Another year of experience and wisdom shined on me this week...

No, actually I had a birthday and my wonderful girlfriend bought me two new seamless paper backgrounds.  I have been wanting these for so long, but have just been to cheap to buy them for myself.  As a photographer though, these are totally invaluable when it comes to shooting portraits and good quality product shots.

For the longest time I have wanted to be able to produce full length portraits on a white high key background but to get these, you really need a roll of seamless paper (and space).  I am now the proud owner of a roll of Savage Super White and Black paper backgrounds.  Each one is roughly 36 feet long, which is more than long enough to give me a full sweep to photograph full length portraits on.  The extra length will come in handy; when they get dirty I can simply tear off the worn piece and pull down fresh, clean paper.

I recently did a portrait session with my girlfriend’s daughter on the white seamless and had an absolute blast!  The thing I was most proud about was setting up all of my lights and having the power settings accurate on the first shot.  I’m pretty familiar with my trusty Nikon Speed Lights at this point but having never done this before, it was quite fulfilling to nail the lighting on the first go …that never happens!

Since this technique seems to be somewhat elusive for a lot of folks, I thought I’d share my technique on this shoot.

To setup the roll of paper, I used a cheap background kit which consists of two stands and a cross bar that is adjustable from roughly 6 feet to 9 feet.  I slid the roll of paper on the cross bar and used A Clamps (A Clamps are a very useful tool in the photographer’s gear bag …and they’re cheap!) from Home Depot to secure the roll on the bar.  Then I pulled down the length of paper I thought I would need and used gaffer’s tape to secure the ends to the ground.  The reason I used gaffer’s tape rather than another version is that it sticks well, but doesn’t leave a residue and won’t pull the finish off your floor or the paper.

After setting up the paper, I started with the background lights.  Generally when going for a high key (or blown white) background I’ve found that its best to have these lights about 2 stops stronger than your key light.  So I took 2 Nikon SB-600’s (one on either side of the background) and placed them about 3 feet away from the background.  I pointed each one just a little past center to get an even wash of light.  I adjusted the flashes’ power setting to about 1/4, then I added Honl gobo’s to each one so that the light wouldn’t spill forward on my subject.

For the key light, I used my DIY Beauty Dish with an SB-800 on a stand boomed above the model and on camera axis.  The reason I used the Beauty Dish was that I wanted a “punchy” light that was somewhat soft but not super soft.  My model has exceptionally good skin so I knew I could get away with this kind of light.  Another reason I used the Beauty Dish was it takes up less space than a large softbox or open umbrella.  My studio is my downstairs living room so I’m somewhat limited on space.  The SB-800 was set at 1/8 power.  I knew I wanted a fast recycle time with my lights for this kind of shoot so I chose 1/8 power because it will let me fire my SB-800 pretty much as fast as I want.  To make sure I was getting enough light on my model, I just opened up the aperture to f/5.6.  With stronger lights you can get away with f/8 or f/11 and I probably could have gotten f/8 with my speedlights, but after taking a test shot, I decided f/5.6 was giving me enough depth of field on subject.  Since I was shooting in a controlled environment and the only light contributing to my shot was the light I was providing, I set my shutter speed to my D300’s fastest native flash sync speed which is 1/250 sec.  This ensured that no ambient light contributed to my shot.

I wanted to produce a “beauty light” type of lighting so I chose a clamshell method which is also known as the ‘over-and-under’ method, meaning that my key light was up above the model on camera axis, then I placed a fill light below my camera on camera axis.  For this fill light, I used another SB-800 in a Lumiquest SBIII.  The Lumiquest SBIII is a small softbox for speed lights that kind of emulates the light of my beauty dish when used in close.  Its not too soft, but its not a hard light either.  I set the power on this light to one stop below my key light at 1/16 power.  The reason I went with a lower power is I wanted to reduce the shadow under the model’s chin but not eliminate it.  This is actually pretty subjective so you can really dial the power of this light in, take a test shot and decide where you want it ratio wise.  You could also use a reflector as opposed to another light, but since I knew I would be doing full length body shots, I didn’t think the reflector would throw back up enough light.

Normally I shoot with Nikon CLS (Creative Light System) using my camera’s built-in flash triggering system, but since I was using four lights, I thought it would just be easier to use my Cyber Sync Flash Triggers to trigger my flashes.  The only catch with this is, you have to dial the power settings in manually at each flash.  Which by now, I’ve become pretty accustomed to this so its no big deal.  If I thought I would be changing the power settings a lot, I would have used CLS because its a pain to run around to each light, but since this was a studio type session, I just got my lights dialed in where I wanted them and banged away.

I know from this lengthy post it seems like it took a long time to do all of this, but honestly I had the seamless paper background and all of my lights setup in about 30 mins.

With everything setup I was ready for my model.  She stepped in and I took a few shots to check to see if the positioning of my lights was how I wanted them.  Everything was good to go, so I started motoring off the shots.

Another good thing about a lighting setup like this is that your model can actually move around quite a bit and you will still get good, evenly exposed shots.  Even still, I usually will point out a spot on the ground that I want my model to stand on just to be safe.

This paper background is a 53″ wide roll.  Its just about perfect for single person shots, but I still had to clean up the sides in Photoshop on the full length shots.  I would prefer a wider roll, but I just don’t have the space in my living room studio to setup a 9 foot roll.  No worries, though.  I didn’t have to do very much in post to get these shots to look good, so I didn’t mind the minimal effort of cleaning up the sides.

In this last photo, you can see my setup (I zoomed back on this a bit to show the lighting setup) and my absolutely gorgeous living room.

I can’t tell you how much fun this shoot was for me, and I plan on doing a lot more in the future.  I’ll have to experiment with the black roll next.  FWIW, these rolls of paper are much cheaper than you think and you get a cheap background kit for around $150 US.  So if these types of shots interest you and you have the space, run out and pick you up a roll or two, or three, or four, or five.

For more info on shooting on white seamless backgrounds, check out this awesome tutorial by Zack Arias

-mtc

During the winter months it’s harder to get out and take pictures especially when we have ice storms, snow, and the like, hopefully our winter won’t be as harsh as the last one. I was trying to think of ideas that might keep us active during what are normally dormant months. Last year another local photography site had a lighting seminar at the Louisville public library and I thought it might be nice to have one again. I imagine most of our readers didn’t know about this seminar and many people’s lighting styles have changed since then. If it’s anything like the last time there wasn’t just one person running the show, many people were showing what they could do with lighting. Even if you know nothing about lighting or just the basics, like myself, don’t let that keep you away.

I was thinking of either having it in January or February since we’ll be past the holidays and everyone’s schedule should be easier to accommodate. Thoughts? If you have other workshop ideas you’d like to see happen please let us know and we’ll do our best, maybe you can even be the speaker?

As a green photographer, many years ago, I was eager and over-excited about getting into photography up to my elbows. I searched hundreds of forums looking for some magic thread that would tell me exactly which bodies and which lenses I would need to be perfectly satisfied as a photographer.

What I kept reading was ..

You need to determine what type of photographer you are and then build your lens and camera stock from there.

Well .. ok, sure, whatever. I kinda half listened. I was new and wanted it all! I bought a nice versatile lens in the 18-200mm and then a few lenses that seemed to be what I wanted at the time. For the most part I got lucky, or maybe I just kept buying ’safer’ choices in lenses.

Then, I bought a 70-200mm f2.8. It was a true beauty, a lens I had been looking at and drooling over, and everyone had talked so much about. I walked into the camera store one day and there it stood, staring at me. Right after I walked in to the store, two other guys walked in, both apparently wanting the lens that I had in my hand. Needless to say I walked out of the store with it. It felt great … and was such a complete impulse buy ..

Then .. it pretty much sat on my dresser for probably 355 days out of the year. Yea, seriously ..

After a year I looked at it and asked myself what in the world inspired me to buy that lens. Granted it was perfect for shooting sports, perfect for the Derby, but seriously how often am I shooting in a situation when I need that? It was too big and bulky to always have on hand, so when I wanted to use it, I had to deliberately take it .. which translated into it sitting on my shelf those 355 days.

If you go to my flickr photostream and look at my photos it takes about two seconds to realize that I’m a wide shooter (ok that’s the term I’m using to call myself it seems). I use the 50mm for specific situations (i.e. fall, portraits, and so on) but outside of that I’m shooting wide or even fisheye wide. Did I know this when I bought that lens? I am thinking no. I was still dabbling in different areas of photography at the time. I’ve probably spent the first few years just bouncing around and trying my hand at everything I could.

So .. now the 70-200mm has been sold to someone who could easily use it more often than I did. Today in the mail I receive a new toy .. it’s a wide angle lens. I put this lens on my camera and realize instantly that this lens is not just cool and brag – worthy, but it is soooo me. Granted I have not bought a lens in a very, very long time, but it’s nice to finally buy a lens knowing that it will work with my style.

All those threads where people say determine your shooting style before buying new lenses and camera bodies .. are completely true.

Trust me, you won’t be able to figure that out overnight, or in a week, month, or maybe a year. I think it comes from dabbling in different areas to see what you like, what you’re good at, what is fun for you. Not every area of photography is fun for everyone, which means not every lens is going to work for you.

Before you make the jump and invest some cash in a new lens that is different than your current collection, you may want to consider renting it, to see if it will work for you or not. Maybe if I would have done that someone else would have walked out of the camera store that day with a lens they would have actually used!!

There is a lot of discussion about Adobe Lightroom 3, but did you know that if you are running Snow Leopard there are some advantages you probably aren’t getting by default.

Sometimes it is the simplest of things that can make a difference.  So that potential clients can find us, most of us photographers have at the very least:  Business cards, a blog, a SmugMug account, a Flickr account, and perhaps even a dedicated website - and we’ve tricked them all out with Google Analytics so we know who is finding us and how they did it.   Most of these tools will link the viewer to us via email, Twitter or some other e-means, and will show them a dazzling display of our work.

But what if the potential client wants to pick up the phone and call you? 

Can anyone do a simple search with: “photographer”, “your name” and “your city” and come up with your phone number?   If you have a dedicated site, then you’ve probably directed traffic so you are well placed in the search results, but since many of us have not yet reached that stage yet, we are lucky to find ourselves listed at all (or maybe what we do find isn’t what we want to be a top result…but that’s another blog for another time.)  Your blog and photo credits may show up, but can a client find a number to call you from there?  And is your credibility as a legitimate business weakened if you don’t rank well in a search?

Fortunately, there is one small, easy and free thing you can do:  Add your info to Google Maps.  This is a tool that small businesses rely on because it is today’s equivalent of the business name/number only listing in the five-inch thick yellow phone directory.  By adding your info to Google Maps, someone can do a simple Google search with your name in it and have a reasonable chance of being able to give you a call.  The result of adding your info will only show up in the “Maps” tab and will pinpoint your location, so if you are squeamish about adding your address and phone number to a Google search, then this is not for you.  I personally reasoned that my address and phone info is easy enough to find elsewhere if someone is specifically tracking me down, so I let go of the fear factor and posted my number.  But if a potential client has only seen my name on one of my photo’s somewhere, or heard my name from a friend and wants to find me to photograph their kids, I want them to have a real chance of finding me when they have the time and the opportunity to pick up the phone.  With my name added to Google Maps, someone can enter “photographer” “missy brown” and “louisville” and come up with some bits and pieces about me, then by clicking on the “Maps” tab – they’ve got my number.   

To try it for yourself, go to the Google Maps tab and click on the link to “Put Your Business on Google Maps”.  After you enter your information, Google will call you at the number you have entered and give you a confirmation code that you will need to input to activate the listing.