One thing that makes the photographers I follow popular is the generosity they show on their blogs and websites. I had been a hobbyist
photographer and when it when it was time to consider becoming serious, I read and practiced and read and practiced some more. And thank goodness for the
Interwebs because photography books can get expensive. I'm not saying you shouldn't support and purchase books, I'm just saying, I was an actor making not a lot of money so I went a different route. So I would scour the Interwebnets and first, find photographers I liked and then, absorbed everything I could.
So I'd like to do what I can to pay it forward
and share what I learn, why I decide certain techniques, what I see, and what I experience. This shouldn't be exclusive to photo enthusiasts at all. In fact, I'm hoping that clients will also get an idea of what it takes to create good photographs so you can be prepared. Our phones are SO advanced and I think we may take the technology and work the developers have put into making photography easier to create in an instant. It's so advanced, that I frequently have clients say things like "oh, you can photoshop that" as if we just push a button and out comes perfect skin, less eye luggage and
poof!, gone is the car that got in the shot! Hopefully this "How the heck?!" installments will shed a little light on what I do to earn your investment. So without further adieu...
Last night was the kick off to the holiday season in Brighton as the Greater Brighton Area
Chamber of Commerce, in association with Champion Automotive Group and Stillwater Grill hosted The Holiday Glow event in downtown Brighton!
Santa and
Mrs. Claus were gonna be there and a reindeer, a real live reindeer! Being a member of the GBCoC, I thought it'd be a
good idea to be there to see and be seen. Sounded like a great idea, but by the time it had hit 2pm, it was already freezing! At the time of the event (4pm), Jenny's phone had told us that it was 24 degrees, but the windchill had to have lowered the "it feels like" temp to something almost below 0! At this temperature, you just have no idea as to how your camera with all the fancy pantsy computery things inside is going to react! I took my
Canon 7D because she's built for the tough elements. I also had in my bag two external speedlights (just in case...there's one I don't love but took it anyway and the backup for when I remind myself that I don't like this flash and swap out!). I also decided that it was gonna be easiest to bring two lenses to swap. My 85mm 1.8 and my wind angle and workhorse 11-18mm (I love this lens). Ready, set, go!
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| f2.5 1/80 |
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| f2.5 1/200 |
It was cold, and I knew that it was going to get dark in about an hour, so I rushed around to get whatever shots I could with the natural light as quick as possible. I was surprised at the number of people that were in such good spirits and attempted to move their numbed faces into a smile. Go tough
Michiganders! The challenge was really to keep my fingers from freezing off and to get photographs of people without cold, bitter wind blown expressions.
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| f3.5 1/250 |
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| f4.5 1/80 |
Then it started to get dark. As it was cold and I didn't want to make my wife hate me, I did not bring anything more than what I mentioned above. And I certainly wasn't going to lug around a tripod, even if I knew I was going to need something steady for a few shots. In the shot below, I was really hoping to get a much blurrier look with the people walking around, but without a tripod and nothing really to rest my camera on, I dialed down my settings as slow as I could. I had become my tripod, and with the wind still blowing, I knew it was gonna take a real effort to be as still as possible. (I'll venture into settings, modes and other camera thingy's in the future).
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| f5.0 1/6 |
IT'S TOO DARK! I NEED MORE COWBELL FLASH!!!
Even at the time of the shot above, it was too dark to not use a flash, unless I dialed in an
ISO of about 16000! But that would be way too noisy. (Noise is the term used for that really grainy stuff you see on pictures...). A tool that I hope to someday own,
but always put the money in other places is The Gary Fong Lightsphere. It's a great tool to help when you have to keep your external flash on the camera. This light modifier disperses an even, softer light. I've always used bounce cards, which also do the trick. But for my eye, the slightest bit of directional light (like the pop-up flash) bothers me. Some people use it effectively, but I have not mastered that unless its THE effect I'm going for...which usually isn't. So instead, I handed the flash to my wife, who's done this before, and she became my mobile light stand. She generally knows what I'm trying to do with light. It's only when she can't read my mind that this doesn't work. I'll buy her a book to learn how to do that later... So as Team RobbPhoto, we were able to get some pretty good shots balancing flash with ambient light (what little there was!).
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| f5.0 1/6 (Ext. Flash) |
...HOLY NO LIGHT TO WORK WITH, BATMAN!
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| f5.0 1/6 (Ext. Flash) |
The Claus family was set to arrive near a platform stage in the middle of Main Street and it was now VERY dark (at only 6pm!). Streetlights were too far away and too dim to help. I was aware that Brighton High School's marching band would lead the way. As I surveyed the area, I noticed that there wasn't really any lights in the direction I was shooting to create a mood! I wanted a Christmas-y look, but I didn't really have Christmas lights to work with and even if I did, my shutter speed was already so low (1/15th) that anything lower would only mean blur. I had tried to change my flash to 2nd curtain (we'll get to all this stuff in future posts), but it was so cold now that my batteries in the flash triggers (these help fire the flash remotely) were buggin' out and not working consistently! So much of what I wanted to do was not going to work. I took a few quick tests shots and realized that I could still freeze action with the flash, but there would still be some ghosting. I was about to change my settings to eliminate the ghosting (blur), but looking at the test shot one more time, I noticed I was able to freeze the snow falling and get some fun blur from other lights that gave the image some energy! So I stuck with my settings and was happy with the results!
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| f5.0 1/6 (Ext. Flash) |
I loved the blur because it gave what could have been a static image a bit of energy and a festive party feel! This was a little trick I've learned shooting weddings and can more than often not work, but I thought it did this time! So there was a little bit of luck and as usual, something good happens if you just stay calm (even if you can't feel your fingertips!). By knowing what my options were and from a LOT of experimenting, I was able to keep my mind open and see some things that I might not have had I not allowed my eyes to be led by what was given and not force a shot or not stay open to what I was given. Good shots can come from happy accidents happen this way.
Let me know in the comments section if learning more about advanced shooting is of interest to people and I'd be glad to post technical mumbo jumbo and how-to's in the future.
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