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Posts Tagged ‘Assignment’

On Assignment: Radiance

15 Aug

"What should I wear?" asked Funlayo Alabi when we were touching base the day before I was to photograph her for the Howard County EDA.

"A white shirt if you have one," I said, wanting to distill the photo and feature her skin given she that she runs a boutique beauty products company.

Twenty years ago I might have said, "anything but white." But the more you work with lighting, the easier it is for you to control not only the contrast range but also the specific tone of a person's skin.

Even darker skin against a white shirt.

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On Assignment: Scout and a Shoot Pt. 2

01 Aug

Okay, so we're back shooting at the MCE after our scout a couple of days ago. The weather is hot, so I am glad I choose speedlights. Much less to lug.

Leading off is entrepreneur Biplab Pal, of Zreyas Technology, whose company facilitates product development and manufacturing for other companies.

Let's walk through this and the other shoots…

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On Assignment: Scout and a Shoot Pt. 1

29 Jul
Gonna do something a little different today.

If at all possible, before a job I try to get to the location a day or two in advance and do a quick scout. This helps me to think a little in the interim and to anticipate any problems I might have during the shoot. It also helps me to decide what gear to bring — i.e., not to overpack.

So let's do a quick scout together. In the next post, we'll walk through the shoot itself.

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On Assignment: Drug Intervention

18 Jul

Tuesday was reasonably tense. I photographed a breakup, a drug intervention, a high school cafeteria fight and a few other iffy situations.

All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon. And it will probably change the way I approach my portraiture going forward.

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On Assignment: Cookie Ride

13 Jul

Having lit a full-sun outdoor group shot with a Fuji X100s and a couple speedlights, I had been itching to see what a couple Einstein e640 monoblocs would do.

Way too much, as it turns out. The leaf shutter of the X100s and the insane t.1 times of the Einsteins are a match made in heaven. We had to dial them waaay down for this shot of a local food truck scooter operator…

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On Assignment: Speedlights, Sync and Sun

24 Jun

It's a bit of a leap of faith, the first time you head out on an assignment with just an X100s and a couple speedlights. (Ask Zack.) And truth be told, I had a DSLR and a couple lenses with me as backup, just in case.

But I never brought them out. And with the crazy sync speeds offered by the X100s, a pair of speedlights is all you really need to do battle with late afternoon sun as it turns out.

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On Assignment: Dahlia Flute Duo

10 Jun

Whenever possible, I scout not only location but also time of day when planning an outdoor shoot. Especially if that shoot is in the evening.

When does the sun set? Where does the sun set? When is golden light? Where will it come from?

So in this case, the I knew the ideal pop of tree-filtered backlight would happen at about 7:22pm. And at that time we were ready and in place, waiting for the light.

Shame about the sun not showing up.

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On Assignment: Back to the Well

22 May

Tian Lu (left) and Yuri Shadrin are both accomplished pianists in their own right. But when they play as a duet (on the same piano) they produce an intuitive mix of music and banter that could only come from the married couple that they are.

He is Russian, she is Chinese. Which made them the perfect choice to perform in China later this month in commemoration of an upcoming regional trade partnership between China and Russia.

So I shot their publicity portraits in one of my favorite little environmental portrait nooks in Howard County—under the fountain downtown at the lakefront. I have shot here before, but every time I come back I see the place a little differently.

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On Assignment: Cheap Portable Studio, Pt. 2

04 Feb

Picking up where we left off last week in our impromptu living room studio, let's swap the lighting around to make a different style of photo which is designed to fulfill a different purpose.

The first photo was more in-house—think PR. It's the kind of photo you would get if the subject were more in control of both the process and the edit. The photo above is more of a third-person perspective, skewed toward objectivity and with a goal of being more interesting.

So let's keep our same white-papered alcove and swap up the lighting a bit. Read more »
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On Assignment: Cheap Portable Studio, Pt. 1

31 Jan

Still riffing on Monday's post about studio-vs.-location, here's another reason I am not a big fan of studios. You can replicate them damn-near anywhere, and for almost nothing.

So let's switch things up and start with the BTS this time, to show you the "studio" used to photograph consultant Laurie Reuben last week.

It's a minimalist, two-speedlight setup that yields an elegant, painterly light—without the expensive studio part. Read more »
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