Category: Uncategorized

UPDATE: Okay, it is not perfect. Not even close. But it is helping enough people so that I decided to leave it in. Use at your own risk, and I hope it helps!

-DH
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I have added a machine-driven Google translate module to the site, in the drop-down menus on the right. Alas, I have no way of judging how good it is, and it obviously will not be great. And my heavy use of colloquial English will not help matters.

Question is, is it serviceable or is it so bad as to be laughable? I would note that you can improve any translation by holding your mouse over it for a couple of seconds.

I will decide after one week, based on your comments below. It is an all-or-none thing — we can’t cherry pick the languages. But please help me decide by giving it a try and leaving a comment. It can be as simple as the language tested, and a rating from 1 (awful) to 10 (wonderful).

If you are one of the people who are reading this in email or RSS, please click through to the main site and give it a whirl.

Thank you!

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Strobist

Last November, we ran a cool time-lapse BTS from photographer Finn O’Hara of a huge-scale Toronto Maple Leafs shoot. It was up for a few hours, then had to be pulled over some confusion over who owned the rights to the video.

It was replaced with a watered-down, neutered version which didn’t get anyone’s panties in a bunch — or show much of anything.

But the campaign has run its course and the original video is okay to run now. If you missed it, you can see it updated on the original post. It’s a neat look into what goes into a 35-NHL player cattle call.

(Answer: Probably more than you think.)

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Strobist

UPDATE: In addition to abs, this one also has legs. It has made the rounds to Jezebel(!), Billboard and Blair’s blog, too. I am heading out to get some ab spray now.
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Do you live in Phoenix? Were your lights flickering for a while a few weeks back?

That could have been Blair Bunting’s cover shoot for Billboard Magazine. He used 7 Profoto packs, 14 light sources and just under 20 Kilowatt-seconds of power every time the shutter tripped. For a 3/4-length portrait.

Oh, and the subject was naked. So I am sticking it behind the “read more” jump.
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You⁽¹⁾ were expecting a female, perhaps?

Too bad. And Blair did not even have the luxury of the black circle over Bret Michaels’ junk during the shoot. I’ll let him explain.

A few weeks ago the good people over at Billboard called and asked if I would photograph Bret Michaels for their cover. I was busy at the time and more or less scanned over the email while on set with another shoot. Through my terrible reading skills I managed to miss one big word: NAKED.

In the past, I have shot subjects such as the “naked centerfold” for Cosmopolitan, but they were always conveniently covered. When I had my first pre-production meeting with Billboard I pitched the idea of Bret with a cowboy hat covering the goods while his hands gave his trademark “rock on” gestures. Their response was, “that sounds great, but let’s get rid of the cowboy hat.”

I must confess, I had worked 5 straight days before the shoot, and flew in from Chicago only hours before the call time. As tired as I was, I couldn’t sleep. Not out of excitement, out of anguish that I would have to ask the former lead man from Poison to drop trou and smile. On top of that I was planning on using one very complex lighting setup that would hopefully render me blind enough to not know what was in front of my camera so long as I could pull a sharp image.

We had 14 light sources, 7 packs, and just under 20,000 watt seconds of Profoto happiness. [Editor’s note: Pretty sure Mr. Michaels’ kid-having days are over…] There was so much light that when I popped each frame, the RGB in our vision separated — seriously. However, I had dedicated that almost all of this shot would be out of camera as I didn’t want to stare at the Celebrity Apprentice that much on my monitor afterward.

By now you’re probably wondering how much of a prima donna Mr. Michaels was in this exposed situation. In all honesty, they don’t get any cooler and more relaxed as Bret on set. We drank, we laughed, we didn’t take ourselves seriously, and we got the shot.

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Well, you hadda know there’s gonna be a lighting diagram:

This one is a little busy, so follow the bouncing ball:

• The key light (green) is a large Elinchrom Octa as a modifier, 10 feet high.

• Under that are stacked two small Profoto softboxes (purple) at 4 and 6 feet high, (so the key becomes a giant strip light with extra oomph up top.)

• Fill is from a white Profoto beauty dish (orange) at bottom left, 3 feet high

• Uplight/rims are from Profoto strip boxes (blue) on the floor behind

• Hair lights (yellow) are from Profoto 30-degree grid spots, 12 feet high

• Background light is from four Profoto Magnum heads (red) 8 and 3 feet high on each side. (Which is more power just on the background than I think I have ever used on an entire shot.)

• Black V-flats control glare into the lens from all of the backlights. (Obviously, pretty critical given all of the lumens coming back at Blair’s shooting position.)

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Overkill?

That is a matter of opinion.

And not, I would wager, if you are trying to sculpt every line in Michaels’ body as Blair was clearly doing. It is an over-the-top look made by over-the-top (and bottom, and sides, and back) lighting.

So, how much of this is straight out of the camera, and how much of it is post production? Well, if you take a look at the work on Blair’s site you can see that he is pretty handy with that edgy, sculpted light. And since the SOOC version is obviously gonna be NSFW, I am not going to post it here.

But there just might be a little clandestine cell-phone BTS video…

If you want the no-post-processing version (and thus, the “Full Monte,”) you are going to have to make that click for yourself.

Strobist

Time was, things were simpler and fluorescent lights only required a 30CC magenta filter in front of your film-based camera lens to bring them into line. Green your flash and you were done. Then the hippies took over and now we have CFLs pretty much everywhere. And they are not all the same color, either.

Today, Joel Svendsen (who is not a professional actor but merely an ordinary person much like yourself) will walk you through how to correct for the various types of fluorescent lights.

It is geared towards video but you can translate pretty easily. The big difference is that video folks frequently work with tungsten lights. Or as they apparently call it, a package.

But thanks to Joel I shall henceforth think of warm CFLs, for instance, as sort of a weird combo of tungsten and fluorescent, both of which need to be fixed.

Joel, BTW, is the man at Rosco behind the Strobist Collection gel pack — which also saved the gel sample program from certain death. And that means that he drinks for free in Baltimore, whenever he visits.

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Strobist

UPDATE:

1:49pm — Boy, THAT was fast. There were a ton of people who wrote in to join up for the shoot day on November 2nd. I am going through the list now, prioritizing toward people who are local and most available. I will write back to everyone who left an email address (whether in or not) by the end of the day. But we already have more than will be practical to use, so please, no more volunteers needed.

Many thanks,
DH
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Tired of the hyper-polarized election season? How would you like to spend Tuesday, November 2nd doing something worthwhile — and nonpolitical — with your camera?

Don’t get me wrong — I am gonna vote. But I thought it would be cool to spend the rest of Election Day doing something real with my camera to benefit a very worthy local organization. It is gonna be in a beautiful outdoor setting, and I think it will be a lot of fun.

If you might be interested in helping, keep reading.
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I am organizing a group of photographers to spend a day (or part of a day) at an historic farm in Howard County, MD. It is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the preservation of farm history, and we will be shooting to provide photos for their use on the website, brochures, educational presentations, etc.

There are a couple other very cool layers involved. But that is not something I am ready to talk about publicly on the site yet, for reasons that will become obvious should you decide to join us. Suffice to say that it will be fun, creative and we’ll be helping a worthy cause.

Possibilities for shooting will span from sunrise (yeesh!) to after sunset. So for those of you who are self-employed and/or at least partially in control of your own time, there is some flexibility. But you should be willing to commit for a few hours or so.

And that is all I am gonna say. A little cryptic, to be sure. But as I said, there will be more info coming.

If you are interested in taking a little bit of a photographic flyer, please leave your name, city of residence, email and phone number in a comment on this post. Also, give me ONE SENTENCE about you as a photographer — your specialty, skill level, boxers or briefs — whatever.

It would also help if you could let me know your overall availability for the day. Logistically, I’d rather have someone for an afternoon than a lunch hour.

Important: No comments will be moderated into print, so your info will not be made public. If we have worked together before, please remind me.

I’ll choose a dozen or so of the most appropriate people, and be in touch with you either way (with more info, if appropriate) by the end of the day.

So, are you in?

Strobist

Until earlier this year I had never heard of underwater portraiture.  But in researching underwater housings for my DSLR, I came across Sacha Blue’s website.  I got even more excited to find out she lived right here in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.  While she also shoots weddings and traditional portraiture, her work under the surface is a refreshing look at portrait photography.

1. Tell me a bit about your photography background. When did you first get interested in cameras and photos?

I grew up with a portrait studio and darkroom in the house and I can’t think of any specific defining moment where I fell in love with photography. I do remember being 15 and taking pictures of my best friend and that when my mom saw them she decided that I had “the eye” and was born to be a photographer.

2. What prompted you to make photography your current career?

It sounds silly but it just kind of happened. I have a hard time imagining myself doing something that wasn’t photography related.

3. How did your interest in underwater portraiture begin?

I received my scuba certification in 2008 and immediately wanted to photograph everything I saw while diving. Torn between getting a housing for a DSLR and a point and shoot I found a great deal on a used housing for a D200 and justified the extra cost by deciding I would use it for underwater portraits when I returned. Given that so many of the couples I had worked with before had gotten in water it wasn’t much of a stretch to think I would enjoy shooting under the surface too.

4. How big or small was your learning curve once you decided to start shooting portraits underwater? What unique photographic challenges have you had to overcome?

For starters shooting with my camera in a housing was an adjustment that made me notice just how automated I’d made things above the surface. Suddenly I had to stop and think about which dial to turn to adjust basic things like aperture and shutter speed and just turning the camera on and off was a challenge. I think it was pretty easy for me to adapt my experience as a photographer to taking pictures underwater. The obstacles mostly revolved around discovering differences in the way things worked underwater and finding ways to compensate for them to get the images I wanted. The biggest challenges for me have been working with fabric, achieving flattering facial expressions, open eyes in group portraits, and keeping hair manageable and looking good. It’s not all bad though – people are a lot more flexible underwater and can position themselves in ways that would not work elsewhere.

5. What type of equipment do you have to employ for your shoots? Do you use SCUBA gear?

In most cases I’m using a D200 in an Ikelite housing without scuba gear.

6. Are most of your shoots done with available light, or do you take strobes underwater with you?

I have yet to take strobes underwater and everything I’ve done has been with available light. Sometimes available light is the light built into a swimming pool.

7. For those wishing to try this obviously fun, yet demanding style of shooting, what advice can you pass on?

I usually suggest renting a housing or starting with the less expensive bag style and purchasing a full housing if they find it’s something they enjoy and will do a lot more. Start in the calm waters of a swimming pool and use models that are really comfortable in the water. I’ve had really good luck using competitive swimmers for this. Shoot at or near the surface to get reflections and avoid color casts and use wide angle lenses to get close to your subject and avoid hazy images. Dresses are a lot of fun underwater but remember they can get very heavy when wet and are awkward to swim in so pay close attention to your subject and their comfort and energy levels and be prepared to take frequent brakes. Much like other types of portraiture direct sunlight can be quite harsh and the even light of shade is generally more appealing.

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More of Sacha’s work can be found on her website, Facebook or by following her on Twitter.

Post from: Digital Photography School

Digital Photography School

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

I am a big fan the ThinkTank Logistics Manager case. If you think Airport International Security on steroids, you won’t be far off.

It can swallow up a ton of lighting gear, too. Four Profoto Acute packs and 4 heads is no problem. And because it is about the size of a Tokyo apartment, you can configure it just about any way you want. Which is the point of this spot-on video and the many config pictures on the product page.

And then there’s that music. Chicka-chicka wow-wow…

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Strobist

Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

As many of our readers are doing the Halloween thing this weekend we thought ‘Spooky’ might be a good theme for our weekly photography challenge.

It’s a theme that you can do even if you’re not into Halloween – take and share an image that has a spooky atmosphere. Perhaps it’d be a ghostly portrait, a capture of some Halloween costumes or decorations, a foggy atmospheric landscape shot – really anything will work.

Once you’ve taken your “Spooky” image, upload it to your favourite photo sharing site and either share a link to it below or embed it in the comments using the our new tool to do so. Please note it sometimes takes us a while to approve comments with images as there’s a moderation queue – particularly over the weekend.

If you tag your photo on Flickr, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag it as #DPSSPOOKY to help others find it. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

PS: don’t forget to check out some of the great photos shared last week in the ‘Road Trip’ challenge.

Post from: Digital Photography School

Digital Photography School