November 12, 2008

To Serve and To Protect



Before I set-up this blog, I asked myself:   “What do you want to accomplish with my blog?” 

Not sure I got a really good answer—I usually don’t when I talk to myself.   But, I think I want to share some photographs and my limited knowledge about photography with anyone and everyone who might be interested.   I do not want people to just look at them, but, I want to share what I’ve learned about photography, how I tried to accomplish something and what I am currently working-on.   Hopefully, I will have the courage to show you some of my total failure.   For some reason, I often learn more from my failures than I learn from my successes.

A little personal history before I launch into my first blog.   I am a reformed (retired) CPA who has been interested in photography for almost 40 years.   I am a Nikon guy; Canon, Sony, Olympus, et al make good equipment, but, I am a Nikon guy.    I got really dedicated to my photography after retiring and joining Bay Area Photo Club.   In early 2008, I attended my first formal photo workshop—The Next Step hoisted by Craig Tanner of Radiant Vista.   The workshop got me very interested in photographing people.   About the same time, I got hocked on Strobist and have been trying to master lighting by using my Nikon Speedlights.   If you are interested in some of my photographs and learning about the equipment I use, please visit my website at: http://www.larrypatrickphotography.com.


My first post comes from a photograph that I submitted as an environmental portrait (assignment at Bay Area Photo Club for November 2008).   The photograph was taken of one of our local volunteer firemen.   Since he has such an interesting face, I wanted the photograph to be primarily about his face and his position as a fireman.  I wanted to establish a somewhat somber mood with some indication of his surroundings, but not every detail.   The photograph was shot with:  Nikon D3, 70-200 f/2.8 at 150mm, f/5.6 and 1/60 second.   The camera setting produced an ambient light that was about two f-stops underexposed.  I used four Nikon Speedlights to put a limited amount of light on certain parts of the photograph (see diagram for details).    After taking several shots, I discovered that he was not separating from the background, and as a result, I added another Nikon Speedlight to put a little light on the fire truck behind him.   I think it did what I wanted it to do.   My goal was to have the light direct the viewer's eyes where I wanted them to go.    I followed Joe McNally on this one:  if you want something to appear important, don't light all of the frame.

Hope you enjoy the photograph and my write-up telling how it was done.

This photograph was featured on Craig Tanner’s Daily Critique on November 11, 2008; you can see the critique at http://www.tmelive.com/index.php/index.html.


 Post processing included;  setting white and black points, fine tuning the white balance and increasing the mid-tone contrast in Lightroom 2.0; removing two specular highlights, adding a Vignetting blur with Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 (25% opacity), and sharpening face, hat and top of jacket using high pass filter in overlay mode at 2.4 pixels in Photoshop.   


6 comments:

  1. Great first post Larry! This shot is outstanding and the lighting diagram really helps to explain how you accomplished it! You must have done the diagram in the field or at least kept some good notes...so I've already learned something!

    Well done!
    Barry

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  2. Barry,

    I cheat. I often take a photograph of how I finally have all the lights set and then make a few notes about the settings of the various lights. I also keep a notebook that has what I shoot. This includes both flash and non-flash photographs. The notebook also has some of my ideas about things that I might want to try. I find my notebook a good way for me to learn. When you get old, you need all the help you can get!

    Patrick

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  3. Wonderful start to your blog. It will be interesting to follow your progress, although I really don't see that there is any room for improvement. I hope I can pick up some techniques if I ever get around to attempting portraiture, HDR, and what all else you have in store for us.

    I am going to have to get up an hour earlier every day to check out all y'alls blogs! And no, that will not leave me any time to start my own.

    I can't wait to see what you post next ---

    Cindi

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  4. This is one of those photos that you think: I wish I had taken it. I watched Craig's video. His changes made the photo different, but I do not think they made it better. I like this one just the way it is.
    S

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  5. Outstanding. Nothing else needs to be said.
    Jeff

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  6. Nice picture but you seemed to use a lot of technology to get it.
    Tanner

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