HelgiO part 1

Settings: Sunlight only, but with a silver long throw reflector just outside camera right, filling the shadows on his face.

Iceland experienced quite a financial boom in the last 10 years, that came to a grinding halt in the last year because of the financial crisis. It´s left a lot of half finished buildings all over the city, many of which are not being worked on. I personally love man made spaces that are empty or abandoned, so I knew a photo opportunity awaited.

I did a scouting run the day before. I have decided this is really the best way to shoot. I can take my time exploring around for good angles without any pressure, and most important, note down at what times the light is perfect for what I want. It also allows me to have the images to both show and excite the subject, possibly giving them ideas for hair/makeup/clothing. It also allows me to look at them at my leisure at home to determine how I want to light them.

Here are my research images:


I took more than this, but mostly I was walking around the place, seeing what caught my fancy, what angles felt nice, examining how the light fell, and trying to envision what it would be like to have my model there in front of me, and what I might ask of them. This trip is to get comfortable with a new place, so that I have less to worry about during the actual shoot, which is hectic enough already.

My general workflow goes:

1. Observe constantly during my daily errands and travels. If I find someplace that looks promising, I plan a research trip.
2. Do the research trip. Guess at what time the light will work well with the location (lots of lights and reflective surfaces = night, open side areas with lots of soft light from the sky = daytime on a cloudy day, lots of interesting shadows and bounce surfaces = direct sunlight, etc)
3. Explore with an eye toward eventual photos. Let my mind chew through what I'm seeing and imagine what kind of subject I'd want, how they should be dressed, colors, lighting, etc. If any of my ideas prompt some further exploration while there, the more the better. I take only my camera and lenses on this trip, no lighting equipment. This is to be a bit more mobile, but also because I am just exploring the location and seeing what's possible with ambient.
4. Edit images at home. I try to bring out the "feel" that I want from them, the same way I would if the subject were there. I tone shadows, white balance, recover highlights, fill shadows, the whole shebang. I want to know if there are any shooting conditions I should be aware of. In some cases I want to let things blow out, and in other cases I want to be careful of the highlights. If I find that I need as much dynamic range as possible because the contrast is so high, that will let me know to keep my ISO as low as possible (cameras lose dynamic range as you bump up ISO)
5. Show images to the subject, and get their feedback. Mostly this is to get them excited about the shoot, but also so they can be thinking about it. It might give them pose ideas, or get them in the right mental state. Mostly I think it helps them pick out their outfits. I normally give a general guide (all black, mostly white, something bright and warm colored, etc) but let them pick outfits they think they look best in. If it's a really involving shoot, I'll do a wardrobe planning session with them at their house.
6. Try to figure out lighting scenarios. I first try to figure out where I wan to place my subject in the frame from what I've picked out. Then I envision how the existing light will light them, and if it needs modifying or amplifying. Lighting normally falls into 3 categories,

• no lighting required, just the ambient plus possibly reflectors or subtractors.
• using the existing light sources and angles, but either boosting the level by placing a flash in the same place, or by complimenting the existing light with another flash filling in the shadows
• providing the lighting completely with the flashes.

So, for example with this one:



I knew the thing I liked most was the shadows. I knew that I would want the shadows to play over the subject, and possibly have some of the shadows on the face. This sunlight faded quickly, so I had only one hour when this light existed. We shot here first because it was my favorite setting. I knew that the room bounced enough ambient that the shadows wouldn't be jet-black, but I imagined my silver long throw reflector would be a benefit to fill the face shadows. The location scout helped me figure out most of this, so once we arrived and I unpacked, I merely had to direct the model, and have my friend keep the silver reflector aimed at his face. Having an assistant on shoots like this is super beneficial.



I made sure to try different angles. As much as I loved the full room shot with all the shadows, the lighting was superb, and the model has a great body and facial features, so a closeup was definitely in order. I am glad I tried some closer shots, as this is probably my favorite shot from the shoot. I had to pay attention to the red channel in the histogram, because red represents the skin (on white skin) and if it clips, you most likely have blown out skin. I did want a bleached look, and I wanted enough shadow information to lift, so I let the red channel skirt the right edge of the histogram, without slamming up against it.



The far side of the wall had some awesome, even busier shadows going on, so I had to be sure to take advantage of them as well. After getting enough of the main wall, we moved to a sitting position against the other wall. I was laying prone on the floor to get the best angle on a few of these. One thing I learned early on, is to consider different heights. Don't always shoot from standing normally. Stand on things, go on tip-toes, crouch, lean against things, kneel, or even lay flat. Think about the emotion you want, and the angle.

Be sure to ask your model about poses. I normally suggest a pose by showing them myself doing it, then I ask them to get comfortable in that pose (so it doesn't look so stiff). I will get a few photos, then ask them if they have any ideas for poses.

One good thing to do, is at the beginning, explain about head angles. I am constantly watching how the light falls on the face and eyes, and if I want something different, I will ask them to rotate their face towards me or away. If you don't explain what you mean, the subjects have a tendency to rotate much too far when you ask. At the beginning, I explain what I'm doing, that I'm watching the light, and I might ask them to rotate toward me or away, and I want them to do it slowly so that I can ask them to stop. This helps immensely, and can be the difference between getting catch lights, or a good light angle, and getting unflattering lighting that falls poorly on the face.

Tell your model they look great, be excited about the photos, and show them! If they see that it's coming out awesome, it will rid them of any feelings of looking silly. This is especially important if you're using a non-model (someone you just asked, because you like their look).

I think this is the longest post I've made on my blog so far, but I learned a lot on this shoot, and wanted to share.

Remainder of the set.

Fiona Evening part 1

Settings: Ambient is 1 stops below neutral grey. Flash one is just to the right of the photographer aimed at the ground, at 1 stops above neutral grey. Flash 2 is off frame left, and even with model, zoomed to 105mm and 1.5 stops above neutral grey.

I had a really nice 3 hour shoot this past weekend. Fiona is a friend of mine, and very beautiful, with a great sense of fashion, so it made sense to ask her out on a shoot. I've had the feeling I've been over-lighting a lot of my portraits when I go out to do location stuff, so I wanted to try to be a bit more subtle. This was a project to work on that. It was also my first shoot out with my new (used) 5D body. I love working with full frame.

I had some vague ideas in mind, and locations, but I needed to figure out more on what I wanted before dragging her and my lights out for the real thing. I did a research trip, which greatly helped. I visited the locations with just my camera and lenses the night before, and figured out angles and composition. After getting home, I was able to also think about final lighting.

Here is the research trip image:



For this setting, I knew I wanted to have her sit on the chain in the right side. It would work well compositionally, plus it would put her against a dark portion of the image. By then lighting her, it would really help her pop out from the background. I wanted to use the lamp post as a mental "light source" Meaning my brightest light would come from it's general direction, so as to imply it being the light source. My second light source would act as a fill from the right side, and be much softer and a stop less in intensity.



The flash from the left worked perfectly as a bright light source, but it left some harsh shadows on her face. I needed a soft, dimmer light source from the right to fill it in. I would have liked to use an umbrellas, but it was quite windy and I had no assistant to hold the stand. I ended up setting the flash to about 1.5 meters height, zoomed it to 50mm, powered it up a bit and aimed it at the ice in front of her. It worked great as a large soft fill. I ended up having to darken the ice below her feet in post, to hide the light source and keep attention on her face, but it was a really nice result.

One quick note on the main flash. It was zoomed to 105mm, but I aimed it upwards so that the feathered edge of the beam hit her around the waist height. If it had been aimed directly at her, there would have been harsh shadows leading away from her legs. I used that extensively on this shoot, using just the feathered edge to touch her head, but fade out before the lower body.

Two more after an outfit change. Same lighting setup.

More silver reflector

Settings: Ambient is 4 stops below neutral grey. Flash into 110cm silver umbrella, 2 stops above neutral grey, to the right and above. Silver 1x1.2 m reflector to the left and below, angled up. Tiny slave flash in the background lighting it up.

I decided to try an experiment with the silver reflector. Normally I like edgy lights, with deep shadows and strong direction. Soft light is easy light, I always thought. But I wanted to try some soft, easy light. I put my favorite soft light, a 110cm silver umbrella, high and to the right, and used the reflector to fill in the shadows. Then I put my tiny morris slave flash in the background, through a blue gel, at it's lowest setting. That lit up the background for a nice light, airy feel. A warm gel would have made it feel a bit warmer, and I should have tried that.



Settings: Ambient is 4 stops below neutral grey. Flash into 110cm silver umbrella, 2 stops above neutral grey, to the right and above. Silver 1x1.2 m reflector to the left and below, angled up.

Then I turned off the slave flash in the background, to get a dark backdrop. This completely changes the look of the portrait. Having a dark background implies there is the proper amount of lighting, so even though the skin is super softly lit, it looks "correct", and implies youthful skin, since wrinkles and pores are minimized in their shading. Women or self conscious men will love this lighting setup. The light backdrop of the first works well too, especially with a little texture so that it looks legitimate.

Here's the setup shot:



If I wanted the shadows a tiny bit darker, I could have switched to the white reflector instead of the silver. I am guessing the silver reflects -1 stop, and the white -2 stops. That would give you either a 1:2 ratio of main to fill with silver, or a 1:4 ratio with the white. Assuming they are placed as close as possible of course. Distance also reduces light intensity. Moving white backwards a bit would give you 1:8 ratio.

Rim light!

I posted before about using natural window light for portraits. The main idea of them being to use the window light as a large main source, and trying to minimize lighting on the other side of the head. Now I'm going to talk about rim light. I define rim light as a strong light that just hits the edge of the main subject of the photo. It's used mostly to define a border that would otherwise be lost.

Here is another portrait with no rim light. I put a piece of black paper on the wall behind him to purposefully prevent any bounce lighting from the wall giving him even the slightest rim light.



Now here is a portrait with a strong rim light.



This lighting also came from a window, but since this room was much smaller, and all white, I knew there would be a lot of bounce and fill. This would have made the first style portrait impossible. I opted instead to let the window light be a rim light, and all the bounce from the small white room to be the fill. I metered his face where the rim light was, and let it read +2. This means the rim light would be very bright, but not clipped (unrecoverable white pixels). This would mean that the fill would be as bright as it could be without letting the rim clip. If I metered for the fill light (the main part of his face) the rim light would have definitely clipped. Cameras hold shadow detail far better than highlight. In fact on my camera (the canon 40d) it will hold highlights up to 3.4 stops above neutral grey, but 5.7 stops below. So it has almost double the shadow range than highlight range. This means that even if his face was a bit dark, I can boost the shadow area in the post-processing stage, and recover the detail I need. I only had to do this a little bit, as I liked the ratio it gave me.

Here are two more using the same room, and just a slightly different head angles. This shows how once you have a nice setup with good lighting power ratios, you can get a lot of utility out of it by just rotating the subject within the setup. (or rotating the setup when you can)