People Photography Course

So about six weeks ago I attended a People Photography Course (like a portrait class but less structured) at the local college (where I also work). It was a 6 hour course (1 hour lunch) put on by local photographer Tom Cooper.

Now I really didn't know what expect for myself from the course. I have a good knowledge of photography basics (Shutter, Aperture, ISO). I wanted to improve my skills with posing in a general sense as I want as "natural" a look in photographs as possible. I also wanted to work more with natural light and maybe some flash or reflectors for fill. I knew one of the major things I would get out of the class would be to watch and learn from all of the other photographers including Tom.

The class was small to start with and then one person had to leave for medical reasons and another was actually a model and left after an hour. The class was a mixed bag with varying degree's of technical skills.


The first hour we talked (we all spoke not just Tom) about how we saw "People Photography" and what we wanted to get out of the day. Tom arranged it so we were in a small meeting room (at the local college) with big windows with some drapes. It offered a a good light to shoot a few shots with.

I was trying out a lens I had just bought the Nikon 35-70 F/2.8. It seems a little soft at F/2.8-4.0 but after that it is very sharp. I am also noticing that it flares (I think that's the right term) when shooting into a bright light source. Does some weird things to the highlights when shooting at certain angles to the sun. I think I remember reading something about this. I digress.


So after some more instruction from Tom we headed outside. Now the sun was pretty bright at this point (a little after 10am) so the first thing I'm doing is looking for some shade to shoot in. A few minutes into the shoot the model had to go. So from that point forward class members were the models. The first thing I tried to do was find an angle I could shoot that didn't have a really bright background as the generally the brightest part of the photograph draws attention. We had the model sitting on a picnic table in a covered courtyard. Beyond the courtyard was another part of the courtyard that was fully exposed to the sun. I found this much to bright to use as a background. So I moved to the other side of the model and shot into the shaded courtyard. This was ok but there was a lot of different lines (part of the construction) that would intersect with the models head and so on.... I thought about using fill flash but I wanted a shallow-depth of field (so large aperture) but with that amount of light it wasn't happening (later I thought using a Neutral-density filter might have worked).



A little later we moved into the shaded part of the college which I liked. I know in certain types of photography there is something called repeating elements (like the posts of a fence). I tried this with the background of the portrait (pillars of the building) but it was more distracting then anything. Might have worked as a lead in now that I think about it.







After this I became the model in the bright sun. I think Tom wanted us to shoot in the bright sun as a learning tool. I know it was good for me to see (even if I wasn't shooting). Tom used a medium size sliver reflector. It actually worked really well even in the intense sun. I have more respect for the models now all those people pointing their camera's at you!! . On top of that the light from that reflector is bright! (Thank-you to another student for providing the photo of me)







After some more lessons we went for lunch. I just went home for lunch. The plan for after lunch was to head to a nearby heritage site. This place has many old (for the area not very old) that have lots of character. All during my lunch I was thinking about the possibilities of the shoot. I even showed up early to check things out.

It wasn't what I would call a good time of day to be shooting portraits (about 1 pm) but we were there to learn and sometimes you have to shoot in those conditions. I just needed to find some shade to shoot in!. I was going to shoot with another student Pam. She had a family friend Mike come as her model. I then just got a call from my girlfriend. She was going to come and be my model along with her two daughters.








So I shot the first 10 minutes with Pam and a family friend of her's. We were given a list of various things to try for our portraits (like shooting into the shade, or into the sun). I found these exercises really pushed me. The first thing I wanted to do was find some shade and use some fill flash. Now a big part of me going to the course was to push myself; I had to fight the urge!



My girlfriend and her 2 daughters showed up to be my models. I ended up shooting my girlfriend while her daughters were off doing portraits with a couple ladies. After some stuggling with my shots I decided to start to push myself and went right out into the mid day sun with my model. I did find that the lens (as mentioned above) was not working shooting into the sun but I kept trying. With Toms instruction I did get an alright shoot at 45 degrees to the sun. I also found this great house in the shade to shoot in.










Overall it was a great day, a great class and a step forward in my photography.

A laughting matter

A friend sent me this comic and thought it was good. Love the 4-pixel photo recreate.

www.phdcomics.com

Cheers

Completely random photo

This is a photo I made of the underpass in City Park. This goes under Highway 97 right near the new Bridge here in Kelowna, British Columbia. I like the angle of the shot but I think it was over done. This one is all for fun.

The biggest influence on my work

I just wanted to post a link to Bruce Percy's website. Bruce's work is probably the biggest influence for my work at the moment. His work speaks to me and his podcasts literally speak to me as well. When I need some inspiration I watch one of his podcasts (I'm saving them for those days that I need them). I would love to go to one of his workshops. Maybe next year.

Bruce Percy

Lac Du Bois Provincial Park

I visited this great park at the end of my weekend trip to Kamloops two weekend's ago. The light was really terrible but I can't really complain as the day before was awesome for me all day. This was around mid day and it was completely overcast. I knew the photo's wouldn't have great light but I really enjoy these types and trees and thought I would do something with Sepia or B&W. I was also concerned with how much was going on with these photo's (lots of small trees together). I really only liked these two photo's and I am not overly happy with them. I really went up in the park to check things out... was hoping to spot some Big Horned Sheep but I didn't see any of those... next time right. I least I know somethings about the park and below the boundaries. Found a few lakes that might be good to photograph in the morning or evening.

Playing in Photoshop again...

These first two are fairly heavily processed photos. I got the effect I was looking for more in the second one as it didn't have the rock. I did want to see what I could do with the rock; think I masked out that rock to some extent but I didn't fully get to where I wanted to with that one.






The last four are all very similar and in some cases the same photo processing in a different way. I liked what I saw when I pushed these photo's. Most of this is done with the "Blacks" and "Fill-light" sliders in LR2. I got the different color effects with different white balance settings all pretty simple. I think I like the one closest to the original (the last one) best. These were all taken just under a bridge on the local creek. Mission Creek it's called... a great place to get away for awhile.

Playing in Photoshop

So here are three photo's I was playing with. They is nothing spectacular about them but I like the effect some different blurring and blend modes have on them. I would tell you exactly what I did but to be honest I've forgotten... should have created an action at the time. I know it invovles an "overlay" blend mode at any rate. The last photo is not so "Shopped" but is more a comparison shot for the second photo. The last one is warmed up something fierce.

Sunset over Okanagan Lake

So here are some photo I took a couple weeks back on one of my visits to the shores of Okanagan Lake here in Kelowna, British Columbia. This was also my testing for the my new Nikkor 17-35 2.8 lens that I bought myself. So far from my testing it is great. Very sharp and I love the feel of professional glass. Look out pocketbook. :-) The real test for the 17-35 2.8 will be when I finally get a D700 or D800 at the time.

Something that moved me

As some may know I follow a fair number of blogs... most of them photo related.
This one has struck a chord with many ... me included. While it is photography related I think anyone can get something out it ... take the 10 minutes but make sure you dedicate those 10 minutes to only watching and absorbing what is being said. Well said Zack.
Transform by Zack Arias

The Glamour of Industry

This is one of my first attempts at realistic HDR. I didn't have enough photo's to really do it well (3 photos). I also used a blurred "Soft light" layer to add some contrast. It also seems to take a bit of the sharpness of the lights away. A good thing to balance the harshness of the lights I think.


I was liking the effect a slow shutter speed had on the smoke stacks. I really brought out a lot of the colors in LR2/PS4 as well.
30secs @ F/8.0 125mm with Nikon 70-300 VR





Another take on the similar shot above. Finished much the same as well.
30secs @ F/8.0 300mm with Nikon 70-300 VR



28secs @ F/8.0 150mm with Nikon 70-300 VR

While some might go as far as I calling me a tree hugging hippy. I can't deny I like the look of places like this at night when they have all the lights on. This is the the local Tolko Industries wood processing plant. I was out looking for a view of the City (Kelowna, BC) but the road up Knox mountain is closed for the winter and I didn't have the time to walk up. Was a nice night to be out and I meet a very nice lady that I talked with for awhile. A successful evening in my books.

Some inspiration for me

So a few days back I was reading the slew of photography related blog feeds and came across one that truly inspired me in a way I haven't felt for awhile. The feed came from "The Travel Photographer". The post brought me to "Phil Borges" website. While the entire site seems very authentic and probably inspiring the part that got me was the Tibetan Portraits. The portraits are great and seem really capture the person; I also found the small description of each person and Phil's "experience" he had with each. Now the descriptions aren't overly long but I got a real sense that he truly was fully present with each of these people. It just screamed authentic to me in a time when that doesn't happen as often as I'd like. I would love to just be in Phil's presence. I think I could learn a lot. Photography and life. I hope each of the you get these moments from time to time; it makes life that much better.

While I hope you go and visit Phil's site I wish you find some of your own inspiration.

A trip into Self-Portraits ... and my new flash

So you might be asking yourself. What is this that post title. Well the new flash part is simple. I'd recently bought a new SB-800 flash and I was playing with that and my SB-600. Now the self-portrait bit probably needs a little more explanation. It started with my reading of a book called "Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting". A pretty good read but maybe a little general for me ;in all fairness I haven't finished it yet as I like to jump around while reading my photo books. So in this book it suggests and goes to say that doing self-portrait is a great tool for learning with practice. It will also give you an idea what a model/client will be faced with and maybe help you develop some ways to make them more comfortable and natural looking during the shoot.

It all seems to make sense so I setup my make shift studio at home like I've done a few times. Really just a white back drop (Do it yourself) a light stand with shoot-through umbrella. My Nikon D80 with a few lenses and now a SB-800 and SB-600.

Now one thing I was finding with this is that I didn't have a bunch of room to work after I got the backdrop setup. I decided to use my 50 f1.8 as it's not too long (75mm). It went pretty well but I found the model (me) didn't have many facial expressions that didn't look silly or down-right ridiculous; hence the serious looks. Some of my friends had some not so nice things to say about my facial expressions but I think they need to open up. Another I noticed was how hard it was to focus. I was trying to keep it on manual focus. I was using a 2-second timer with the remote. Something I should test is whether it acquires focus when the timer/remote is used or if using the focus it had previously. I also need to use a smaller aperture (F8 to F11) to get more DOF.

Was trying some things with Broad and short lighting. I was also trying to get some side lighting (bring out the detail/texture a subject) without much success. One thing I need to learn to see and use is subtlety. I also need to work more with and control my backgrounds in a studio like setting.

In the third and fifth photo's you will see a sepia type effect that I have been liking a lot as of late. I will be making another post regarding that shortly.

I did get some quick shots of my roomate and her sister after this. It was much easier but since I didn't ask I won't post those here.

What the Duck

This is a great comic strip I've just started reading.
I've had this a few times. Last time was about 2 months ago.

What the Duck

Abstraction along the way

See here are a few shot I took last week on a 2 hour walk about the Creek near where I live. The light wasn't spectacular so I thought I would have some fun with some close shots of various subjects along the way. I did some things with selective focus on my 50 f/1.8 lens but didn't do a great job with the backgrounds (too distracting). I also did some things with patterns and texture of the ice covered water. It is amazing how much information there is in a raw file. I got a lot of color came out of photo's in my post-processing. Hope you enjoy.

2008 the Year in Photographs 3