second_shoot_with_x100

Last weekend I did a portrait shoot with a friend who is graduating (hence the traditional hat). He wanted some images to use for both the graduation brochure, as well as facebook all done at the same time. I had a few locations scouted beforehand that would work well, and asked him to bring his graduation suit and hat, plus a few other outfits in case we needed to switch.

The light cooperated and was quite nice, soft and directional, and it got sunny toward the end right when we needed it. I directed his poses while keeping the light's direction in mind to hit his face in a pleasing way, mostly choosing short lighting, as I prefer (short lighting is where the front and far side of the face are lit, and the close side of the face you can see is in shadow, apposed to broad lighting where the front and front side are lit and the far side you can't see is in shadow), I had the X100 on one shoulder, and my 5D with 85mm 1.8 on the other. With both I shot at maximum aperture, the X100 had way way less purple fringing and was much sharper at it's max aperture of f/2 than the 85 was, but I probably should have stopped the 85 to f2 as well for a sharpness increase, but I wanted the shallowest DoF possible.

For the first image in the blog, I was sitting on the ground (in order to make him look more grand and tall, and to get mostly sky in, rather than boring ground), with the X100. I had the 3rd gridlines projected so I could put his face in one of the points of power, as it was a wide shot and I needed help guiding the eye to his face. The light was coming from the left (his right), so I had him turn in that direction. With guys I normally try to get them to stand naturally with toes slightly turned out, and ask them to bring their shoulders up and back, but then try to settle so they are comfortable and not stiff. Early on I tell them I will be directing their face turn for lighting purposes, so it's easy to use my index finger to ask them to turn closer to me or further away. Sometimes I use the command, "Ok, now with only your eyes, look at me", otherwise they will turn their whole head from the previously chosen position. For postwork, I adjusted contrast and clarity, white balanced it to be a bit less blue, then added one adjustment brush to the sky to bring it down and add contrast, clarity, and a bit of blue, and another adjustment brush on his face to bring it up, add clarity, and increase saturation a bit.

In this one I was kneeling, as I wanted both sky and ground, as I found this grass path to be a great setting. The light was coming from the right, so I positioned him this way so it lit his face in short lighting again, this is why the front of his face is brighter, giving it volume. If we were turned the other way, (to the left) this soft light would hit the back of his head, giving his skull volume, but leaving his face relatively flat. In post, I desaturated the greens a bit, as it was overwhelming the scene, cloned out a few distracting clumps of grass, used an adjustment brush to bring down the sky and add a bit of blue, and up clarity, and then overall scene contrast and clarity adjustments. I also have a special sharpening setting that adds micro volume, rather than really sharpening the edges too much. It uses a very wide radius, and a high masking value so only hard edges are affected, and in a broad, rather than narrow way. I apply this to every image, and change the amount depending on the output size (full amount for the web, 30% for full sized prints).

I love how sharp the X100 is at f/2, with no chromatic aberations or purple fringing. It allowed me to throw the background slightly out of focus for some nice subject separation, while still viewing the background's contents.

Just to follow up on my last post about focal lengths, here are two shots in the same location. First with the 85mm lens on the 5D and second with the 35mm X100:

The one with the 85 is tight, and is definitely about the subject as a portrait. It's flattering and cinematic. The 35 is wider and shows the entire cityline of Reykjavik. Neither is better or worse, but they both offer different things. One is a portrait that could be made in any city though, and the other was definitely done in Iceland. (the dark square on the far right is Harpa, the new opera house, and the grey point above it is Halgrimskirkja, the most famous landmark in Reykjavik, the tall dark apartment buildings are also very iconic as part of the beachfront skyline)

Not the most masculine of poses, but I think it works. The mountains in this direction behind him were so beautiful, and the light was still cooperating. In odd poses like this, it's really important to ask the subject to "settle in" so they feel comfortable. You can see a noticeable difference after they do it, much more relaxed. I might fine tune a pose, but before I take the photo I ask them to get comfortable so it doesn't look too stiff and awkward.

svavar_shoot

Settings: Ambient is underexposed by 1/2 stop, and face is properly exposed using a small gridded softbox just outside frame left.

I saw this location when walking back to work from a coffee shop and knew I had to do a shoot. Their are boulders embedded in the wall, and ivy growing along the side. many of the boulders are high enough I knew I could crop out the ground and remove the sense of how high it was. I asked a friend to sit for me, and asked him to wear a suit. He told me he only had an older ill-fitting suit, but knowing his look, I thought it might work. He showed up in these ratty shoes, and at first I was a bit disappointed, but I think they work with the look. Newer shoes would have shown how disheveled the suit is.

Lighting was simple. I set my camera on a tripod and got the framing I wanted. At first I was using my 85mm lens to flatten everything, but I wanted to see a bit more of the wall, so I switched to my 50mm, which let me go closer and keep him larger in the frame while still showing a lot of the wall. Once I had that setup, I underexposed by 1/2 stop, set my small gridded softbox to the full 3 meter height of my light stand, and aimed it at his head height. I used the light meter to power the flash so it was properly exposing the face. This would give me a bit of focus on the face, without too much of a light intensity difference.

Once that was set, it was just a matter of getting a pose and expression I was interested in.

This image shows the before and after of the post work. I found the image overall was a bit too bright, and the wall lacked volume because the day was fairly overcast. I used the adjustment brushes in lightroom to make the top edges of the boulders pop, and another to deepen some of the undersides of ivy and boulders. Then I took it into photoshop, gave a bit of white sleeve to his left hand so it would look more balanced, then underexposed the whole image another small amount while leaving the face untouched. I cloned out the few small imperfections on the face not visible at this resolution, and went through my normal sharpening procedures to give more micro contrast.

zen_shoot

Settings: 1.5 meter softlighter to camera left and halfway between subject and camera, aimed at head and centered at head height, about 3 meters from subject. Metered at head to be properly exposed. Background was shutter dragged to come up to proper exposure as well.

I had asked this subject if I could photograph him over a year ago, and it just worked out this weekend to do a shoot. I had some locations in mind, and did a 1.5 hour location scout with my camera, 35, and 50mm lenses. Luckily I did this right before the actual shoot, so the lighting was identical between scout trip and the shoot itself. Doing a location scout is really pivotal. You don't want to feel rushed with the subject or you could miss some nice background elements trying to just find something quick. I pick locations based on "feel" and our eyes can take in a huge field of view, plus we are viewing "live". It takes exploration to find a single view for your camera that encapsulates this same "feeling" that you chose the location for. By having plenty of time by yourself with no lights, just your camera, you can find these views a lot easier. I'm constantly putting the camera up to my eye without taking a photo, just looking how things are compressed and what shows from that angle.

For the above shot, I loved how the trees went back into the background, and the serene feeling of the bare ground with just pine needles. This is a very uncommon setting in Iceland, tall trees like this and bare ground with no grass or weeds. I knew this was spot number one for the shoot. I experimented with different heights of the camera during the scout, and I knew I wanted my 35mm lens so I could see up into the trees, which would necessitate a low angle. The 50mm narrowed the view too much and you didn't get the same sense of height. I wanted a nice soft side light, so I used the 1.5 meter softlighter. I metered for the face, and then opened the shutter until the background came into a nicer exposure, 1/60th of a second. The rim light on his left side is from the bright sky coming through the open area of the tree trunks above, behind, and to the right.

In post, all I did was create a gradient adjustment in Lightroom for the top of the trees, which I boosted exposure by 1 stop, and made a bit more saturated, and added a slight orange color overlay to give it the sunny feel. The left side of this copse of trees had a road, where people were walking and cars driving, so in Photoshop I duplicated the layer, flipped it, and masked in just enough to show bushes on that side as well. I left as much of the original trees as possible to keep it from looking mirrored. I also made an adjustment layer for the ground, darkened it slightly and added more red so it wasn't so yellow.

This location was very close to the first, and uses all natural light. This is the main cemetery of Reykjavik, and it is an incredibly peaceful place. There are trees planted on most graves, and since the cemetery itself is about 150 years old, some of them are quite large. It's the most dense large forest in the capital area. This location was the hardest to scout. I wanted to capture the depth of the forest, and the serenity, without it being too cliche as a cemetery portrait location. I wanted peace, not morbidity. This tree was one of the more dense in it's foliage, and as such created the darkest area of the cemetery. I knew if I put the subject under it and facing out, I could get some nice soft light with decent shadows on the side facing the tree. We took a few shots of him looking toward me, but I had him look outward, and his profile looked great. I made sure to line it up so it was on top of the dark branch, to truly show the silhouette, and grabbed this image. It should really be viewed large to really appreciate the details and tonal depth. I love the composition of having the dark side and light side, but his sleeve and face serve as the main light spots in the dark half, properly drawing your eye to the foreground. His sleeve and the tree branch behind his head make a smooth S-curve with his face in the middle. The photo was mainly about the tones and composition, and I felt black and white treatment was more appropriate and would really let me draw out the details I wanted. The main color was the green of the foliage, his outfit was all grey and white, so the color version doesn't bring much.

Here are the other favorites from the shoot, all using natural light.

lilja_in_the_greenhouse

Settings: Ambient read at f/1.4, and the flash aimed at just her face was at f/1.8

A quick one from this afternoon. My friend Lilja has bright red hair, and always has the coolest outfits on her facebook photos. I saw the polka dot tights and knew I had an image somehow. We were originally going to go into the woods for the shoot, but it started to look like rain. A friend had a greenhouse, and it quickly went from a proposed plan B to the best idea.

I had seen a magazine on the racks here in Iceland with what looked like a tintype image, and I was inspired at the color of the processing, and the faded colors of the image. I knew her bright red hair and the dress we had picked out would survive this processing, and would probably be made stronger because of it.

For setup, I put my black 1x2 meter frame just outside of camera left. This is serving to darken the shadows on that side. The greenhouse was glass on all sides, and it was an overcast day, there was almost no contrast or shadows inside the structure. The black board introduced a bit of contrast, but to properly expose her face, I had to totally blow out the background, which I did not want. I wanted the softest setting of my lens with the shallowest depth of field, so I locked it to f/1.8. At iso 100 and shutter speed of 1/125, this gave me f/2 where her face would be, too bright for what I wanted. Knowing that I was using the light tightly gridded to her face, I could go way above the sync speed.* I bumped the shutter to 1/250, taking the ambient to f/1.4.

Next I put the quadra on a boom, using the grid reflector with a 20 degree grid. This gave me a very tight beam of light, tighter and harsher than my softbox. I wanted to contrast the soft light of the rest of the image, and I knew I was going to use some softening post processing techniques, so the harder lighting would help the face still read when I was done. It was drizzling the entire time, which made me so glad I was using the quadra system, which is largely weather sealed. I put the cable in plug B, and lowered it to the lowest setting of 8.2. This gave me a reading inside the greenhouse where her face would be, of f/1.8, right where I wanted it.

Because of the light meter usage and the tripod to find my exact camera angle, once the model came out it was very fast. I directed her pose, (as an aside, I cleared the view of all modern day looking things like plastic bags of dirt and colored buckets, always control your scene), had her tilt her head in the direction I wanted, and fired a test. I could see the light was not far enough around to give me narrow lighting, it was more like a rim light, so I moved the boom to be closer toward me, and it hit both eyes for the look I wanted. We were done with the actual shooting bit within 10 minutes.

For post processing, I new I wanted to absolutely destroy the corners. First I used a lens blur set fairly low, and masked her out roughly. The items within the greenhouse were too contrasty and pulling focus from her, and this helped clear it up. Next I used a radial blur to really smear the corners the way a crappy lens does. I completely masked it away from her face though. Next I did a lot of color stuff. I made the shadows bluer, the highlights yellower. I made a blue/green layer that only went on the low shadow tones, but not the blacks. Then I made a desaturated green layer, set it to lighten, and only let it touch the deep blacks, effectively taking away the contrast of only the low end of the image, a typical look of antique photos. Finally I found a stain texture and a glass plate texture which I overlayed lightly to give it a bit of texture as if it were on paper. The whole goal was a contrast between a high quality center, with destroyed edges, and a desaturated fatigued look of the colors, with her hair and dress still shining through by virtue of their saturation.

*once you go above your maximum shutter speed (on the 5D it's 1/200, but with a skyport it's effectively 1/160 because of delay) you start to see the shutter blocking the flash on the image. however, that's only on the lower part of the frame, and it gets progressively higher in the frame the higher you go over the sync speed. If the area where the flash is hitting, is high in the frame, you can disregard the shutter creep shadow, because it's not evident anyway. In this image, her face is the only part getting flash, and it's "high" in the frame. I would have probably had to go to 1/320 to start to see the shutter creeping onto her face and blocking the flash.

shoot_walkthrough_part_three

Settings: Ambient was all over the place, the lightbulbs almost clipping and the shadows near black, but it was a neutral exposure with no flash. Flash at 2 stops over neutral grey providing the rim light on his shoulders and hair.

Above is the final composite, click through for large.

Below is the animated gif of all layers, with images brought in fully, then the next frame showing the masks applied to cut them out.

1. First was to get the main background plate more symmetrical. The benches were slightly offset, so I evened up the front most bench. The farthest two benches on the left were broken (not illuminated) so I cloned over the benches and lit tree trunks from the right side.
2. Darken the farthest trees so it would fade well into the next layer.
3. Comp in 2nd photo of the same benches, but I was further away. This required scaling the image way down and careful placement to make it fit.
   
4. Color correction for the main background plate.
5. Using an exposure layer, I boosted the foreground path, and then comped in some empty ground from one of the bench shots with no subject. It was made by copying just the ground in front of the bench, then duplicating it, and flipping it vertically to be now above, doubling the height of the lit ground, then using perspective scale matched to the perspective of the bottom chunk. Then I used the clone brush to get rid of the seam or any other identifying details you saw near the flipped edge.
6. Add in fake shadow from the bench using another exposure layer set to reduce exposure.
   
7. Pull in the bench, then mask away the dark background. I mainly used the marque selection with a 1 pixel feather built into the setting (only CS3 and above). I used a magic lasso for the non geometric bits, and a paintbrush to clean up, working in the mask.
8. Bring in the subject and arrange him in place, mask him out using magic lasso and then a brush for cleanup.
9. Exposure and contrast boost on his face. I liked this body pose and another face, so I comped that together also.
10. Final color correction on all layers.

I found a new trick for matching White Balance on separate layers, and that's to make a Hue/Saturation layer at the top of the image with saturation set to 100%. This makes color discrepancies really obvious and can be turned on and off by hiding the layer.

In the end, the final composite looks very similar to my original vision I had in my minds eye. Shooting everything at the same time and in the same lighting conditions, as well as with similar standing heights and angle the camera is aimed will make sure these composites work. If the lighting is lying between layers, or the perspective radically different, your white balance matching and perfect masks won't have any affect on unifying the image.

sebastian_balcony_portrait

Settings: Ambient is around neutral grey, with the flash modeling light one stop over neutral grey.

This is my friend Sebastian. He told me he had an awesome balcony with a view of the city of Cologne, and he wasn't lying. While visiting with him, he went out to smoke, and it gave me this really cool vibe of him out there, and I felt like doing a Marlboro man-esque shoot with him there.

I knew before the shoot it was going to be difficult. The city is way in the background, so keeping them both in focus even on a bright day would be hard, at night even harder. Even just letting in enough light for proper exposure was an ordeal. This was taken at ISO 1600, F/1.8, and 1/30 of a second on an 85mm lens. The light was so low, using the flash was out of the question, so this is just the modeling light from the Quadra, a 20 watt LED that is daylight balanced.

I used the softbox without the inner baffle to let through as much light as possible, but used the fabric grid to restrict the light to his face, with some falloff towards the body. To get a good balance, the light is about 2 meters from his face on the right. Then I turned on the lights inside his flat, which were tungsten bulbs, to provide some fill, that's where the orangeish light is from.

With the camera cranked to maximum light gathering mode, I was able to properly grab an exposure of him with the city. The only problem is that the city was super blurry from the 1.8 aperture. I solved this by moving him and taking another photo of the city in focus, so I could blur to taste in Photoshop with the lens blur filter. I wanted a little blur to isolate him as the subject, but not so much that the church was unrecognizable. By masking him out first, I was able to blur to the exact amount I wanted, which was not much. I'd say this is the equivalent of the same photo at f/8 or so, which would have required a camera with iso 12,800 or so.

In post I first did some body editing, using liquify to change the profile, and dodge/burn to sculpt in more muscles. Then I masked him out, quickly with the magic lasso tool, then cleaned up with the brush using a layer mask. I added clouds to the background from another shoot, since the sky was empty, collapsed it, then blurred the collapse layer, blending the skyline and clouds perfectly. Then I used my masking trick from this post: http://mr-chompers.blogspot.com/2009/08/maskingtrick.html to blend the border of him in so it wasn't so obvious he'd been cut out.

Here you can see the stages of editing. The final stage is multiple small things, from enhancing the intensity of the cigarette, to adding some fresnel glow on his silhouette to imply the city lights, to the masking trick, high pass sharpening, and a final color grading to unify it all.

kiril_portraits

Settings: The background was shot separately with ambient about 2 stops below neutral grey for a dark feel and still allowing the lamps to not blow out. In the subject's image, Ambient is 1 stop below neutral grey, and flash is 1.5 stops above neutral grey.

I've posted the original setting, and a closeup of this shot for the previous masking tricks post, but here is the full image.

Having scouted the door location, I knew I wanted to use a male model, in a dress coat. I asked around for my friends, trying to find someone with a look I could use, who also owned a dress jacket with collars that could be held up. I used google images of pea coats and chesterfields when asking people if they owned what I was after.

If I had the full budget of a paid shoot, I would have scouted for a Hugo Boss grey or black double breasted pea coat. I also wanted a double layered undershirt, something white with a low V-neck showing the upper pectorals, and then a button down blue shirt. However when putting together a shoot with a budget of zero monies, you work with what you have.

We arrived at the location, and I set up while the model changed into the wardrobe (it was far too hot out to bicycle there already dressed). I had already scouted the location, so I knew I was going to use my 35mm lens, I knew about where I'd stand as well. The evening wasn't dim enough yet for them to have turned on the lamps, but in hind sight it worked well, because the ambient provided a nice fill on his face on the non flash side that would have been lacking if it was closer to dark.



Settings: Ambient is one stop below neutral grey. Flash is 1.5 stops above neutral grey.

In this photo you can see what the ambient levels were like at the time of the shooting. The flash in all these images is in a 30x40 cm softbox with a 20 degree grid. In this image, it is coming from camera left, through a fabric grid to keep the light only on his face, and not on the door or his knee. You'll notice in all the images the flash is set to a narrow lighting pattern, where the flash hits the front of his face, but leaves the side of the face we can see in shadow. I like this lighting pattern best for how it reveals facial details.



Settings: The background was shot separately with ambient about 2 stops below neutral grey for a dark feel and still allowing the lamps to not blow out. In the subject's image, Ambient is 1 stop below neutral grey, and flash is 1.5 stops above neutral grey.

This image uses the same settings as the first, I've just moved the subject further back, and gotten down on my knees instead of taking at eye level. The background was composited in. The bricks on the ground are from the subject's image, and the background plate had to be extended as it wasn't wide enough. I used photoshops content aware resizing to extend the brick walls without ruining the windows or the doorway. Then I did some reshaping of the jacket, as it was too loose, and then used dodge and burn to give him a bit more obvious musculature. I also slimmed the waist a bit. The hardest part was getting the ambient levels of the subject to match the background, as well as the color toning. The ambient was still quite neutral, whereas on the background plate it had a ton of blue and a bit of purple in the shadows. I used an exposure layer with lots of masking to darken the non flash lit parts to match. Then I used a color balance and a photo filter to tone the ambient to match the background. In the top image, I used Photoshop's Lens Blur filter to add depth of field to the background so that the subject would stand out a bit more.

Before and After:

upcoming_shoot

I did a location scout tonight. I've got a pretty good idea now of what subject I want, how they should pose, and what kind of lighting I'll use. I'm pretty excited.

Before shot:



after:



I removed all the modern bits, the plaques and metal pipes and trashcan. Not only to make it look more timeless, but also to keep the visual attention up near the lights, where the subject's head will be. It was fairly easy, not too much original cloning. I just duplicated the layer and flipped it horizontally, then hid it all with a mask, and revealed it where the details I didn't want would be. That got rid of 90% of the stuff, then I just needed to clone out a few details, which I did on a new layer, so I could darken and color correct the cloned bits so they would match the background perfectly. I also did some selective sharpening to bring out the grit and details on the bricks and cobblestone, but left it off of any areas that looked too overcooked (mainly around the lights and the window panes).

andre_portraits

Settings: Ambient is properly exposed, but leaves his face 2 stops underexposed. Flash is at 2 stops over neutral grey, and is hitting just his face.

I did my first real photoshoot this weekend here in Cologne. I'd passed this location everyday coming home from work, and I thought the line of trees was a really powerful compositional element. I got a chance to use my new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra, with the Chimera softbox and 20 degree grid.

The softbox was originally placed far enough away to be out of the frame for this shot:



However once I moved closer for the main shot, I should have brought it in closer, so that it would have a softer shadow edge. I would also have put it up to full stand height, and brought it closer around to the lens axis, for a loop pattern, instead of a rembrandt pattern on his face. Even with it further away than necessary, it's definitely softer than a bare shoe mount flash would have been, and you don't get near as much specular highlights on his skin.

The compositional elements I really like are the light beam coming from the top of the image downward. I think it explains to the mind where the light is coming from. The tree line and path also leads the eye into the figure, and the lightness of the path helps make the pants silhouette pop.

The ability to adjust the flash power from my camera was really helpful. I got to keep my time all focused on the subject, and not have to worry about walking back and forth. I also liked the modeling light, but it only was bright enough when we went indoors, and when the evening got really dark.



Settings: Ambient is two stops below neutral grey. Flash is at 2 stops over neutral grey, and is hitting just his face.

Location two was much cooler in my mind, but I had discovered it while drunk. I still tried to make the best of it, but couldn't get the image I saw in my head. Mainly it was because the location didn't line up as well once compressed into a 2d plane, as the space "feels" when you're there. Also the path behind the booth was too dark to add to the composition. I still like the idea, so I'll be looking for a spot that better fits this impression for a future shoot.

So, first impressions of the ERQ while out on a shoot: The wireless control worked flawlessly. Setup and take down of the chimera softbox and grid was smooth and quick. Modeling light was great once it went fully dark, and while indoors. The 20 degree fabric grid allowed me to throw a softish light from out of the frame onto just the face of my subject. Overall I'm really pleased with the upgrade.

Garden

Settings: Ambient is 2 stop over neutral grey. One flash to camera right, with grid spot, aimed only at the head, even with neutral grey.

No setup shots on this one unfortunately. I noticed that the lighting in the backyard was beautiful the other day. I started shooting in sunlight, but by the time I finished, this was just bright sky providing even smooth light. The light from the left side is from the sky, and the fill on the right side is from the flash. it's a bit hot on the forehead, and would have benefited from an umbrella to soften it a bit.

After getting a shot that I wanted, I tried to emulate the split toning that Annie Liebovitz seems to be using lately. I messed around with the shot, mainly desaturating the whole shot, while keeping blues normal. Then I used lightroom's split toning feature to make royal blue shadows, and turquoise blue highlights. Further, I made two gradient masks, one from top left with a tiny bit of an orange hue, and a +.2 exposure setting, then the bottom one with a purple tint and a -.2 exposure setting. I feel it emulates the parts that I liked about Annie's post, so I'm content.

Karolina

Settings: Ambient is right at neutral grey. One flash into a small silver umbrella held directly over the subject's head at 1.5 stops over neutral grey.

I saw this garage door and strip light while walking at night, and it just had the nicest feel. The long fluorescent tube gave off such a pleasing light in the otherwise dark night, and the red door seemed to really have a presence to it. I knew I wanted to do a shoot here.

First I did a test shot to see my framing and figure out what type of subject an lighting would work:



The background was symmetrical, so I knew I wanted to use symmetrical lighting. I also wanted something simple, so just one light. I ended up using my small silver umbrella. Ideally I would have had a heavy duty C-stand, with a long arm and a counterweight, but honestly the wind was so strong that I think even that wouldn't be enough. I ended up holding the lightstand myself, which required me to use the 10 second timer. It was not fun to hit the button, run forward, arrange the stand, give direction to the model, photo takes, then I run back to check the image, and start again. An assistant would have been great, or my remote trigger, but I'd already packed it for the move.

Here you can see how it was working.




Knowing I would be in all the frames, I took a clean "background plate" at the beginning. This was also necessary for the radically different light sources. I had no idea how to gel for this particular tube light, as it wasn't the traditional fluorescent green. It was easier to just shoot a background, balance it, then composite her on.

Here is the retouching process:



1. Original photo of background, brought in from lightroom. It's been color balanced, the red shifted to have no orange and be a true red, and some constrast adjustments, bringing the clipped whites around the light back with the highlight recovery slider. CA was removed with my 50mm preset.

2. Distortion removed with the free transform and lens distortion filter.

3. Left half duplicated to right half for symmetry, but using a mask to disguise the middle bits so you don't get a Rorschach effect giving it away.

4. Tire tracks removed using an earlier shot background plate (car ran right in front of me with wet tires)

5. Blue lens flare removed from bottom and top. (very subtle but would be visible in a print)

6. Bring in the layer with subject.

7. Mask away the background using the magic lasso to start, then using a soft 50% opaque brush for the hair and boa to do careful masking.

8. Color balance her main light source.

9. Color balance the "fringe" where the light is leaking around from the fluorescent tube.

10. Final fixes on her fly away hairs, removing the last bit of orange.

11. Desaturate ground layer to hide the dual light sources. I needed the ground here to show her shadow and anchor her down, but had to remove the color giving away the composite job.

12. High pass desaturate sharpen layer.

13. Hide wrinkles and add body using healing brush and overlay layers (this was done under all the color correcting layers, but I did it last. It's non destructive but didn't have as much to do with the final image as all the color sources.

I also practiced the poses and tried to visualize them beforehand. The first image of this post is pretty much exactly how I envisioned. I really feel that lately my best images have been the ones I've previsualized strongly beforehand. I feel that I can go out with almost anyone in any lighting and get a good normal portrait just mucking around, but my favorite recent images have all been very "produced".

This is also why I have no problem with so much photoshop in post. I wanted the image at the beginning, and I don't mind doing whatever is necessary in post to achieve that vision I had to begin with.

Here is one other after an outfit change. I like it, but I don't feel it's as strong as the red on red:



Settings: Ambient is right at neutral grey. One flash into a small silver umbrella held directly over the subject's head at 1.5 stops over neutral grey.

After nailing the full body ones, it was time to do some playing around. I asked her if she had any ideas, and she wanted close ups, especially using her boa as "hair". In this case, the strong wind really helped give the feathers some motion, which I think strengthens the image.



Settings: Ambient is 2 stops below neutral grey. One flash into a small silver umbrella to camera left at 2 stops over neutral grey.

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.

Óðinn part 1

Settings: Ambient is .5 stops below neutral grey. One flash to camera right, aimed up so that just the bottom edge touches his face, at 1.5 stops over neutral grey.

I'd been wanting to take photos of my friend Óðinn for a while, and finally got a chance to. We did a multi-part shoot to make the most of our time. This is where being mobile really pays off. I'm convinced that with studio strobes and a large battery pack, with the extra time it would take to set everything up, we would not have been able to fit this much in. The daylight was fading fast, and we had a narrow window when the light was perfect.

I've been to this location before, but not during the snow. It opened some really nice possibilities. The sky was still quite bright, and was providing a nice soft even light, this provided for some nice photos with no lighting equipment needed.





After a few nice shots in this setting, we moved to these wooden beach chairs that were covered in snow. There was some beautiful light still coming from the horizon, and I just wanted to add a touch of light with the strobes, to bring attention to his face. I could have oriented myself on the side of the light, but it would have given me a much darker background, and I wanted some of the interesting sunset in the background.



Settings: Ambient is .5 stops below neutral grey. One flash to camera right, aimed up so that just the bottom edge touches his face, at 1.5 stops over neutral grey.

The biggest thing that I learned from this shoot, is that when using an unmodified flash, and letting in enough ambient to make the shadows not so harsh, I like "short portrait lighting". You can find a detailed explanation here. The quick explanation, if the flash is illuminating the front of the face and the side of the face you can see, it's "broad" lighting. If it's illuminating the front of the face, and leaving the side of the face you can see in shadow, it's "short" lighting. Broad lighting with an unmodified flash is less pleasing (to me) than short lighting. I hadn't consciously recognized this preference of mine till this shoot, and I'll let it dictate my lighting placement for future shoots.

Here is an example of broad lighting. I like the pose and composition, but wish I had taken this photo with short lighting instead. The broad lighting is leaving his face too flat for my taste, and not bringing in enough of the colored shadow from the ambient to tie him into the background.



Settings: Ambient is 1 stops below neutral grey. One flash to camera right, at 1 stops over neutral grey.

Fiona Evening part 2

Settings: Ambient was between 1-2 stops below neutral grey. The far background was 2 stops below, and the foreground was 1 stop below. Flash one is even with the photographer and aimed at the large white wall just outside camera right, turning it into a giant softbox. Flash one is about 2 stops above neutral grey. Flash two is off frame left, about 4 meters behind and to the left of subject, about 2.5 stops above neutral grey.

Next stop was a large church building on a hill overlooking the city lights. Here is the research shot I did.



I liked the rock, and originally I wanted to include the white wall and bench as well, but after I cropped tighter, I liked it much more with just the rock. First I got a good exposure with just the ambient, then I added the first flash and aimed it at the wall. This provided a beautifully big soft light for her front. Then I added a second flash to the left and behind. This one I zoomed to 105mm and aimed upwards so that just the feathered edge touched her. This prevented it from hitting the rock, for when I was taking wider crops earlier. This also made that flash weaker than it's lowest setting of 1/128.

Fiona was a natural, I barely had to direct her at all, she's just a glam-rocker and knew how to make love to the camera. The outfit was her choice too, but the red on black work so well in this dark city scape setting.

One more from this setup.

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.