I don’t shoot black and white very often but sometimes it’s just the best option, even for me.  This shot of Tiki our Yorkie.  He was taking a nap while laying in the sun, something we don’t see much of this time of year.  He was enjoying it as I got ready to go and shoot my nieces final High School basketball game and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture this image.

Here’s one from the basket ball game too.

I worked with Mike H. (MM# 1436925) to create some Sportrait (Sports Portrait) shots.  The weather didn’t allow for outside shooting so we did a simple back drop and created some hard edge light shots using strip boxes with grids and a large umbrella fill.  We used a fold out black backdrop and exploited the grids on the strip boxes to keep it black and avoid fall off.

I did a little bit of the “Gritty Look“  on one of the images and it’s one of my favorites.

First, I’d like to thank Jason and Shad of Red Door Photographic for hosting the meet-up.  I’d also like to thank Tammy and Tom Bryan for organizing on yet another wonderful meet-up.   Next, thanks to everyone else who put on a setup.  I fully intend to steal at least one idea from each of you!

I demo’d a setup for making a mimic of cosmetics cover or “beauty ad” image of Tara in the lobby with the soft box, beauty dish, and fill reflectors.  I really wish I’d have taken a setup shot but this picture lays it out. The picture below is my “build up” of the components of the photo one at a time.  I wanted to show folks the components of the shot and how lighting one light at a time changes the image.

1.  On the left is the image with just the background light is on – you can see the light wrap around her jaw.  The jaw is the point we were metering.

2.  The center image adds the beauty dish which was metered pretty much on here nose.  Notice the shadow under her chin – we’ve gotta get rid of that.

3.  On the right is “final” image – well it’s at least the source of the final image.  It adds three white foam boards to act as reflectors.  One under her chin held by Tara and one on each side held by an assistant.  This picture has about the light I want – I actually has a little to much wash but it’s good enough because I shot in RAW and when you look at the histogram in Lightroom nothing on her face is blown out and the image is actually just right of center where most of the data is found.

Below is the final “Cosmetics Beauty ad” image.  My post process is to get the exposure and color balance right in lightroom.  Then off to PSe and work any blemishes and clean up things I don’t like – some fly away hairs, reflections of the fill reflectors in her eyes, and lighting a few dark areas – under her eyes for example.

Then back to Lightroom to do a final cleanup – skin smoothing, clarity, and final checks for color balance, tone, and exposure.

One more time back to PSe and overlay the ad words giving the full effect.

My apologies to the folks at the makeup company, just remember imitation is the highest form of flattery!

The two lights below were being used for rim lights with strip boxes and balancing them with two RP’s was getting to be a pain in the…  Using the splitter makes balancing the lights much easier.  Using the long cable gives you options for hiding it and that’s worth the effort just to avoid having to tweak the lights to get them even.  Not to mention, it frees up one of my triggers to use with a different light.

The commitment to an 365 project is pretty high and I didn’t even get started on the traditional first day – January 1st but I did get started several days ago.  My intent is not to create what people would consider to be the great pictures – I’ll save those type shots for LightandPixels.com.   Instead the new blog 365.LightandPixels.com is just about making a record of the the year.  However, if an iPhone picture I make turns out to be particularly cool, I reserve the right to post that shot here too!

I decided to use the iPhone because I didn’t thing I’d be successful if I tried to commitment to a Strobist 365.  I just don’t think that I’d have the time to do it right.   The iPhone lets me take, modify, and upload a picture to 365.LightandPixels.com all without leaving the phone.  That increases the odds of successfully posting each and everyday significantly.

I hope that my iPhone pictures improve through the year but mostly I hope that my iPhone lets me record all the wonderful things I experience with my family during the year.

Pretty much everyone has a cell phone and a camera in it today. You should consider starting your own 365 project too.

I’ve finished 5 of 365 already.  Wish me luck, I’ve only got 360 days left!

LE is were I get some of the best information about how to light that I have found anywhere on the interwebs.  Don is a fantastic photographer (and I hear musician) who can make wonderful images using from everything Profoto studio strobes to speed lights and a shower curtain but in the end his images are always about the light, the emotion, and the ability to capture it in a meaningful way.    I recommend that take some time to visit LE for yourself if you don’t already know it, I’m pretty sure you’ll bookmark it too!

The article that featured my image – “Gritty Look” is “24 Examples of Emotional Lighting from the LE Flickr Pool“.  I’m please to have been selected to be included with a group of images that I really enjoy.  I had actually “favorited” several of them before the article was published.  Please take a look at the list of images – most are actually better than mine but like they say at the Oscars, “I’m honored just to be nominated”!

Don hosts a Learn to Light workshop that he takes around the country teaching lighting.  One of these days I’d like to attend.  Hopefully he’ll visit the area and I get to learn fire hose style for a couple of days.

Thanks again, Wizwow.  You made my day!

This blog entry documents how I’ve taken my work with the look another step forward. The lighting is the same as the prior post but since the subject is male so I can include a lot more “gritty” into the look. The primary difference in this look and my earlier work with this look is more post processing in Lightroom.  The key to post processing in Lightroom is a lot of the clarity, recovery, and fill sliders. You  also have to reduce the saturation a lot and work with the exposure and black levels to get it right.

I should point out that as far as I’m concerned, Joel Grimes is the master of this technique.  He takes the look up a notch by creating HDR backdrops for his subjects and then composites their portrait into the HDR image.

The lighting setup is the same as in the prior post but here is the picture again for the lights.   The front light was set to F8.0 and the sides were set at F5.6.  I was about 9 feet from the backdrop.

This is a look that I’ll be experimenting with and trying to get “just right”.  Things to improve the image might be little sprayed on sweat.  I’d also like to experiment with some grids for the rear lights to better control where the light falls.  I’ll be tweaking this shot some and eventually attempting to add Joel’s HDR backdrop concept in to the mix so stay tuned for further updates.

The WL is the third light in my set that will give me do some really great photography. The three light setup is where I’ve want to get to for some time but gathering the equipment just takes time. Add in the Vagabond and I’m able to bring light almost anywhere!

Here is the first portrait using the three light setup.  I really like the rim lighting effect with the wrap around the sides.  I was able to do this by gobo’ing the rear rim lights and metering them to the same level.  Add in the the front DIY beauty dish metered half a stop below the sides and I’ve got a beautiful look.

Here is how this image was setup.

Actually I visited a friend who has a wonderful horse named Cooper that he asked me to shoot.  He want some prints for a Christmas present.  Cooper is a “Paint”, but just barely.  If you look closely you can see a “J” on his underbelly. But that little bit of paint is all it takes to make him official.

He was more than happy to be out in the cold air and gave us a show. Jumping, snorting, and just running around. At first he didn’t trusted me, but after his owner handed me a peppermint to feed him we became friends. After a while he got tired of “working with the camera” and showed is displeasure…

The golf course was still in great shape and the residents were more than happy to stand for a picture or two!

Jason was great at getting out of the sand trap – I was great at getting into them.

Everyone on the course was enjoying sun – thanks goodness for the zoom!