Neil January 10th, 2009
Reserve your judgments and words
And you maintain your influence;
Speak your mind and take positions
And nothing will save you.
As observing detail is clarity,
So maintaining flexibility is strength;
Use the light but shed no light,
So that you do yourself no harm,
But embrace clarity.
Neil December 4th, 2008
Following in the footsteps of my retouching tutorials:
I know these are written to a more abstract level and so today I’d like to provide a more hands-on experience and so I have posted this L*A*B* colorspace photoshop file for you to download. There are eleven layers in this file, from the starting image, on up through the finished look.
Neil November 24th, 2008
Environment is one of your greatest tools as a photographer….
Without flash, as above – or with flash as below….if you’re mind is on the right frequency, you should be tuned into how to use that environment to your compositional advantage.
Flash – or added light – has the opportunity to transform an average shady building – into a night time scene where a fairy is running between the trees….
This is not a complicated setup – the flash is about 10 meters away from the bricks, elevated on stand into the tree leaves. The Nikon sb-something-or-other shoe flash is popping at 1/4 power, I’ve lowered my camera ISO to darken the ambient as much as possible within the shutter range for flash 1/250th of a second.
Exposure Explained:
By dropping my ISO and increasing my aperture, I darkened the overall exposure of the scene by 2 stops. That is enough to allow the light to make it’s mark – however strong you make the power settings on your flash unit will determine the contrast in the scene.
When you work with your flash off of your camera – the exposure values don’t change as you move closer to the subject or farther away. Once you’ve freed yourself – take every advantage to work the envionment fully.
The shadows set the mood of your image.
Aiming your flash unit through the tree leaves gives you interesting and naturalized shadow shapes in your image. So even though you are using an unnatural light source you have given it natural elements that help with the design and composition of your photo. Draw your inspiration from these natural elements and build yourself a photo that exceed expectations!
As you’re listening to your shadows and you want to add that vintage golden distressed look buy and download the Golden Touch Texture Set from the create cart:
How well you listen and blend the natural elements and capture their essence defines your success:
Neil November 21st, 2008
If you shot this image – would you find something in it?
Photo Courtesy of Shane Snyder photojournalist
…illuminate your understanding with more…
Neil November 16th, 2008
Soft lighting – it’s not an easy ideal to achieve
Head to toe – full sized window – incandescent lamp – all included in the frame!
Is this a lighting problem that would make your head spin, or cringe away and avoid another approach because you feel you don’t have the gear? Read on, you may be stopping before you start!
Neil October 29th, 2008
Here’s our starter image for this discussion:
here’s our finished image for this discussion:
Now you’re right that’s not the EXACT same image, but there’s just a moment’s difference – I couldn’t find the un-retouched version.
I did find a smaller resolution version – again the point of contention is the vanishing point in the composition. You may compose this while you’re shooting – and it may be proper as you’re composing the environmental elements in your image – but what is the compelling ‘moment’ of the image?
His EYES!
Neil September 28th, 2008
Before flash:
After Flash:
…illuminate your understanding with more…
Neil September 21st, 2008
Expounding on last weeks ‘big space’ tutorial…
When I speak on achieving higher creativity, I talk about light being the entryway for more possibility.
Above is one of my shots lit with an Alien Bee 800 with 11 inch reflector with a Roscoe 3442 gel for 1/2 CTO conversion. Below is a shot within seconds of the above, without the off camera lighting.
I shot that basic image with a couple different focal lengths:
I hope that these shots inspire you to look at the big things around you and consider how your creativity would lead you to interpret them with lighting. However, don’t just assume that your off camera light must light the whole building, I prefer to think of lighting a scene:
Since my strobe lighting my photographs is 40 meters away, I don’t have difficulty choosing an exposure when my subjects move because the whole scene gets even light.
So when I have my exposure, I begin to explore the space photographically just as I would with natural light. Sometimes I look to my LCD for review, but otherwise I just work off the concept of the light that I felt and saw as I was setting up and testing. If you’ve never seen any available light photographs from me, take a look at this Bahamas Destination beach wedding photographer’s dramatic, atmospheric, cloud, sunset, portrait slideshow.
For an exercise, setup your light at dusk and get far enough away that your exposure is consistant. Get comfortable and explore the light, hear the shadows with me.
Neil September 11th, 2008
Front and Back fashion bridal portrait
Lighting is simply about contrast.
Contrast defines shapes.
Clearly seen either one will help you make a good picture.
If you’re a beginner, don’t be tricked by f-stops or ratios; remember to see what you’re interested in – and then get enough light on it to make a picture. Don’t loose your muse, before you start. Gaining complex lighting does not help you gain a better picture.
Here I used an Alien Bee 800 set to minimum power with 30 degree grid spot on the standard 7 inch reflector. Roughly 6 feet from the model. You can see the falloff starting at about the hips.
Canon 1d – 50mm lens – f2.8
Neil August 25th, 2008
The MacDowell Colony is one of the best perks an artist can get. Tara Geer, a visual artist, went twice to work on her drawings. She also interviewed a MacDowell legend, lunch delivery man Blake Tewksbury.
Listen however to Tara describe the main obstacle she found to getting her own work done……what’s the answer?
And what is the result when she’s dealt with the obstacle at the end of her month?
This is the concept I stress as a core skill for artists, the meditative state – and a Mind Like Water.
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