Mastering Light

Long, the master of lighting, helps me to adjust the umbrella light

We had a good turn out today, despite the light rain. Some new faces and some old (I guess we can call them regulars now). I think we all learned something new today as well. Hopefully we can all take what we've learned from our shoots and go out and apply the same techniques to improve our photography.

These shots aren't that great, but they show the effects of using multiple light sources and different modifications you can do to them. I was kinda in a hurry, but I see plenty of things that could be corrected. Like flash placement, reflections in the sunglasses, some overexposed areas, and composition. More examples like the above at the end of the post.

In the coming weeks, we will be stepping up our efforts to really put to the test everything we've learned as we reach out to other students and offer up our photography services for some professional portraits. More on that project to follow in the coming days.

Again, thanks to all the new people who showed up. We hope to see you all again next week!

-Ryan

Showing off the range of Pocket Wizards radio flash triggers.

Mark and Alex in the rain doing some macros with raindrops for the rain assignment.

Long

Jessica

Photo Opps!

Looking for an interesting event to take pictures at? Here are a couple events this week:

1) Oktoberfest is an annual fall festival which takes place in Munich, Germany. Dallas has it's own version of Oktoberfest and celebrates it in Addison, TX. It is a large fair with German entertainment, delicious food, carnival rides, and more.

More info: http://www.addisontexas.net/events/oktoberfest/

2) Plano Balloon Festival. See hot air balloons. :)

More info: http://www.planoballoonfest.org/schedule.html

Another festival I often attend is the Dallas Japanese Association's Aki Matsuri, or Fall Festival. It will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at 4100 Alpha Road at Midway Road, 1 mile west of the Galleria mall. There will be food and game booths as well as traditional Japanese martial arts and dance demonstrations.

More Info: http://godja.org/en/images/stories/files/FallFesta09_Poster.pdf

here's a photo I took at the japanese festival one year. If only I had people holding strobes for me. :)

Wednesday meet 1 till 2:30PM

Gather up first at the art barn/ visual arts building. Then, we'll head out on campus for a photo shoot; we'll move inside if it rains. Call if you can't locate us, 214 718 2387.

Take home Photography assignment

We want your photos of the recent weather change, the rain - be it rainy, outdoor portraiture, wet scenic landscape, or beautifully lit puddles or droplets.
Mark will be out photographing this weekend, join him if you could (see previous post). Watch that radar for incoming storms, monitor this webcam for an aerial view. Bring your camera with you because you never know.
This will be your assignment until our next weekly meet but late entries are welcome for critique. Anyone can participate, the best way for us to see your submitted work is to leave a comment with a link to your photo i.e. your website, flickr account, devArt etc. We'll collaborate and share an online discussion about your photo via here or your website.


And a snippet from our last gathering.

Dialogue is mostly from ambient noise, the tv.
Thanks Scott for video assistance.
Links to our videos in the past:
http://utdphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/shoot-from-oct-17.html
http://utdphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/photo-shoot-from-oct-10.html

Next meeting

alright guys, so the forecast is showing rain for pretty much the whole week and most of the next. i think this would be a perfect time to experiment with water. now, the rain is pretty unpredictable but im free all day friday and some of saturday. if yall want we can meet in the art barn and experiment with anything from macro water drops to doing speedlite portrait photos in the rain. models in the rain not equipment obviously. i dont have everyones facebook but if yall want to let me know when works for you comment on here or hit me up on facebook at mark lauman. regardless im probably going to be shooting friday so let me know if your interested and want to meet somewhere.

Forgot that my computer at home doesn't have firewire. I'll have to screen the video tomorrow when I import it into the atec lab's computer.

My bag of tricks (mostly) updated

I want to share with you all my lighting techniques. Some I use more than others but these are the ones I can consistently wield on the field with ease. It's important to setup your lighting quickly and nail down the settings before your model loses interest, or gets bored. It's also important to move from one setup to the next so your model stays actively engaged. So I want you readers to learn from my controlled, studio setup and see for yourself how you can use these tricks for your own photography. Some of you will be using my equipment; I want you to take advantage of that. Note the effects of these different lighting schemes and achieve similar results on the field.

Photos taken on tripod. I use flash white balance on all of these. Yes, my room is Fiesta Orange.

Bare/Naked lighting @ 1/8th power. 1/60 and f8.

Flash position raised, pointing down.

Below Camera level, pointing up.

Two point lighting for fill. Flash on camera left @ 1/16th power. 1/60 and f8.
Flash on camera right @ 1/4th power.

Back to one point lighting. Flagged on both sides of the flash head.
It creates a narrow beam of light. Useful for creating patterns.

Flash shooting into a reflective umbrella @ 1/2 power.

Flash firing into a shoot-through umbrella @ 1/2 power. Softer shadows than the reflective.
With light being diffused, compensate by letting more light into your sensor.
Usually, I think to open up the aperture first b/c it is closest to me.

Gridded flash @ 1/4th power. What's a gridspot?

Moved in closer.

Gelled flash to a color of your choice. I have lots...

... Flash @ 1/16th power, at camera left pointing onto a white backdrop ...

... Flash at camera right @ 1/4th power, flagged on its right side to prevent spill on the BG.

Or maybe you'll want a silhouette.
When coloring a backdrop, I usually shoot with a flash there first.
Having the other flashes turned off allows you to focus on the settings for the BG.
Then add on other lights for the subject, etc.

Rim light @ 1/8th power, flagged on both sides of the flash...

... Shoot through @ 1/2 power for fill on subject's left ...

Nude flash @ 1/8th taking a bath on subject's right.
Kevin could have been groomed better, you should groom your model too.
I broke some sweat trying to control the rim lighting on this one.
One of my weaker techniques. Look at the strobist flickr pool for inspiration.

No photoshop.
Hopefully what you get away from this post are the possibilities of using my equipment. There are a lot of other light modifiers out there such as a mini softbox which some of our members own. There are also forbidden jutsu (techniques that go against ethics) that could be performed but I stay away from those. Given what you see here, you can vary it a little: a flash position can be altered slightly for great effect on shadows, play with longer exposure, multiple gelled lighting, etc.

Next meetup on Wednesday

Another photo shoot on campus Wednesday starting at 1PM and ending at 2:30PM. Meet up at the visual arts building.
I'll be free on campus Tuesday too if you want to try out the lighting equipment or just chat. Give me a call between 1PM and 3PM Tuesday if you want to find me, we'll find a meeting place. 214 718 2387

As it has been, I welcome anyone to come at anytime during our shoot, or need to leave early. Just call or text me if you want to know where our photo shoot has moved to.

Thursday Lightning

Long was right I do love getting some weather shots and that storm was the perfect opportunity. Lots of lightning with no rain. For awhile anyway.

ISO 200 F/11 13 sec. 18mm

ISO 200 F/7.1 10 sec 18mm

ISO 200 f/9.0 13 sec 18mm

this is me running for cover because it suddenly started to pour. there were absolutely no warning drops or anything.

If anyone wants to go shoot any kind of weather or anything like that hit me up cause im always ready for it. find me on facebook.

I thought I give a chance at shooting lightning. You could see dust bunnies. Mark is interested in photographing this kind of stuff, search him up on facebook.

UTD Photo

Ryan did a pretty good overview of what we did today. here are the shots I took and the tech specs for each

50mm ISO 200 F/6.3 1/125

Three lights on this one. Two facing from sides and one behind, all naked. I'm not sure about the power though.

50mm ISO 200 F/9 1/125

Two lights, both naked I think.

50mm (ryan can tell you what that is on crop sensors) ISO 200 F/9 1/125

Same as above image. I do know we adjusted a few times to eliminate shadow as much as possible.

Our first Group photo

As a newest member in the club, I'm glad to be participate in a energetic group. Our future holds many opportunities, lets our passion of photography grows.


Nikon D5000 (35mm - ISO 400 - 1/200 - f-8) (Adobe PS cropped)

First Group Shoot of the Semester

Today's shoot was great! We had an excellent turnout and I think everyone learned something. Here's a brief timeline of events.

First we (Long mainly) was busy setting up all of his lights that we used for the day.

Then, we practiced a bit on Long to just get a feel for portraiture with off-camera lighting since almost all of us were new to this type of photography.

Next, we found our first subject who gave a couple different poses for Mark and I took a couple of Scott (see the top image and those at the end).

Then for our last shot for this location, we lined up on the bench and took a group photo using all three of our strobes (flashes).

We then went to the other side of the building to a shaded area for some different scenery where Mark hopped up into a tree for a few portraits. This proved to be pretty tricky to light as you can see.

Lastly, someone had this crazy idea to go down inside the culvert for a couple interesting shots. I can't wait to see how these turned out!

The above top shot is at 28mm (42mm equivalent in 35mm terms), 1/160 @ f/5.6, 100 ISO. It was lit by two bare strobes (1/8 I believe) and the sun. One was placed slightly to the left and above the camera, the other was to the right for some fill. I really liked how it turned out with all the nice punchy colors and contrast. The book and Scott's sunglasses also kinda work well together, almost like he's studying how to be a gang leader or something. (Best of luck to you Scott!) Here are some other shots, good and bad.

Until next time, happy shooting and invite your friends for the next meet!