here was one where I made some technical mistakes, but it’s a keeper because I caught a priceless expression on my son’s face. Had I done like most parents and shot this photo from my eye level rather than laying on the ground and shooting at his level, this shot would have totally missed the expression on his face. However, to be honest that’s not why I posted this one. I posted it simply because it makes me laugh. I hope it makes you laugh too – enjoy!

This shot was taken with Canon 5D Mark II using a 85mm f/1.2L II lens (courtesy of BorrowLenses.com) set to f/1.8 and 1/125 sec using ISO 800 using a camera mounted Canon 580EX II flash with no modifiers bounced off the wall to the right of my son (although in retrospect I should have bounced it off the blanket on the floor to light his face).

Rules, we don’t need no stinking rules

2009-08-29T17:07:00.001-07:00

The “rules” say you should follow the rule of thirds, so if I did things properly then Kai’s eye would be at a 1/3rd intersection point. However, at this close I liked having more of his head in the shot than his body, so that eye line being darn near in the center region of the frame doesn’t bother me one bit. Perhaps it is because I’m his dad, but this shot works for me (the customer in this case) so who cares!

This handheld shot was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens at f/2.8 and 1/160 sec at ISO 400. I was using a hot shoe mounted Canon 580EX II with a CTO gel while I laid on the carpet with my son. There was also some natural light coming in from a window that helped a bit as well.

I processed this shot in Adobe Photoshop CS4 using the techniques described in Scott Kelby’s 7 Point System book, plus a trick from Matt Kloskowski where I use the high pass filter and an overlay blend just on his eyes to give them more of a glassy look that you’d see in real life.

Don’t be afraid to share your snapshots

2009-07-14T16:06:00.001-07:00

In this digital age where people scrutinize every detail of a shot zoomed at 100% so they can find something to complain about with your exposure, composition, white balance, etc… it can be hard to share some of your cherished snapshots of your loved ones. To that I say let the naysayers be damned and enjoy your snapshots and share them with the world to see. While they may not be appropriate for a professional portfolio, they are perfectly fine for your personal portfolio on a service like Smugmug.

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a EF 16-35mm USM lens zoomed to 35mm at f/3.5 and 1/60 sec using ISO 100 using a camera mounted Canon 580EX II flash with a LumiQuest ProMax Softbox. The carpet areas at the top left and right edges were darkened in one step (and no masking) with Nik Software’s Viveza.

Snap before they are ready

2009-07-13T02:24:00.001-07:00

It happens to us all, we are trying to take nice "memento” pictures of our friends or family visit and we end up with a bunch of mug shots. However, every once in a while someone does something funny when you aren’t expecting it so you grab that priceless shot that shows emotion. What I’ve come to discover is that the photographers that I admire the most are the ones who are good at bringing those emotions out and getting the shot captures the spirit of a person – not just a image of their face. This is one shot that didn’t happen by accident as I’m trying harder to capture the spirit of the people I photograph.

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens zoomed to 105mm at f/4 and 1/100 sec using ISO 400 using two ceiling bounced Canon 580EX II’s up high and to the left and right both triggered by a Canon ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter. Intentional edge vignetting was added using Nik Software Color Efex 3.0 Complete.

And no, there’s no skin softening applied to this shot – her skin really is that smooth which is amazing! I did remove a few minor blemishes and flecks of dust though.

Having fun with my son

2009-07-03T23:20:00.001-07:00

This was a tripod mounted shot taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens at f/5.6 and 1/125 sec ISO 100. I was using two off-camera Canon 580EX II’s standing on a Bogen Manfrotto 5001B nano black 6' compact light stand triggered by a Canon ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter. This color photo that was processed with Nik Silver Efex Pro to take away from the distraction that color adds to a shot of this nature. Comments appreciated.

Framing the shot

2009-05-15T01:47:00.001-07:00

This was a hand-held taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens zoomed to 24mm at f/8 and 1/125 sec using ISO 100 in Arizona last Spring. I like this shot because it follows the rule that you should frame your shot to keep the viewers eye within the frame of the image. My eyes scan and search this corridor for at least a minute every time I look at this image. It’s a simple shot, but the colors and the framing of this image make it one of my personal favorites.

Going the extra step to make a photo interesting

2009-05-05T18:34:00.001-07:00

If you mouse over the shot above you’ll see a nice sunset shot of this building that was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens zoomed out to 18mm (23.4mm effective) at f/13 and 1/25 sec using ISO 100 at the beautiful Suncadia Lodge in Washington state. It’s a technical strong shot and the sunset is great, but the shot felt a bit dull and uninteresting.

The shot you see when you mouse out was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM lens zoomed to 32mm (41.6mm effective) at f/6.3 and 1/125 sec using ISO 400. Because it was taken later it doesn’t have the good fortune of having the beautiful yellow sunset, but I feel like the second shot with my son is much more interesting. I feel this way because the first shot, while successfully executed during the peak of the golden hour, is a snapshot that pretty much anyone would think to take. It’s pretty, but it is easily forgettable. The second show however has my son piercing into the viewers eyes with an expression that makes you wonder what he’s thinking. You also see the nice bokeh in the background that veils a huge building. When people see the shot with my son they frequently tell me that it appears to be some sort of castle, but when they see the first one they say “oh, it’s a lodge”.

Putting aside the fact that the first lodge shot (mouse over above) has the advantage of the killer sunset, which do you think is the stronger photo?

Exception to the rule?

2009-05-04T15:43:00.001-07:00

It’s been said many times that you should never use harsh light on a lady, but in this photo I sent a direct beam of light on my wife’s belly so that I could get a wide variety of shadows on the contours of her body. The net result is a shot I felt was very effective because you can really tell the three dimensional contours of her belly despite it being a side profile shot. In addition, the bright to dark nature of this photo causes your eye to go to the belly button and stay within the frame of the photo before your eyes drift and start exploring the darker areas. This color photo that was processed with Nik Silver Efex Pro to take away from the distraction that color adds to a shot of this nature.

This shot is best viewed on a calibrated monitor as there is a wide variety of grayscale tones giving it a tremendous depth that can’t be appreciated on an uncalibrated monitor.

This shot was taken at ISO 100 with a Canon 5D Mark II paired with a EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens at 150mm set to 1/50 @ f/11 using an off-camera Canon 580EX II standing on a Bogen Manfrotto 5001B nano black 6' compact light stand triggered by a Canon ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter.

Can an edgy expression ruin a shot?

2009-05-04T15:24:00.001-07:00

In this shot I asked Audrey to give me a serious look and I got exactly the shot I was looking for. I was pretty happy with the original and when I processed it recently in Color Efex for Lightroom I liked it even more. However, my mentor who I trust a lot felt that the expression on her face was too mean looking so it ruined the shot of an admittedly pretty woman. Naturally, I’ve received lots of complements on this shot because Audrey is fairly easy on the eyes, but I want to know what my readers think. The question here is “does Audrey’s expression ruin this shot”?

It should be noted that I’m not looking for feedback on the rest of the shot as everything else is exactly as I wanted it (including the intentionally bright shirt and white out background behind her head). For those very troubled about intentional highlight clipping, a more properly exposed version is available here.

This photo was shot using a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM lens at 200mm paired with a Canon Rebel XTi set to f/5.6 and 1/160 sec at ISO 100.

Don’t forget, it’s all about composition

2009-04-23T22:17:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken at ISO 400 with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM at 170mm (221mm effective) set to 1/500 @ f/2.8.

I love this shot, and based on the feedback I’ve received most people do as well. However, when I first saw the unedited photos from this shoot I wasn’t a happy camper. The model’s hair had frizzed out from the heat and humidity near the falls, the color was blah, and nothing seemed to look good. I nearly deleted most of the photos from the shoot – including this one. However, I thought this model looked like a super model in this shot (in fact, while I was photographing this shot people were asking her to take photos with them) and I loved the background. I thought it was a strong composition but a bad photo from a technical perspective.

Photography isn’t just about technically perfect photos, so I decided to process this shot the best I could. Initially I still wasn’t very satisfied with the results so I once again turned to Nik Software Color Efex 3.0 Complete. After some experimentation, I settled on the Color Stylizer filter and immediately I knew I had a winner.

It’s taken me a while to mature enough as a photographer to realize that a great shot doesn’t have to be perfectly sharp, or every hair in place for it to be a great photo. Instead, if my gut tells me the composition is good then I know I just need to work on it in Photoshop until I have a result I can be proud of. I’m proud of this shot, so mission accomplished.

When it’s been shot a billion times, you have to do something different

2009-04-17T09:29:00.001-07:00

We’ve all been there before – there’s something you want to take a picture of, but it’s been taken a billion times by others (i.e., Grand Canyon) so how do you make it different? Of course, traditionalist would say do it “in-camera”, and that’s great. Go for it. However, in this case, I hadn’t really got anything unique in camera, so I started to play around in Photoshop to see if I could come up with something cool. For this shot, I used Nik Software Color Efex 3.0 Complete and tried various different filters to see what I could do to make this shot look better. I loved the subject, but it had honestly been a pretty bad capture as well – nothing very interesting. In the end, I decided to go with the solarization filter.

When I first saw what this shot looked liked after processing it I thought it was really cool, but I never thought I could do anything with it because it was so heavily processed. However, on a whim I decided to enter it into a photo contest (my first) for the local paper where this place is located. Lo and behold I became a photography contest winner! While cool, I dismissed this as a fluke as this small paper probably didn’t have a high bar. However, when I had my portfolio reviewed by a top pro he singled this out as one of his favorites, even though I hadn’t planned on using this photo! In the end, I learned that doing something different with this highly photographed subject, even if it is extreme like this, can be a great way to differentiate your work from the sea of others.

This photo was shot with a Canon Rebel XTi w/ BG-E3 BATTERY GRIP using a EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens zoomed out to 20mm at 1/125 sec at f/8 ISO 100.

Sometimes you just need to look a different direction

2009-04-07T23:00:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM zoomed out to 16mm (20.8mm effective) at f/8 and 1/80 of a second using ISO 400 in Portland, Oregon.
I was in Portland taking pictures of all sorts of things, but none of the shots were especially interesting. When we got to a fun water feature, my wife and our friend Yin Yin couldn’t help but soak their feet. These girls were having fun and asked me to take a picture, and low and behold it’s my favorite shot of the trip. Lesson learned – I was so busy looking at eye level, that I forgot to look down and nearly missed a great picture. While Moon and Yin Yin would probably love for me to Photoshop their feet, I’ve left this one straight out of camera (only minor Lightroom adjustments) with no cropping because it reminds me (and hopefully you) that this wasn’t a staged shot. I now see more than just what is in front of me. Looks like Bryan Peterson was right!

A Hard Lesson - Just because its pretty, doesn’t mean it isn’t boring

2009-03-30T20:42:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM zoomed out to 16mm (20.8mm effective) at f/11 and 1/80 of a second using ISO 200 in the North Cascades of Washington State.

It was such a beautiful end to a perfect day and the clouds were fantastic, so I got down on my belly and took a shot at the end of the water that I was sure would be the next two page spread in Outdoor Photographer Magazine! However, when I recently went through an exercise with a top caliber pro who is mentoring me to identify my best photos, this one didn’t make the cut – WHAT? I was crushed! I love this photo!

My friend made a valuable comment that has helped me grow as a photographer - “what did I do in that shot that anyone with a camera couldn’t do?” The answer was simple – nothing. Sure, the weather was nice and the scenery spectacular, but if I want to show my skills as a photographer then I need to show how I got a special shot that wasn’t just luck, or in this case a “scenic mugshot” as my pro friend likes to call it.

Lesson learned! I think differently now because of it, but I must confess I still enjoy it for my personal collection.

Get the Shot - Don’t be afraid of High ISO

2009-03-24T23:01:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM zoomed to 32mm (41.6mm effective) at f/5.6 and 1/15 of a second (hand held!!!) at ISO 3200! It has some basic noise reduction (details in an upcoming blog) and a LAB color adjustment in Photoshop CS3, but that’s pretty much it.

This shot was taken in Chicago and I was walking across a bridge when I saw the shot. Cars were driving by and the bridge was shaking, so I didn’t think I stood a chance at getting this shot. I had a wide angle, which is more forgiving, so I just cranked my ISO way up and hoped for the best. Even though I had to drop below the recommended minimal shutter speed of rough 1/40 (effective focal length) I was able to get this shot by holding the camera steady and taking advantage of the forgiveness of this wonderful lens. Even though it doesn’t have image stabilization, it worked flawlessly.

Harvesting Great Shots - Don’t give up on a shot too quickly

2009-03-22T15:00:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken with a Canon 1D-Mark III using a EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens set at f/9, 1/320 and ISO 200. I was shooting at 400mm (520mm effective) in JPEG fine format because I had been lucky enough to gain great access to a spot closer to the track for a limited time, and the buffer write speed of the camera couldn’t keep up with the burst mode of the camera when shooting RAW. Shooting JPEG allowed me to get the shot (#1 priority), but the original shot wasn’t what you might expect (mouse over the image to see it).

This is a shot that initially I saw and didn’t think much of. It was a good sharp shot, but it was rather dull and uninteresting. However, it was such a good image that I worked the photo and found that tilting the car and doing a closer crop made this photo feel much more exciting. I felt like I was looking standing on the track watching this driver go by, and the lines of the rubber on the track tells me where he’s been and where he’s going.

My decision to go to JPEG allowed me to get the shot, and my decision to harvest the image within the image, helped me to make a dull shot more exciting. Lesson Learned: Don’t give up on a good capture – there may be more waiting for you if you work with what you have!

If the background is lame, does it suck?

2009-03-16T00:43:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM zoomed to 35mm at f/4.0 at 1/500 sec (ISO-200) in the rain. It has some edits in Photoshop CS4, skin softening using Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete, and some lab color adjustments and good old USM sharpening.

This is really just a snapshot I took of my son, but I liked the way it turned out (probably because I’m his dad) so I worked on it a bit and came up with this. Sure, the background is a bit distraction (those are steps down to the water by his shoulder), but I thought it was a good shot none-the-less, and was too lazy to spend too much time on it. What do you think? Was this a keeper or should I have saved my energies for a better photo (sentimental issues aside)?

Even snapshots can be cool, if you try

2009-03-16T00:33:00.001-07:00

A pro-photographer friend of mine was giving me crap for being cheap, and referred to me as a Wal-Mart customer. Well, it turns out I AM, and while I was at Wal-Mart loading groceries this weekend, I saw my camera in the trunk and snapped off a REALLY quick shot (this version has the tree branch cloned out). Well, with a little magic from Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete, some clouds I snatched from my personal stash, and a little double-exposure I came up with this.

It was taken with a Canon 5D Mark II using a EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoomed to 67mm at f/4.5 at 1/100 sec (ISO-100) in the rain.

Capturing Personality

2009-03-13T10:35:00.001-07:00

This shot was taken with a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens mounted to a Canon Rebel XTi. I used a tripod and studio lights, but the lights / studio were rented so I don’t have the exact information on the gear. The shutter speed was 1/200 and the aperture was f/4.0. I chose the macro lens for its sharp picture and for its nice bokeh as the black background I was using was a bit dirty. This photo was process mostly using Viveza.

What I love about this shot is the fact that the model, Lauren, was a sweet girl with a great personality but I wasn’t capturing that on previous shots. Her hair had looked different from the last time I had seen her at a fashion show, so on a whim she pushed her hair up like this. I laughed and said – hey, do that again so I can capture a shot like that. She did and her personality burst out. Out of all the shots I took of her, this was my favorite and it really made something stick in my head – I’m there to capture the personality, not a mug shot of the person.

Getting Closer

2009-03-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

This photo of Rubens Barrichello was taken at the 2007 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai Circuit from about 100 meters away using a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM lens with a 2x Extender II mounted to a Canon Rebel XTi. I used a Bogen / Manfrotto 3245 Automatic Monopod with 484 Mini Ball Head for stabilization. The focal length was 400mm (640mm effective with 1.6x crop factor) and I did a pan with a 1/250 sec shutter speed at f/9.0.

This image is actually a 100% crop of the original which included the entire car and more motion blur, but I liked the impact of zooming in on the driver and seeing his hands, name, and rear-view mirror because it conveys a sense of being in the car with him. This photo reminded me of the power of cropping and the beauty of a perfect pan. As photographers, we don’t always get the shot we hoped in camera, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something in the shot that you took that is worth a closer look.

A famous photographer once said, if you aren’t happy with the shots you are getting because they have no impact then step two steps closer and try again. In the digital age, sometimes you can get closer after the fact.