On The Rode Again

Here are some recent photographs from travels to Hong Kong, Japan, and Buenos Aires.  I'm trying to push myself to continue posting pictures because it's good training.  It helps me continue to refine the whole digital file handling work flows and it makes me look critically at what makes a good image.  I'm not saying these are great images.  It's just an exercise used to increase skills.

These photos were taken using my Olympus travel camera.  It's very easy to take on the road and has enough manual settings so it allows me to make some creative choices fairly easily.  It also does pretty good in low light.

Back In the Studio

I"ve slowly been preparing for a special western shoot.  As slow as I've been moving I'll be lucky to get it complete prior to the Spring of 2015.  Anyway,  I used some of my kids as guinea pigs working through the lighting etc....My wife saw some of the pics and she wanted to use them to update her wall.  So, I figured I might as well post a few on the blog.

What you'll see is a single light set up using a black background.  When I finally get the look I'm after I'll be using some black backgrounds, but I'll also be using my Virtual Background Machine for some added variety and creativity.   The colored images are the original images with a slightly warmer white balance than was actually used in camera.  The "almost" sepia images are the same images after using Lightroom 4 presets to get close to a sepia image.

Japan and The Aleutians

While heading to Japan we flew over the Aleutian Islands.  Many times there isn't much to see, but this time I got a pretty good view of one of the volcanic formations.  It's hard to get picture that shows much detail and depth at 35,000 feet with a pocket camera, but I had to try.  During post processing I adjusted the contrast a little, warmed up the white balance and applied a slight vignette.   The second picture is not a very good composition, but I liked the lighting.  It was taken at 1600 ISO by my Olympus ZX1.  I did not attempt to do any noise suppression.  I'm amazed at how well this camera does at high ISO's.

Japan Travels

I'm staying in Hong Kong currently, but had some time to post a few pictures from a recent Japan trip.  Again, I was using my Olympus XZ-1.  Most of these were low light shots and the camera surprisingly did not introduce too much noise.  I really enjoy using this XZ-1 even though it's an older camera by today's standards it really does a good job.

I decided to try my hand at posting some pictures again.  I've been busy traveling so I decided to post pictures of my travels.  I have more practice and enjoy portraits more than things, but I thought it would be good practice.  These photos were taken while walking around Buenos Aires.  It was a cloudy day with light rain.  I was using my little Olympus xz.  It's much easier to carry around than my Nikon 35mm.

Skating is Better With Pads

Here's a recent session with one of my daughters. The biggest technical challenge, other than making her wear her pads, was that of her height. Without skates she's about 5' 10" which presents a problem in a small area with a low ceiling. It becomes quite a challenge photographing certain angles while trying to stay on the backdrop. So, to make it easier, I had her bend slightly like she was just finishing her workout and trying to catch her breath. These images are the first in a series of skating portraits. Next, we have to do the outdoor portraits.

The lighting set up consisted of two side lights and one overhead light to illuminate the face. The lights were flagged in order to keep them from spilling on the background.

The goal was to try to make the skating pads, which she's not happy about wearing, look stylish. (Yes, I know those of you who grew up like me, didn't have pads and probably survived the jump in the grass to save your hide trick many times. However, I've become the crazy dad who bellows, " No pads, No skating.")


I hope you like the pictures. If you do, or have questions about the details of the images please let me know.


Also, click on the images below to see them at full size.

A Behind The Scenes Look At A Portrait

Stephanie wanted a portrait of her and Joshua, so we set up the lights and got to work. Technically there are several things going on here worth discussing briefly. This is meant to show just a few of the details that go into making a portrait.

Lighting, Posing, Clothing, and Retouching.

This was a 3 light set up plus one reflector. A main light, a hair light, fill light and a reflector. The light was adjusted so that there was a 1 stop difference between the main and the fill light. This adjustment along with the reflector control the contrast of the image. The contrast is the difference between the lighter and darker parts of the image. The hair light was used to separate Stephanie's dark hair from the background so you could distinguish between the two.

Joshua was posed in the classic basic pose. That is, his head and body are facing the main light and his head is perpendicular to his slightly angled shoulders. His height was also adjusted to place his lips near the height of Stephanie's eyes. He is also posed sitting straight at the camera while Stephanie is standing on his left shoulder. Here, she is actually in the classic basic pose.

Stephanie, when seated, is in the classic feminine pose. Her body is turned away from the main light while her head is turned back towards the light and tipped slightly toward her higher shoulder. She is also in the same pose while standing on Joshua's right shoulder.

Stephanie and Joshua were trying to stay in the same tone while picking there clothes and also trying to avoid busy patterns. That way, the main emphasis of the portrait stays on the face. Some corrective steps were taken to assure that the emphasis was on the face. Such as, a closer camera view and bringing Stephanie's hair forward over her shoulders.

Retouching consisted of several levels. It began with simple contrast adjustment and included skin softening, eye touch up and skin touch up.

Click on the images below to enlarge them.